it's a block party!

This year’s annual 1st week “almost whole school” collaborative is up in the auditorium. All our 2nd thru 5th grade classes contributed to the success of this large scale public art installation in our auditorium.

I’m going to keep this short and simple because I plan on writing it up more in detail soon for an upcoming Arts & Activities piece as part of my “Alive and Kicking” article series that focuses on using contemporary art as inspiration for your visual art curriculum.

The inspiration for this activity was a block party” quilt by Corinne Sovey- a graphic designer and quiltmaker based in Austin, Texas. 

With this activity, my students had about 20 minutes to design a quilt square that used the geometric elements found in Corinne’s quilt- with the addition of one more as well. After briefly going over my class rules and regs, I introduce the quilt and we identify the shapes in it. After that, we get busy making.

Each student starts with a 6x6 white square, 3 analogous color 3x3 squares, and a black or dark grey 2x3 rectangle. As classes roll through, the colors that are out for them gradually transitions- I usually start with yellows and move thru the spectrum until we end up back at yellow. I had plans for something a little different this year, but it didn’t happen;) The activity provides some student decision making opportunities while also working within certain design constraints.

1- students fold the white square into quarters and are reminded that they can place only one color in each of the quarters

2- students select one colored square to leave as is and place it in one of the white quarters

3- students select one color to turn into a triangle shape. They hold it like a diamond and cut from the bottom corner to the top. They get rid of one piece and place the triangle in one of the white quarters. I model rotating the triangle in different directions in different squares

4- with the remaining colored square, students have a choice- they may use a cardboard stencil to turn it into a quarter circle or they may cut it into rectangles. They take the shape or shapes and place in another white quarter. Again, experimenting with rotation and if using rectangles, they should only use them vertically or horizontally.

5- the final black rectangle is cut into a minimum of 2 rectangles and placed in the last white quarter. Again, attempting to limit themselves to vertical and horizontal positioning.

6- once they have all their parts, I encourage them to look at their arrangement and decide whether it is satisfying. If they need to move pieces, they may.

7- then they glue the pieces down

8- when that’s done, they flip the paper and put glue on the back and head on back to our assembly table

9- students place and press their quilt squares on a large 24x36 white sheet of paper. I encourage them to look at the placement of the other student pieces and respond to it. They may decide the bottom of their design looks better at the top, or they might want to rotate it a quarter turn to join in a more interesting way with another quilt square.

As classes roll thru, I place the working collaborative on my floor, so students can start to get an idea of the overall effect and color transition.

When all classes are done, it install it in the auditorium. The use of 24x36  pieces makes these things much more easy to transport:)

And boom! So many kids have work on display and the install celebrates the elements of unity and variety as well as the community and diversity of our elementary school. 

 

quilt up!

Today I had a chance to hang the collaborative paper quilt that 28 classes created last week. The final dimensions are 8' x 24'. Again, it was inspired by Tula Pink's "TriDazzler" quilt.

It's always pretty wild to see how these come together on a vertical surface that a viewer can scan left to right without any distortion in shape.

shine like a diamond.

We are off and running at Zamo!

As usual, I am starting the school year off with a collaborative project that is low stress and high impact. a little background- during the first week I meet with classes for 30 minute mini lessons. This allows me to review art room rules and procedures and to get students creating right away. Kids end up creating for about 20 minutes.

This lesson always emphasizes unity and variety in both art and our school community and beyond. I make a point of introducing textile artists, fabric designers, and quiltmakers with these lessons due to the modular nature of the designs and because I feel that they are often neglected in art education and the art world.

This year, I discovered the work of Tula Pink through instagram and her "TriDazzler" quilt jumped out at me from her feed. I love the repetition of the diamonds and triangles and how the colors repeat in a looser visual way. The main adjustment we made in our approach to Tula's quilt design, was that the center line of the diamond could be rotated either horizontally or vertically.

The prep for this project is pretty simple compared to some others that I have done (looking at you Libs Elliott project and the Latifah Saafir/Sylvia Sutters project;)

I precut a bunch of 6x6" squares that covered the spectrum of colors, plus any tints and shades of those I had available. I then cut a bunch of those squares in half.

Before each class comes in, I place a square & triangle at each seat. As classes move through, I progress through the collection of colors I have to create a loose gradient across the install. I don't have a formula to the progression, it's more of a feel when having colors enter and exit, and re-enter the overall arrangement.

