something sweet?

Popsicles and painting anyone?

There is a store in San Diego called Viva Pops. The owner, Lisa Altmann, makes the most delicious popsicles my family has ever tasted. We have been there a couple of times and the organic flavors she combines in her pops are just delightful.

In her store is a fantastic mural by local muralist, Isaias Crow and his collaborative team called  the Prizm Process. The painting takes up the entire length of the west interior wall of the store. It's as much a visual delight as Lisa's pops are a tasteful one.

The last time we visited, Lisa was kind enough to give me contact information for Isaias. I knew that I HAD TO do a project based on the mural with some of our students. We have been in touch several times, and it is my hope that we can have him visit Zamorano in the near future.

I showed the 4th grade students a number of murals Isaias has completed and they were blown away by the scale, the color, and the style of the works.

Isaias and his team use mostly spray paint and some acrylic paint to complete their large scale murals.

I then showed a few photos of the Viva Pops mural, both in process and complete. When I said we would be making a popsicle work there were roars. When I mentioned that we would use spray paint to add a finishing touch, mouths dropped.

Before jumping in, I also talked about Isaias's use of natural shapes in his work. This was a good contrast to the geometric shapes students used in the Dalek designs. We also identified that the popsicle flower looked more 3d than other parts of the mural because of the use of tints of colors to create areas of light and shadow. The students had used tints in their previous Dalek designs to add variety to their image, but not a 3 dimensional element. We also looked at the rotational symmetry present in the popsicle flower.

Instead of using complementary colors in this project I pointed out that we would use a color family, or an analogous color scheme, to start out with. The students would be able to add other colors later on in their images, but the large pop and flowers would be in a selected analogous color scheme.

The project was broken into to sessions. In the first, student made the large pop and flowers by using collage, cutting and gluing paper.

The second session involved adding pattern and decoration to the 2 flowers on the pop, creating the popsicle flower, and adding a spray paint pattern element at the end.

1. cut drippy popsicle bottom and glue to large base sheet

2. use a brown construction paper crayon to add one or two popsicle sticks

3. cut 2 or 3 slightly different size or shape flowers and add to large pop

4. add patterns to flowers using construction paper crayons

5. draw out pop flower, add color with crayons, pressing lightly to make tints

6. cut out pop flower and glue to big pop

7. cut wax paper stencil to add spray paint pattern element

8. spray paint pattern on to large pop 

The spray painting was done outside. Students placed pattern on their image and blocked out areas that they did not want painted. I did the spraying to facilitate consistency. The students loved seeing the gold on their projects. 

There could be class management issues wit this last step, since some students are outside, in line, or inside finishing up, but I was very pleased with how all the classes monitored themselves in the classroom. I think my classroom was the cleanest they have left it all year, and we used a lot of different supplies that needed to get picked up and re-sorted.

say cheese. part two.

The first 4 1st grade classes finished up their animal portraits today. Many students were chomping at the bit to add color, and they had their opportunity today. I demonstrated adding patterns of color to shapes and then applying a wet brush over top to create a watercolor effect.  I also showed them how to mix their secondary colors from their primary color markers, by alternating the colors next to one another or by drawing the darker of the 2 primaries over top of the lighter one.

The students had created these colors by mixing primary color crayons, so it was an opportunity for them to practice mixing in a different medium.

Using the water soluble markers to paint is such a good introduction to watercolor. The clean up is minimal, cakes of paint are not gouged, brushes are not jacked up. I love it and the students get to see how to use a "regular" drawing material like markers in a different way.

Inspired by the terrific paintings of Matte Stephens. He has an art exhibit opening at Subtext Gallery right here in San Diego this Friday. I am hoping to check it out while it's up. Maybe a field trip is in order...

say cheese.

We are on a modified schedule this week due to minimum days for parent conferences. We are meeting each class for 40 minutes.

I usually meet with my lower grades for an hour. What to do. What to do.

How about revisiting the super cool paintings of Matte Stephens with a different grade level? I shared his website with the 1st graders and we looked at a number of his paintings. We discussed how he creates a lot of portraits of people and animals in his work. He often gives his animals human characteristics. The students got a big kick out of this.

The painting we focused on is titled Cat Family. A very "proper" portrait of a family of felines. Students pointed out that Matte made the humans look humanlike by making them stand up and sit like we do, and by dressing them in human clothes.

After looking at and talking about his work for about 10 minutes, the students and I got busy making our own versions. The creation of the bodies was fairly directed. Students chose how many kids they wanted and what gender they should be. The heads of their animal families was up to them as well. There has been a good amount of variety in the types of animals students have decided to include in their drawings.

Once they got everything in, the students traced all their contour lines with a black permanent marker. The contour lines aren't really present in Matte's original, but I have the students do it so when they use water soluble markers to paint their drawings next week, the edges of shapes will be clear even if the paint handling is a little "loose".

