Texture! I've been busy!

Oh, I have so much to share, but this post is going to be about showing off, or sharing, or asking for opinions, or however you want to read it.  I've been busy in my new studio, working on one piece that sat, hated, on the easel for more than a year and was in desperate need of rejuvenation, and another, that came together within a few days because of a strange round piece of heavy cardboard, with a hole in the center, that I brought home with me when I cleaned out my classroom and retired. 

It just so happens that the regional arts council, of which I am a member, is hosting a juried show with the theme of texture and pattern.  When I saw the theme, I realized I just HAD to get my heavily textured pieces complete in time to enter.  As of today, they are both done and ready to bring tomorrow. 

But working here at home, I have nobody to give me honest critiques.  My hubby says "I like it!" or "I think it's great!"  - not exactly constructive criticism.  So I emailed photos to a couple of friends and decided what the heck, I'll enter the exhibit and either they get accepted or they don't.  I'll let you know.

The reason I'm so interested in critique is that they are a real departure from what I've done in the past, and part of me thinks perhaps they are just a glorious mess, particularly the second piece. So, drum-roll please... here they are... poorly photographed, but hopefully you'll get the idea.

"Marsh Dream - Texture Composition #1"

 

 

One more view, to hopefully give you a better sense of the color.

 The media for the piece above is acrylic paint, assorted acrylic mediums, fabric and beads, on Masonite.  Due to the shimmery nature of some of the fabrics and paints used, it's hard to get a good photograph.. 

Here you can see how big it is.  I don't recall the measurements.

And the other piece:

"Woodland Fantasy - Texture Composition #2"

Um, this doesn't look like a kindergartner's thanksgiving turkey, does it?

 

 Close-up of the texture; another one at the top of the post

The Return of the Texture Fauves

 I've been looking through my blog stats, and I want to, from time to time, bring back some stuff from a few old posts that never got many views on their first runs, because I think they deserve a 2nd chance!  So these images were originally posted here, in December 2010.

My 2nd grade students had been learning about Matisse and fauvism, had done a Matisse goldfish bowl painting project, and knew that the word 'fauve' means 'wild beast'. We also had previously done some work with textures, so they knew the meaning of the word.  So to use up some junk accumulating in the art room, the kids created these 'texture fauves' - wild beasts or creatures made out of various textural materials, mostly recyclable.  We had fabric scraps, pieces of foam, ribbon, lace, corrugated cardboard scraps, pompoms, feathers, doilies, toothpicks, wood shapes, and of course some wiggle eyes just for fun.

I purposely showed them NO examples, so they would use their own imaginations and creative thinking to solve the challenge.  They were given scissors, bottles of Elmer's Glue-All, and a piece of scrap mat board each for background, and I had all the assorted junk materials arranged on my counter-top. 

 

While most kids used lots of materials, I especially love the simplicity of this amazing shark (above) cut from just a few scraps of foam!  Bravo!

 Don't you love the written explanation on this one (above)?

 The kids were given the option of using construction paper crayons to alter the negative space, as you can see on the piece below in particular. 

  Straight from my prior post, these were the only rules/guidelines that were given:

1. Nothing sticking up off the board (the artwork should fit in the drying rack).
2. No blood or weapons.
3. You had to be able to tell it was a beast or creature.
4. Students could only take one thing from the selection at a time, and had to return stuff the same way it was found (ribbon rolled up, feather bucket closed, etc).
5. Everything had to be glued down by counting to at least 10.

Since the students had to get up from their seats numerous times to retrieve materials, I had them take their scissors with them (to cut off a piece of ribbon, for example, rather than taking all the ribbon to their tables).  So we practiced the 'scissor rap', complete with hand gestures and sassy attitudes:  "Points down, hands around, points down, hand around!" 

I hope you have enjoyed this repeat performance! 

The Ultimate Texture Burger Sandwich

I know a lot of you have done similar versions of this project, but it's so much fun I thought I'd post some pics of my students' interpretation. I don't think I already posted these, did I?

After brainstorming for REAL things that could go on sandwiches, the kids dug through a variety of materials (my room was a huge mess!!) and went to town. I was firm about just one rule - these to be BIG sandwiches but not SILLY sandwiches - in other words, no dirty socks, no earthworms, no rainbows, no monkeys... you get the idea. So everything on a sandwich represents a REAL food item. I think they did a great job and had so much fun digging through boxes of fabric, crepe paper, discarded counting cubes (great cheese!), scraps of colored foam, and so much more. I especially love the first sandwich, which is filled with only seafood related items, including a lobster claw, crabmeat, shrimp, seaweed, and even oyster crackers. And then she added a bowl of steaming hot soup!! I forgot to take pictures of all of them, but there were many other original pieces - for example, several kids created sushi rolls and eggrolls to put on their sandwiches.

Anyhow, I forgot to take a picture of the whole bulletin board, but I hope you enjoy the few pics I did remember to take! By the way - they are pretty big - 9" wide by 22" tall.

Trees, Texture, & Van Gogh

My 3rd graders know everything there is to know about Vincent van Gogh!
They noticed that his swirls of paint looked thick and bumpy, and we reviewed the word "texture". We discussed how our paint is not thick enough to make a bumpy texture like van Gogh's, so we used glue and sand (an idea "borrowed" from Katie's and the wonderful artwork she posted here: Adventures of an Art Teacher). I posted about this briefly last week.

