pattern and meaning

Last week the 5th graders looked at the textile designs of Malene Barnett and focused on pattern, meaning, and color value.

Malene is a textile designer based in Brooklyn. Her patterns and designs are based on cultures and places that inspire her. There is a great interview at designsponge with her, that sheds light on her experiences and creative process. I shared parts of this with the classes as well as examples of her work from her company website. I talked about where her ideas come from and how much planning, sketching, and refining goes into each of her finished pieces.

 planning!

more planning!

This pattern was inspired by traditional Mexican embroidered textiles

We also looked at how she uses line or broken lines to make colors look lighter or darker than others in many of her patterns. This was another example of creating value in art, something the 5th graders have been exploring in numerous lessons this year.

The students played the role of textile designer with this project. I asked them to create multiple sketches of pattern ideas. These patterns were supposed to be influenced by something that inspired them. Before moving onto the next step, students turned to a neighbor and shared WHY they were selecting one pattern over the others they had tried.After that they created a styrofoam stamp of their pattern. They colored it with water soluble markers, and then stamped it onto another piece of paper. They then were asked to color it at least one more time and stamp it again to create a larger textile design. They could use the same colors or rinse their plate and apply new colors.

When the project was complete, they filled out an exit slip where they reflected on value and their pattern inspiration. (ELA 5.W.10  Writing routinely for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.)

These exit slips are becoming routine for all grades now. Instead of getting a "why do we have to do writing in art?" I'm simply getting "where are the exit slips to fill out?"

keeping the arts alive with our jog-a-thon!

Our annual jog-a-thon is this Wednesday, February 19th. This is our school's biggest fundraiser of the year. The proceeds of the event support our art program in a pretty big way. It pays the salaries of 2 members of our amazing art team and it covers all of our art supplies for the school year. So, really, without the support of family and friends of Zamorano our art program would be decimated.

My son now goes to Zamo and my daughter will be starting next year. We are a Zamorano family. I don't normally do this, but I'm putting a call out to you... and you... and you... If you follow the special things we are doing here at Zamo, please consider sponsoring my son in the jog-a-thon. Any amount would help to keep the Arts Alive at Zamorano!

You can contact me at dmasse71@gmail.com if you would like to support Zamo and/or you have any questions.

odds and ends:)

The 2nd graders have been identifying symmetry in prints this week. If they finish early they may go to the lego center and create something. They can make anything, but I ask them to attempt to create symmetry. At the end of class, students can come up to my doc cam and share with the class. WE then play the super fantastic game, "symmetry- yes or no?"

This has been a fun way to wrap up classes this week. As we move forward this year, I think I will put more creative restrictions on the lego center to challenge my budding builders:)

Below is a sneak peek of a relief paper sculpture project I'll be rolling out with the 5th graders next week. It's inspired by the work of California artist Erik Abels. I'm really looking forward to seeing how these go.

And lastly, I have a thing for carrying around star wars figures and taking pics of them in different settings. Today I had a little fun at school;)

Boba looking for parts.

Luke tending the Zamorano crops.

stamping out symmetry... or not.

The 2nd graders are working with value and style this week. So far, their projects have focused on realistic or figurative style. With this project they looked at abstract style in art.

I shared a painting by Arthur Eubanks, an African American artist who passed away at the beginning of the month. We talked about how in this painting, Arthur was more concerned with creating an artwork with an interesting play of shape, color, and value instead of focusing on making it look real and accurate.

We also talked about symmetry in art and nature and I wanted them to be able to recognize if it was present in the work that they were to make. This project was done as a styrofoam relief print. 

We drew out an image inspired by Arthur's painting. The first couple lines we made were borrowed from Arthur, but then students made choices of what types of lines they wanted to go in certain areas after that. I asked students to widen some lines, so they could have thin and thick white lines throughout. We also added a line pattern to one section. This was so they could see how more lines in an area would make a lighter value there.

We colored the block and then stamped it once. Holding the stamp next to the print, I asked the kids if they showed symmetry next to one another. A solid "yes" was their answer. I then asked them to think about if a second print would show symmetry with the first and to answer that question after they completed both prints. 

Students completed an exit slip when they were finished, to see if they could identify symmetry and to gauge what the favorite part of the project was for them.

Due to the nature of the stamp composition, no one had a double stamp design that showed symmetry. Most were able to recognize that, and with some guidance, could explain why it was not present. We will visit symmetry later on to reinforce this understanding.

hearts abound with the kinders.

Last week I focused on dark and light once again with my kindergarten students.

Some classes looked at an image by Canadian illustrator Andrew Kolb, while others made an image inspired by the work of British textile designer Lu Summers. The classes that used Andrew's image as their source used hard and soft pressure to create light and dark. The ones that used Lu's work created light and dark by adding more lines to their stamp.

I ended up switching projects because I felt the kinders were struggling too much with the shapes in their heart arrow drawings. I switched drawing materials first, and then to a printmaking project when I still wasn't satisfied with how many kids were achieving success. The classes that did the drawing activity will do a print project later in the year when I focus on texture with them.