I had the opportunity to create a wearable art piece last week for a friend who’s a puppeteer, costume designer, and performance artist. It’s been ages since I’ve thought about creating a wearable artwork, so it was fun to think in those terms once again. As I developed my ideas, I cruised the internet for some inspiration and came across the incredible wearable sculptures of Tracy Featherstone. About her sculptures, she write:

“Wearable structures materialize our daily struggle between control and chaos. The balance is precarious and can tip one way or another in an instant…The traditional role of structure or stability becomes mobile when placed on the figure allowing the individual to indulge in the illusion of stability…Similar to the way water will carve a new path around an obstruction, participant finds new ways to move about daily routines in ordinary fashion.”

I find Featherstone’s work to be really inspiring! It was great to have a new creative challenge, in creating something wearable. I’d like to explore this form further! And how fun would it be to design a high school art lesson around wearable art? Perhaps it could be a collaboration between a textiles class and an art class, or a woodworking class and art. Oh, the possibilities are endless…

While I’m on the theme of the Synchronicity Festival, I thought I would write about another project I helped out with this past summer, which was running a silk screening booth where we printed t-shirts on demand. We thought that it would be fun to provide volunteers and festival-goers with Synchronicity Festival t-shirts this year, and we decided silk screening would be the best way to achieve this. I have a bit of silk screening experience, but my knowledge is pretty limited - so I was nervous about taking on this project alone. Luckily, I met a student at the local high school while subbing in the art classroom last spring who is a silk screening EXPERT, and I was able to recruit him to help me with the booth. He helped me through the process of burning the screen, and he came out to print t-shirts at the festival with me. After watching him pull prints and by botching a number of my own, I finally figured out some of the tricks of the trade. The booth was a hit with festival-goers and was a great learning opportunity for me!

Phew! I had an alternately stimulating and exhausting subbing day today teaching grade 8 and 9 social studies, and then grade 9 PE. In grade 9 social studies we got into an impromptu discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which the students knew nothing about and which they were very interested in. Social studies would be an interesting subject to teach, I think - so many fascinating discussions to be had.

On a completely different note, I thought I would share some photos of the cardboard puppets created by students in a day camp this summer, that were displayed at the Synchronicity Festival. The Synchronicity Festival is an annual arts and culture festival, produced by deer crossing the art farm, that takes place in Gibsons, BC in August. I’ve had the opportunity to assist in the coordination of the festival for the past two years. In previous posts I described arts workshops that I led in which students worked with cardboard to create puppets depicting imaginary creatures. To display them, we attached them to wooden posts and staked them into the ground, inside a grassy area adjacent to the field where the festival took place. I think the visual effect was pretty striking, and maybe just a little eerie.

This is a really interesting weaving project for elementary-aged students. It would have never occurred to me to combine weaving and storytelling (“text” and “textiles,” as the writer of the blog points out) but I love the concept, and the results are so beautiful and imaginative. This definitely goes on my “lessons I would love to teach one day” list!

bearfax:

Weaving by third graders in St. Louis!!! Please click through to see this art teacher’s blog.

Today I’m posting my last instalment in my 3-part description of a sculpture lesson sequence I taught last year for 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students. Yesterday I wrote about a series of introductory activities I led the students through, using found and recycled materials. The goals for these activities were to encourage the students to think about the following issues:

-what can be considered a sculpture

-reasons why artists might create sculptures made from everyday and recycled materials

-ways in which artists can use form and material to communicate a feeling or idea

In the original lesson sequence designed by my friend, the students were next given everyday objects to explore such as straws, plastic cups, ziploc bags, and paper plates. They eventually worked in teams to create a sculpture using 100 units of a particular everyday object. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time or resources to teach this part of the lesson sequence. When I taught the sequence to a class of 8th and 9th grade students, though, I developed a follow-up activity, which provided them with an opportunity to further explore everyday and recycled materials. 

I first reminded the students of Aurora Robson’s sculpture, Kamilo, which was made without any adhesives or hardware. I then divided the class into 5 groups, gave each group a similar assortment of recycled and everyday materials, and challenged each group to make a hanging sculpture using all of their materials without glue, tape, or wire. The students were excited about this task, and approached it with much enthusiasm. I was impressed with how inventive and diverse their sculptures ended up being (see photos above). If I’d been able to spend more time with the students, I think that this activity would have naturally led to a more in-depth sculpture project, perhaps similar to the one my friend had originally planned using 100 units of a particular object. Alternatively, it could have led to a more in-depth exploration of hanging sculptures, with a discussion of mobiles by artists such as Alexander Calder.

But for now, this concludes my 3-part description of this lesson sequence! It’s been useful to think back to lessons I taught almost a year ago now. Hopefully I’ll get another chance to teach the sequence, and to continue to improve upon it and add to it!