Students glue the triangle onto their diamond.
Students rotate their diamond, so the center line is horizontal.
Students add lines from the top and bottom of the diamond to the center line. They need at least 2.
Students add any colors like like to their smaller triangles, leaving at least one piece the color of the paper on top and bottom.
Students put glue on the back of their diamond.
Students bring their piece to the larger paper quilt and place it on, making the decision to have the center line vertical or horizontal, repsonding to the diamonds already in place.

end of day 1.

end of day 2.

I still have 2 days to go. I am out of space to assemble the full install on my tile floor. There are 14 classes that will take part in this over the next two days. My plan is to add one more section of length to make it 22' long and one more section of height along the whole thing to make it 9' tall. The final install will go on the back wall of our auditorium, so that we have have a dynamic piece of art up by the second week of school.

I can't wait to see this whole piece assembled on the wall. It's always interesting to see these come together and it's particularly cool to see it in different ways- the diamonds up close during the activity, on an angle while up on a ladder above my floor, to the finished piece to take in while standing back from it.

Our kids are always stoked to participate and watch it grow, too. Depending on the size of your school, you could have everyone take part. 

If you're an art teacher and want to try this- go for it! Just be kind and cite your sources:)

painting the town red, blue, and lots more colors, too!

My 5th graders focused on using line to create shape, pattern, and unity during their first go round with me this year. I used the work of the collaborative group Boa Mistura as the inspiration for this project. They work with communities around the world to beautify public places and to bring communities together through these projects. We watched a video about their work with the community of Las Americas, outside of Santiago de Querétaro in Mexico. I have a big student population with Mexican roots, so they were pretty stoked to see work taking place in Mexico. We got to see a little bit of the planning of a project like that and the teamwork that goes into making it actually happen. Boa Mistura used patterns that were from earlier civilizations of the region.

After viewing the video, I let the kids know that they would be planning a mural composition for the homes across the street from school. We looked at the buildings with google maps street view and sketched a couple of them out on practice paper. I then provided them with pattern examples from a variety of cultures that are present in our school community. We also looked at a mural the 5th graders did with me a few years ago that was inspired by our school community, too.

Students were to fill the architecture in their sketch with patterns. They did not have to copy the provided examples. They could use them as inspiration and/or modify them. They could create patterns based on their imagination and experiences.

Once their sketch was finished, they moved on to a larger sheet of paper and refined their design. Changes could be made, as long as they were not wholesale. I wanted to see a connection between planning and refining. They traced their contours with fine tip markers and then added color to the scene. I encouraged them to use color patterns and modeled how to press hard and soft to create more color variety. 

We wrapped things up by writing about how they created unity, why they chose their included patterns, and what they had the most success with in the project.  

being banksy.

This week, my 5th grade rotation was interesting... Let me just say that when classes are cancelled due to illness, you meet with 2 different classes for each lesson, and groups get switched for one reason or other, it can pose lesson planning challenges.

That said, a few groups of 5th graders continued their study of analogous colors to create unity and mood in art with a project that was inspired by a stained glass painting on wood by Banksy and students from Los Angeles along with a stained glass window from Riems Cathedral in France.

We started the lesson by reviewing/introducing analogous colors. I shared the 2 pieces side by side and shared some background info about each. Then students worked in small groups to compare and contrast the two works. They documented their findings in a graphic organizer and each group shared out, so that we could create a complete list on my whiteboard of similarities and differences together. One of the cool things about creating the master list, is it reaffirms the idea that art can be read in a lot of different ways. I encouraged students to add to their personal organizers when another group shared a response that they thought was strong. (This addressed a couple ELA standards. Reading- comparing and contrasting works of similar genres. Speaking & listening- participating in collaborative discussions on grade level appropriate content.) 

The students got a kick out of seeing the graffiti element in the Banksy work. There was some interesting discussion around what the piece meant- why combine graffiti with a form that is traditionally associated with spirituality?

After the compare and contrast activity was complete, students were to create a stained glass drawing inspired by either of the source images. I encouraged them to draw anything they wanted. For the color work there were only 2 requirements- they had to only use one analogous family and they needed to fill the entire paper with color shapes, lines, and/or patterns.

The next step was to create the black frame for the stained glass. The only requirement with this step was that they must create symmetry. We talked about how, even though Banksy did something different in the window part of his painting, he still worked with a traditional composition for stained glass windows in spiritual buildings. Students made a coupe sketches on the back of their organizers and then created the black lines with oil pastels.