Painting Like Pollock: Abstract Expressionism

Parent conference days are quiet in the art room. By hour nine, after a mere ten visits, I was getting pretty antsy. On the up side, my room was cleaner than it had been in weeks and a solid month of lesson plans graced my desk. Three hours to go. I stood up and stretched.

I enjoy meeting parents. Earlier in the day I'd had a pleasant conversation with a parent who wondered if I'd had a chance, yet, to use the rolls of upholstery fabric remnants she'd donated from her work. Double whammy guilt! "Nope. Not yet," I shook my head and thanked her again for hauling all that stuff in. And, I reminded myself, I really needed to do something about all the 'donations' that were piling up, blocking a shared path to the computer printer.

Sighing, I headed for the printer room, determined to lug it all to my impossibly overstuffed storage space. As I grabbed the first long, cardboard tube from its place of honor atop the teetering pile near the printer, I was struck with inspiration, my upcoming unit was on abstract expressionism and the work of Jackson Pollock. Why not use all this fabric instead of poster board for the collaborative 'action paintings?' And why not use house paint instead of the expensive school acrylics?

Pushing thoughts of toxic fumes down into that rarely visited brain space housing theorems and postulates and other icky monsters, I flipped the 6 foot roll of fabric out along the top of a work table. Hiking up my ankle length, black dress I knelt down and dug around under the sink. I soon came up with a cracked, rubber spatula, a paint stirring stick and a few crusty brushes. An armload of old house paint cans, an apron for good measure and I was ready to try it out!

The next few hours flew past as I splattered and dripped, brushed and scraped, stopping a few times to hold a few conferences. Parents didn't seem to mind that I had to wash my hands before we could get started reviewing grades. When the announcement came concluding the evening's meetings I was sorry to put down the paint bucket but excited to share this next project with my students.

As I grabbed my coat and keys I realized with diminished guilt, that I'd only managed to move one roll of fabric from the tottering pile threatening to block the Gym teachers' access to the printer.

Visit www.funartlessonsgallery.blogspot.com to see all the students "Painting Like Pollock" art work.

On the Move: Drawing with Pastels

Tiny toys motivate. No matter how old the student, miniature, life-like objects fascinate. When my 7th and 8th graders enter the art room and see matchbox cars and planes, trucks and motorcycles set up at each table, they can't wait to get started.
We do a few color mixing exercises first, to get used to the pastels, to see how to mix and blend colors and to understand how to  change color value by blending in white or black and decide on warm or cool colors for the vehicle. Then I have them use a neutral grey  construction paper for their drawing to help emphasize the rich hues.
The only challenge with this lesson is keeping the kids from playing with the cars so that they don't disturb the still life set-ups between classes!

Fresh Air and Clay Leaf Bowls

Some of my students are still putting paper in the trash can and garbage in the recycling bin. Arrrrg! During clean-up I had to lecture again, on the difference between garbage and recyclables as I picked the paper products out of the trash, not my favorite task.

So, after my clean-up harague I enjoyed directing my students to run as fast as they could to the trees across the playing field, grab a big leaf and run back. "You have three minutes," I added sternly, then laughed as the kids looked at each other, then at me, secretly hopeful that I really meant it! A few braves ones said something like, "You're kidding, right?"  "Nope," I shook my head and stood back as they headed out the door amid whoops and hollers. Fresh air and freedom: three minutes of bliss for these middle school students.

I watched their progress from the doorway as I wrapped my bulky sweater more tightly about myself. Fall had arrived! The cold was motivation for my t-shirt clad students to run the several hundred yards there and back all the more quickly. They spilled back into the classroom excited by their finds and energized by the brisk autumn air. For the rest of the week they worked diligently creating beautiful ceramic bowls based on the leaves they collected. We completed the final steps today.

During clean-up this afternoon, I noticed that the floor was littered with dried leaves. "What'll we do with these?" a girl asked as she started to toss a few leaves into the garbage. "Here,"  I handed her a large box. On Monday we'll return our useful leaves to Mother Nature and start our week off with a little fresh air and freedom.

Art Prize Grand Rapids

Sunday evening we took our teen children and their friends to downtown Grand Rapids which, over the course of a few weeks, has been transformed by ArtPrize, a city-wide art contest conceived of and funded by a wealthy member of one of Grand Rapids' philanthropic families.
We started our trek near the 'Blue Bridge' over the Grand River, where the teens were delighted by  a top ten vote getter, "Nessie," a collaborative work in the 30's Art Moderne style, by a group of former classmates from Kendall College of Art and Design.