As promised yesterday, I am writing today about the next step in a sculpture lesson sequence I led on a couple occasions last year, for 7th, 8th and 9th grade art students. Again, I must mention that these activities are based upon a totally genius lesson sequence developed by a friend and fellow art educator, who now teaches in a New York City. In my version of the sequence, we began by viewing and discussing artwork by three contemporary artists who make use of found and recycled materials in creating 3D artwork: Tara Donovan, Aurora Robson, and El Anatsui. We then talked about what a sculpture is, and as a group brainstormed some definitions for what can be considered a sculpture.

I had brought in a range of objects to the class, including recycled objects such as toilet paper roles, vitamin bottles, and small cardboard boxes. I also brought in some everyday objects from home such as a cheese grater, running shoes, a wooden spoon, embroidery hoops, and coloured wooden blocks. I spread these objects out randomly on the tables in the classroom. I then led the class through the following sequence activities, reflecting as a group as we finished each step: 

1. Choose three objects from the table in front of you. Look carefully at the three objects you picked. Combine them into a single three-dimensional form and give your piece a title.

2. Take the piece apart and re-assemble it in a new way. You can exchange one of the objects for an object at the center of the table if you want.

3. Now pair up with the person beside you. Choose one of the following titles to create a new piece, using at least 4 of your 6 objects: Awkward Beauty, Fragile Balance, Identity Crisis, Exploding Rage, I Want to Break Free.

4. Get together with 2 other groups and create a new sculpture using objects from your 3 sculptures (using at least 3 objects).

5. Work with all groups at your table, using all of your objects, to create as tall a sculpture as you can.

The students pictured above are from the art class of 7th and 8th grade students who I initially led the activities with. As you can see, they were really engaged with the lesson, and enjoyed themselves throughout the process. I’ll write about the final stage in this lesson sequence tomorrow!

(photo credit: Tella Sametz)

I’ve been writing on the theme of recycled art materials lately, so I thought I would share a lesson sequence I taught a couple times last year for 7th, 8th and 9th grade art students - the first time as a visiting artist, and the second time as a substitute teacher. The activities are based upon a fantastic sequence developed by a dear friend I studied with at Teachers College. I tweaked it a bit in collaboration with the art teacher whose classroom I was visiting, and in order to condense it, as I had a short time to work with the groups of students.

The first time I taught the sequence, the art teacher asked me to carry out an activity with her students that would serve as an introduction to sculpture and that would make use of recycled art materials. I began the activity by showing the students work by contemporary artists who use found and recycled materials to create 3D artworks. Specifically, we looked at work by Tara Donovan, Aurora Robson, and El Anatsui. As we looked at the images, I encouraged the students to consider the techniques these artists used to join together their materials and reasons why the artists may have chosen to use found and recycled materials. In particular, I drew the students’ attention to Aurora Robson’s sculpture, Kamilo, which she made using plastic collected by the Hawaii Wildlife Fund during a bi-monthly coastal clean-up. In creating the sculpture, she did not use any paint, adhesives, or hardware. The students really enjoyed the artworks and were very intrigued by them. 

Throughout the next few days I will describe the rest of this lesson sequence, so stay tuned!

I’ve been writing about recycled art materials in the last week - specifically cardboard - so I thought I’d share some photos of my little art supply ‘closet’, which consists mostly of recycled items. Since I don’t teach out of an art classroom, but instead offer art classes at different locations (art centers, community centers, schools, etc.) I keep a little stockpile of recycled art supplies at home. Over the labour day weekend, I cleaned up my supplies, as they’d become completely disorganized after I’d carted them around when teaching art camps during the summer.

In my stockpile, there are select recycled items that I have collected over time, such as interesting plastic pieces, clean pieces of metal foil, yogurt containers, egg cartons, off-cuts of mat board (from framing shops), fabric, and cardboard, of course! So that I can see what I have, and so that I can easily grab things to bring to a class, I’ve transferred some of my collections into large clear ziplock bags, and hung them from nails. I’m at capacity at the moment, but am ready to go for the next class that I offer!

I’m lucky to have an excess of storage space in my current house, but in case I ever have to downsize, pretty much all of my ‘supplies’ could be brought straight to the recycling depot - although I’d have a difficult time parting with some of them, after all of my careful collecting and sorting!

I just got home from my first day of subbing this September! I had a very smooth day teaching science 9. The last time I taught science 9 I covered menstruation and the female reproductive system, so discussing lab safety and the periodic table of elements today seemed pretty mundane.

But back to my real area of expertise: making stuff…out of cardboard! As promised in yesterday’s post, I’m writing today about the second half of an arts workshop that I led at a day camp this summer. We began by building tall structures using cardboard and masking tape. I then read a few pages from the book Mixed Beasts Illustrated by Wallace Edwards and written by Kenyon Cox. Some of the language in the book can be a bit challenging for very young children, but I’ve found on multiple occasions that children are really delighted by the imaginative creatures in the book.

I then had each child make sketches of their own made-up creatures, and we shared them with the whole group. They then drew their creatures onto large pieces of cardboard, and cut them out. They painted them with acrylic paint and embellished them with buttons and wool. The final results were delightful! To install them at the Synchronicity Festival, we attached the puppets to tall poles, and staked them into the ground. It made for a very colourful and whimsical installation.