Monday

January-February 2007

Kindergarten snow people

Collage materials with a little glitter for fun!




The students learned about where to place body parts (eyes, nose and mouth go on the face...) and about creating a background as well as the wonders of collage and the "magic of white pearl glitter.


Friday

January-February 2007

Warm and Cool colors

First grade created warm and cool collage faces.






Wednesday

January-February 2007

Gardens, Music and
Seasons
Those are the influence for the collage projects
created by our 4th, 5th and 6th grade classes.

Students looked at works by the American Artists, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and Faith Ringgold.

They were encouraged to use collage materials to create a picture that was inspired by music, the seasons or a garden.









January-February 2007

Romare Bearden
(1911-1988)

Romare Bearden is an African-American who is internationally recognized for his lifelong work as a collage artist. His work shares many captivating and inspiring stories that celebrate the African-American experience.


Collage comes from the French word coller, "to gum or stick something together." Bearden's work was created by gluing fragments of paper, fabric, scraps, photographs, drawings, and images in magazines and newspapers to a flat surface. In addition, he used watercolors, oil paints, and inks to make his collages. He enjoyed and was inspired by many art forms and styles including African, Asian and European art.

Romare Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He moved to Harlem in New York City when he was a young child and grew up there in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance (1919-1929), was a period in American cultural history when Black Artists began to contribute elements of their African heritage and experiences in a positive way to the visual, performing and literary arts. Their art moved out of their community and into the world. Harlem became the center of this artistic rebirth period during the 1920's when Romare Bearden was a young artist. Many visits were made to the Bearden household by family friend and poet, Langston Hughes, and musicians, Fats Waller and Duke Ellington.

From the1940's through the 1980's, Romare Bearden became a presence in American art. His works reflect not only life in the big city of New York, with it's street musicians and jazz but he also created works based on his early childhood in the country setting of North Carolina.

He has had many successful exhibitions at premier art galleries throughout the United States and his work is collected by both private art lovers and international museums.

(all works in this section are reproductions of original Bearden works of art posted for educational purposes, to find out more about this important American Artist I recommend you visit: http://www.beardenfoundation.org/ The official Bearden Foundation website)

January-February 2007

Symmetrical Faces
2nd grade students used a black and white half
face from a magazine and created the other half of the
face using collage materials, markers and colored pencils.


We discussed the human face and where all the parts are located. Students drew guidelines to help them place the features.

November-December 2006

Patterns and Design

Fourth grade students were introduced to the history of mosaics and viewed examples of how they can be used in various artistic and architectural settings.





Students created complex paper mosaic patterns on a horizontal or circular base.


November-December 2006

Mosaics and Masks
Kindergarten students designed mosaic panels using squares of construction paper and gift wrap to create patterns.
They also looked at tribal masks for design inspiration.

Sunday

November-December 2006


Turtle Mandala

2nd graders created turtle mandalas using Aboriginal inspired designs. The students looked at samples of Aboriginal and other indigenous peoples art work and talked about the use of animal images in art. We also discussed the mandala shape in art and in nature.



The turtle mandala art piece was a two part project. It involved coloring and cutting out the shell (mandala) , assembling the body, attaching the turtle to the brown "bark" backdrop and decorating the space with Aboriginal inspired patterns and designs.



The young artists really seemed to enjoy this project and each turtle has it's own unique personality, just like the kids!















November-December 2006

Tribal masks
5th grade artists created paper tribal masks.



Masks are an ancient art form. The Egyptians created beautiful gold funereal masks for their king's. The Greeks and Romans used clay and linen masks in theater.

Tribal wooden masks are often colored with natural dyes and pigments created from vegetables, plants, seeds, tree bark, soil and insects.

In the early 20th Century, artists like Pablo Picasso and Andre Derain were inspired by the bold abstract designs that they discovered in African tribal masks. They collected and used these works of art to influence their own style.

Most tribal masks are used as part of a ceremonial costume for religious and social events. They represent the spirits of ancestors or to control the good and evil forces in the community. Some combine human and animal features to unite man with his natural environment.





Students invented their own tribe/culture and created sketches for their mask's based on these ideas. What is the purpose of the mask? Spirit guide, warrior, medicine man…where does your tribe live? coast, dessert, mountains…) Finished masks were created from construction paper, cardboard, beads, seeds, yarn and other decorative embellishments.

Saturday

November-December 2006


Molas



3rd grade students learned about the art of the Kuna people called a mola and created their own paper molas from original animal drawings.

The Kuna people live on a chain of islands called San Blas Archipelago, on the Atlantic side of the Republic of Panama. A mola is a traditional blouse worn by Kuna women.







These blouses are made from two pannels of colorful fabric that are hand stiched with complex designs
Traditional molas are created with simple, brightly colored cotton fabric that is cut into a shape and hand stitched onto a panel of cloth. Additional layers of colorful fabric are added on top of the original one. They are stitched around the outer edge, cut into an "outline" of fabric to reveal the color beneath, and stitched on the interior wall. This creates a multi-colored, multi-layered design with an otherwise simple pattern.

November-December 2006

Mosaics

Mosaic is the art of decoration with small pieces of colored glass, stone or other material. The small tiles , fragments of pottery (known as tesserae, diminutive tessellae) or colored glass are adhered to a surface to create a pattern, design or picture.

1st grade artists created mosaics using pre-print patterns and paper tiles. The tiles were both printed in both solid colors and mineral patterns.



Students were encouraged to create patterns and explore design.

November-December 2006

Aztec Masks

6th grade students created Aztec Masks using aluminum foil for the basic shape and adding design elements with sharpie markers, tissue paper, beads and other embellishments.