Teens lagging a block behind the grown ups, we wandered the central city blocks, like Sacajawea and her Crew, in search of art and artifacts. This event capitalized on the popularity of American Idol audience participation. Anyone over 18 was able to register to vote to select, in two rounds of voting, the ultimate winner of a quarter million dollar purse. There were no predetermined art categories or even much of a definition of what would qualify as ART. It was up to the public to decide. Art curators, historians, educators and critics would not be determining the value of what was on display here. One personal favorite? The maze of baled plastic recycleables set in a parking lot between glass fronted office buildings.

Following the first round of voting, each piece was labeled with thumbs up and down indicating the numbers of favorable and not so favorable votes. Surprisingly, on many pieces the vote count was in the tens of thousands. I found it difficult to believe such a large number of people had strolled past these sites in recent days. Downtown Grand Rapids is not Times Square, even on a Saturday Night.

Like bargain hunters at a flea market we left no alley unturned in our quest for art, despite a steadily increasing drizzle. Toward the end of the journey, rainy skies darkening the streets, we were cold, hungry and in need of the 'facilities.' We dove into the nearest open building, and found these 8 foot pencil drawings with acrylic painted backgrounds. What an impact. They weren't in the top ten, but they get my vote; looking at these hyper-real pieces it's impossible not to think about the real men and women who are serving as soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan. The teens? After coming full circle, back at the Blue Bridge, they went for "Nessie." The contest winner will be announced later today.

Art History through Games

Most teens will tell you there's nothing more boring than history...except maybe ART history. So, I'm experimenting with a little subversive teaching in the form of games as a way to sweeten the deal and get students engaged in looking at art.

Kids always love BINGO, especially when the prize involves vitamin S in the form of Bubble gum. I've used BINGO as an informal post assessment to check their learning, (and my teaching!) but I'm also interested in creating games that will form a more significant part of the initial instruction.

Last Friday I introduced a new game, Snapshot Memory. Teams had 60 seconds to memorize the details in a painting by Vermeer and then another 60 seconds to list what they remembered from the painting, including artist, title and date. The competitive spirit in the room really motivated students to focus intently on artwork!

After 5 or 6 rounds the students were able to describe the artist's style, time period, subject matter, several titles of paintings - and I never lectured! Later, much to my surprise, they were able to select  a (new to them) "Vermeer" from a line-up of paintings. Who says art history is boring!!!

Backward Portraits: A Fun Opening Lesson for Back-to-School

First day of school - I stood at the door to the art room greeting each student as they entered. Lots of big smiles, a few too shy to meet my eyes, high-fives from last year's 7th graders back for another dose of messy fun. Under his breath, as he walked in, head down, a new student, voicing what a good handful of others were thinking, "I hate art. I can't draw."

Always my first challenge - overcoming the fear and dread of performing so visually for all to see the shortcomings, failings, lack of this or that. Possibly the worst position in which to place a budding, young adult and the quickest route to behavior issues in the classroom.

A truth about teens - they are hair obsessed! For our opening project, part of a two week unit on portraiture, we drew "backwards" portaits in oil pastel and watercolor wash. An easy, no-fail drawing lesson focusing on the art elements of SHAPE and LINE.

After the Demo - Talk and laughter filled the room as kids began their drawings. "My head's a square!" "I've got a grape head."...Or the line in their hair, "It goes straight out in every direction." "I've got a spiral from my crown!"

The boy who walked in hating art? Not sure he loves it...yet, but as he walked out he called, "see ya tomorrow, Ms. Wilson." I glanced toward the doorway to see the back of his head... held a bit higher going out.

You can find several back-of-the head portrait lessons in a variety of media at Artsonia.
On Monday we'll begin a self-portrait project involving digital photographs and drawing, and we'll learn about the photo portraits of the 19th century pictorialist, Julia Margaret Cameron: Fantastic Photos

Fall Trees: Drawing with Sticks?

Sometimes going low-tech in this high-tech world produces beautiful results. Take a look at what Melissa Giglio's students at Nouth Carolina's Arapahoe Charter School can do with sticks and a little ink. Yes, sticks, plain ordinary, fallen from the tree, sticks. The original tool for scratching in the dirt, marking out territory or digging a hole. Melissa says, "In the pictures you'll see how 'gestural' they are...I LOVE THAT about stick drawing with ink. We also splattered and used a watered down ink with a paper towel as a 'wash' to create gray areas."