I'm looking forward to seeing how the students add color to these next week, but I thought these interesting characters deserved to be shared before then.

The 40 minute timeframe really worked out perfectly for this 1st part of the project. 

d is for dalek.

I'm excited that the 4th graders were able to complete this drawing before we went on our turkey day week long break.

James Marshall, who also goes by the name Dalek, creates these incredible abstractions that are a real treat to look at. Eye candy, really. Interesting plays of color, value, and shape. I keep thinking of Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass pieces, but pushed to the limit in terms of the fragmenting of shapes involved.

This was the first project the 4th graders did with me. The abstract nature of Dalek's work allowed me to address a variety of elements in a non-threatening way. The students don't have to be "good at drawing" as some of them like to say. If the student can use a ruler and create a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors in the composition, they have an excellent opportunity to create an image that is visually exciting.

We viewed a number of Dalek's works from his website and discussed his use of contour lines and geometric shapes that varied in size. Students recognized his use of tints of colors to create variety in the decorative space of his paintings. We talked about how Dalek made his tints by adding white paint, but we would do it by pressing softly with our colored pencils and crayons. Dalek uses a broad paletter of colors, but I wanted students to focus on complementary colors (opposites), so that they could make parts of their drawings stand out against one another. We identified these colors in his paintings and in visual aids around the classroom.

I modeled how they could break down the picture plane into smaller and smaller shapes, then let them at it. Once they were done drawing they traced their contours to get them to stand out more. When students were ready to add color we reviewed the complements and I modeled making tints with both the colored pencils and crayons.

The project spanned two meetings with each class. Some students finished earlier than others, so I had a 10' canvas laid out on the floor. Students could then add geometric shapes, trace contour lines, and add complementary colors to the large piece. This will be something students can choose to work on if they finish other projects early throughout the course of the year.

look out for those cacti!

The 1st graders' first project focused on geometric shapes, contour lines, and texture. I wanted to revisit a couple of those elements while looking at different types of shapes.

Enter Geninne Zlatkis. She is a painter and illustrator, living in Mexico, that keeps an amazing blog about her work, her process, and her inspirations. One of the things I really appreciate about her blog is her images and videos of works in progress. She allows readers to see behind the curtain so to speak.

Her paintings of the natural world have a fresh and vibrant sense of color that is complimented by the delicacy of her line work and rendering of texture and pattern.

The students viewed her blog with me and we talked about some of her subjects- plants and animals. These subjects are examples of natural shapes in art and, well, nature. We talked about how Geninne uses line in different ways to may cacti look spiky, birds look feathery, and fish look scaly.

The final thing we talked about before starting their drawing was color. In the previous drawing they did,  students could use any color they wanted. This time, they could only use the primary colors, plus pink because it is a tint of red. We reviewed the secondary colors that are made by mixing the primaries and when I showed them an example of what they would be doing I discussed how I made those new colors by blending different primaries together.

1. draw cacti and birds with pencil
2. trace contour lines with black marker
3. color shapes with primary color crayons, mixing them together in different combinations to make secondary colors in areas. press hard and soft to create dark and light versions of those colors.

hanging out with louise.

This week I got thisclose to completely installing the sculpture projects the 5th graders completed in small groups last year. It was my original intention to go in over summer break and do it. Alas, real life intervened.

The project was inspired by the work of sculptor Louise Nevelson.

However, if I had accomplished that goal over the summer, I would not have had the pleasure of working on it with small groups of exceptional students from this year's 5th grade classes. Watching their expressions as they hold a drill for the first time, as well as  their reactions to hearing the sound of the drill, have been priceless. It's so new for most of them. They have painted and drawn, worked with clay, made prints, but for many, this is their first experience with power tools. The students have been enthusiastic, a bit nervous, and extremely helpful.

They have been pre-drilling holes in the plywood pieces, assisting in placement on the wall, and drilling the screws into the wall. I get to do the drilling into the concrete wall. I am out of shape. There are 4 more squares to go. I am hoping to be done by Monday afternoon.

The original installation format has been modified to deter vandalism. As the change in composition occurred it grew on my more and more. Instead of being a stationary, grounded sculptural form, the collection of squares brings forth an abstract vision of flight.

After the installation is complete it will be spray sealed to further protect it from the elements.

day 1

day 2

day 3

It's finished. The final four squares were installed this morning. Now I can put the drill away and let my out of shape back muscles recuperate!

Thanks to all the 5th graders last year for making the sculptural squares. Thanks to all the 5th graders this year that helped with the install. Thanks to my father in-law for helping me cut all the panels. Thanks to the 5th grade teachers for their cooperation and support.