Chinese Landscape Scrolls

 
7th graders´ Social Studies curriculum focuses on Asia and so does their art program. They have explored Hindu Mandalas, Chinese Dragons and Beijing Opera Masks and recently we had a chance to try out some landscape scroll paintings.

For homework they had to research the main characteristics of these paintings and frequent subjects (cherry and blossoms, waterfalls, bamboo, and chrysanthemums)  and later in class they tried watercoloring their own designs based on these characteristics.

They are all very beautiful, but these are some of the ones that looked the most "chinese" ;-)

Haida Indians Masks

  
5th graders are studying the U.S. and Canada in their Social Studies classes, and they love all things Native American, so for Halloween I had them create masks like the Haida Indians of the Pacific Northwest Coast. They first had to research these masks in the internet and bring in examples. In class we compared them to see the common features. We saw that they all had very bushy eyebrows, the eyes were pinched at the end, like footballs. Also, we saw that the lips were rounded and looked like two hot dogs, and that they covered all the negative space with designs.

The first week we taped cardboard triangles on paper plates to create a nose shape, and covered the entire thing with papier-maché (no need to say how much they loooved doing this).

 

The following week they brought in sketches they had made and painted their masks, just in time for the school´s Halloween fair. I have to admit I´m quite impressed with these, they are so much better than I had anticipated—and, mind you, my expectations for this group are very high ;-)

Recycled Material Sculptures

It is with great, great pride that I finally post some of the sculptures 10th graders have made using recycled material. This project is from a unit on New Medium that I love teaching because the inspiration for it is one of my favorite artists, Vik Muñiz. Vik creates art using non-orthodox materials like cotton, wire, chocolate and even garbage, proving that art really is everywhere.

I start the unit by playing his Ted Speaks lecture and students oooh and aaah over his work (seriously, it´s amazing). We discuss how in postmodernism representational art is no longer limited to traditional medium or skills like drawing and painting, but creativity and originality are valued higher. Their assignment is to create sculptures using material they had never worked with before, except this year I gave it a twist—the material must be something which would have been thrown away, like old newspaper, plastic bottles, candy wrappers, etc. To make it even more challanging, the material must hold a relationship with the object they are representing (for example, last year a student made a doll out of newspaper, playing with the concept of a "paper doll"). And of course, applying the principles of design.

Oooh, and as if the project weren´t hard enough, I pushed them an extra mile by having them write an Artist´s Statement to accompany their work.

I´m trying to figure out how to upload them all without making the post too heavy, but in the meantime here are some of them. I am so thrilled and impressed with these kids, you can see why :-D


This one is called "Sweet Dreams" 

This one is "Haute couture rempli d´odures" and has a killer artist´s statement

This is a TP roll giraffe

A heart made of things that damage it

Another trash dress, this one made out of shopping bags and tags

This quirky piece is intended as "a funny critique to the daily invasion of all the junk published in newspaper"

This piece has got one of the best artist´s statements I have ever read, I´ll find a way to share it soon

"The hen that laid the rainbow eggs". Breathtaking!

This one is called "The Trash Fairy" and in her statement the artist explained it was inspired by her neat freak mom.

This one is deeply conceptual and is titled "The Americanization of the Dominican Republic". Brilliant!

This is the cutest self-portrait i´ve ever seen :-)

Cotton swans—soooo lovely

This one is the little kid´s favorite—Jack and Sally from Tim Burton´s The Nigthmare Before Christmas. Made from chocolate bar wrappers! These kids are too much :-D

The Trash Monster!

A magazine lamp. Started out as a basket but I asked her to push it further...it´s still not finished though, I suggested some alterations

*If some of the images don´t load, click on one too see them all

Gallon Goblins for Halloween

A couple of weeks ago 6 III was working on recycling the crayon stubs from the Art Room, but 6 IV had a different task: They had to create something using empty plastic gallons which used to hold paint and glue. First, they covered them in Papier-maché newspaper.

 

The following week they did it again but using white paper so they could paint over them.

When they had dried, I left it up to them to design their own creations. I showed them some ideas from the internet for inspiration. Since Halloween was coming up, they all decided to make these little monsters, jack-o-lanterns or goblins. Super cute! Some used them for trick-or-treating and others were borrowed as decorations for the Halloween Fair at school.