While I'm sorry to see summer come to an end, I can't wait for the trees to shed their leaves and drop a few sticks so that I, too, can take my students outside to draw with sticks! Visit Melissa at her new blog, The Art Room at ACS.

Adventure in the Hot Shop

It's been a cool summer in Michigan, but the West Michigan Glass Blowers Society Hot Shop was the sizzling spot to be this week. I just returned from a couple of intense, exhilarating days in Kalamazoo learning to do amazing things with glass. Here, my friend Tina is showing the honey-thick, molten glass just who's boss as our instructor, Judy, looks on, ready to help out at the first sign of trouble.

After gathering and shaping a glob of hot glass, we blew through the pipe to begin expanding the glass, hoping eventually to form a tumbler or vase.

In my first attempt I blew so hard the glass popped as if it were a soap bubble. Fine threads of glass floated down to the concrete floor. Back at the "glory hole" I gathered more glass with the help of our instructor, Mike. Our classmate, Jenny, manages NOT to pop bubbles!

After almost five hours in the hot shop we were ready for a shower, a bite to eat and then on to our next workshop: Photo Screen Printing.

Back to School for Teachers

In Michigan its back-to-school for many art teachers as we attend the Michigan Art Education Association's summer workshops at Western Michigan U in Kalamazoo next week. I'm looking forward to a few days of art making with friends. This year I'm trying two new media: photo silkscreen and glass blowing. I recently discovered all the equipment for silkscreen in my cavernous storage closet at school and hope to do some projects with my students this coming school year. Glass blowing is purely for myself - something I've always been interested in, but never had the opportunity to try. Its certainly not a middle school activity!

For the silkscreen class I'll be combining the images shown here to make a two color print. These are pics I took last winter as I watched one house after another fall to the great recession. I wonder about the families and lives that have been destroyed by the greed of others. Processing these thoughts and fears through art has always been my way. It is so insignificant in the face of such troubles.

These early explorations in printmaking eventually led to a series of  house paintings in watercolor. Same ideas, different medium. It has been and is an unsettled time. Making art settles me, but doesn't do much for addressing the larger environmental and societal problems we face.

Shrieking Clown and Grilled Cheese at the Art Institute of Chicago

My daughter and I took a trip on the train to Chicago this week. We each chose an activity. Mine was a visit to the Art Institute. My daughter, the whale lover, chose the Shedd Aquarium. We decided to do the art first and save the 'fun stuff' for the second day.

We started, while energy was high, with a tour of the new contemporary art wing. My daughter was a good sport, for awhile, until we got to the shrieking clown video piece. That sent her over the edge. Time for lunch!

Fortified with grilled cheese and french fries we made our way through the modern galleries. And here I watched my daughter, no art lover, come alive. She loved the landscapes and paintings that 'told stories.' She recognized Picasso's "The Old Guitarist" and told me all about his Blue Period - hurrah for her wonderful art teacher, Mrs. Lampen!

I was amazed at this landscape by Piet Mondrian from 1916. Clearly on a track to abstraction. I loved looking at the actual paint surface, something you can never see in reproductions. Because I grew up near Chicago, I had the opportunity to take many school trips to the museum. My own students have not had this experience. We do not have the funds or parental resources even to go to our local art museum.Our day at the museum over, we took our tired feet to the hotel where we rested up just long enough to gain the energy and appetite to head out for a great meal at an Italian restaurant. Tomorrow - Beluga whales at the Shedd.

Painted Digital Portraits

Here's a fun, easy, summer art project you can do at home with children of all ages. Start by taking a digital photographic portrait and print it out in black and white, or enlarge on a photo copier a portait on 8 x 10 paper. You child's school picture might be just perfect to use for this project!

Use acrylic or tempera paint or keep it simple with colored pencil. Inexpensive acrylic paint is available in small bottles at your local craft store. Be sure to have a variety of brush sizes on hand for large areas and detail work. Choose a palette of complementary colors such as green and red, blue and orange or yellow and purple to create visual contrast. Vary the brush strokes from smooth to bumpy, or impasto, type styles to increase visual interest.

Use the photograph as a guide to begin painting or 'coloring in' a self-portrait. Interesting effects can be obtained by leaving some areas such as the eyes or mouth unpainted so that the photographic information shows through. Reassure your artists at home that the final portrait does not need to be 'realistic.' That's the fun of painting!