A word about the tree above on the left - I'm SO proud of this young artist. He does not have much fine motor skill, and after painting the tree and sky, it was an absolute mess. You couldn't find the tree anywhere. On the final work day, when we touched up colors and outlined with black as desired, I really encouraged him to locate his missing tree and sky. He went to work and in the end it's my favorite of all the paintings. I love the off-center placement of the tree; I think it looks pretty sophisticated, don't you?

The process - to begin, the kids drew their trees, added some bark texture, some ground texture, and some swirls in the sky (all with glue) and shook on some sand. When it was dry, in our next our class, they painted, beginning with warm colors in either the sky or tree. The following art class it was cool colors, in the parts not previously painted. The tree directly above on the right was done by a boy who was absent when we did the glue and sand. So he added glue and sand to his tree after he painted it, when the paint was still wet. It's totally different than the others, but still really cool! In the final art class, the kids added more color where needed and then used thinned black tempera to outline and highlight texture as desired. I'm in love with these paintings!
The tree on the right was done by a young gal who has been refusing to wear her art shirt (a fast rule in my room when there's 23 kids painting). But I wanted her to participate. I gave her markers and a wet paintbrush and this is her result - really interesting I think! And now she's back in her art shirt :)

Four of these were shown individually above, but not all so I thought I'd post as much of the board as I could fit in my lens. Each tree is SO unique!

Food for thought about drawing trees with kids-
Many of you post about drawing/painting trees, using the "V" or "Y" method. The problem is, when I look out my window here, every tree has a distinct trunk that continues, narrowing, to the top of the tree. Actually, with all the woods out my window, I only can see ONE tree that has a "Y" trunk, though there are plenty of "Y" branches. So unlike the rest of you, I generally don't teach tree drawing that way. It happens that THESE trees in this post all head right off the top of the paper, solving the problem of "how to end the tree". Maybe it's cheating, but they look pretty good, don't you agree?

Hopefully soon my 4th graders will be starting those charcoal trees that you all liked so much last year. Maybe we can try to include the tippy-tops!

African-inspired tooling foil relief masks

My 6th graders have been working hard on these. Today I was name-tagging for the art show, and wanted to get pics of these for you before they were all tagged. When more of them are done, I'll post another batch.


The kids were given some basic design guidelines: symmetrical design, exaggerated stylized features, elongated noses, use of geometric shapes and repeated pattern; and looked at a large variety of samples for idea inspiration. Then they were shown the steps for tooling the foil and getting deep relief where desired.

The masks were painted with soap and India ink, and when dry were rubbed with steel wool for an antiquing effect and to enhance the pattern and detail. Then the kids added color as desired with either permanent markers or acrylic paint mixed with gloss.

Kids were offered the opportunity to add to the mask with coiled wire, yarn, raffia, and beads. Finally they picked the color of their choice from a pile of mat board pieces to use as background. My awesome picture-framer gives me the scrap mat board and old picture frames, and I am very appreciative of and thankful for this donation.


I know the mask in the middle above particularly doesn't look African, but as long as the kids stuck with the basic guidelines to start with, I let them take their ideas and run with them. I think sometimes I try to impose too much of my aesthetic values on the kids, so I decided to let them finish them how they wanted. However I did stop the girl who made the mask on the left above from putting heart-shaped beads on the earrings - just TOO tacky for my taste - but I let them go with with pinks and purples and other goofy stuff. They are happy so I am too!

And here's 2 masks that aren't quite done yet. That's Melissa's on the left, with lots of terrific texture, and on the right is Sarah working on her monkey/lion mask. She always takes things a step above and beyond everyone else. Cool. I'll try to post photos of these when they are complete.

By the way, I use tooling foil w/6th grade every year, but don't repeat the same project 2 years in a row. It's more fun that way. Don't tell the kids, but I'm planning on dragons next year...

Years ago, there was a nice article on making these masks in School Arts magazine, and then a couple of years after, I took a hands-on Friday night workshop at our state art teachers conference that was taught by the gal who wrote the article. I got lots of great tips from her for making the reliefs really pop.

The last of the Fauves - Texture Fauves!

I've been watching Hoarders on TV and decided I really needed to get rid of some of the junk in my storage closet at school. It seems everyone thinks I should have what they no longer need, so they leave bags at my door. Sigh...

Hence, this final (loosely) Matisse-related project, which was easy and so much fun. Second graders had learned about Matisse, and knew that the word fauve meant wild beast. So they created their own "texture fauves" out of various materials. We had fabric, corrugated cardboard, pieces of foam, ribbon and lace, pom poms, feathers, wiggle eyes, doilies, wood shapes, and toothpicks. I purposely showed them NO examples, so that they totally had to figure it out for themselves. I gave them bottles of Elmer's Glue-All, had them each select a scrap piece of mat board for background, and away they went!

The rules were simple:

1. Nothing sticking up off the board.
2. No blood or weapons
3. You had to be able to tell it was a beast or creature.
4. Students could only take one thing from the selection at a time, and had to return stuff the same way it was found (ribbon rolled up, feather bucket closed, etc)
5. Everything had to be glued down by counting to at least 10.