Ink Blowing!

Every other Friday, the high school art classes are treated with "Fun Friday." Fun Friday introduces art students to new and interesting mediums that they might not be exposed to otherwise. For this Fun Friday, we experimented with ink blowing and watercolors. The students' art turned out to be very complex, colorful, and Kandinsky-esque. I've put and example of a Kandinsky painting at the end of this post (he was a famous Russian abstract painter).

And here's a work by Kandinsky (see some similarities?):

6th Grade Abstract Landscapes

This year, the sixth grade learned about Wassily Kandinsky's landscape paintings. Kandinsky was a Russian Abstract Expressionist painter. We looked at examples of his work (below) and spent multiple class periods debating the artist's intentions.

 

For this painting, students debated whether Kandinsky was trying to paint an inviting landscape or a scary one. Students had to explain why they thought it was scary/inviting. The question I posed was, "Do you want to visit this house? Why or why not?"

 

For this painting, students debated weather the landscape has a stream or a road, and whether the composition is inviting (and why). They really got into this one. Pretty heated arguments!

 

And below you can find the students' abstract landscape paintings. Students were only provided with primary colors and black and white. I think they did a great job of blending, color mixing, and showing a range of values!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FYI this is a man holding onto to a cup and a bowl to prevent himself from being sucked out into the universe. Yes, you read that correctly.

 

 

Cool paper-towel texture technique!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exploring Memory

For high school introduction to 2D and to 3D art classes, students were to create a work of art themed around memory. The only other requisite for this project was that 2D had to create a collage, while 3D had to create paper sculptures. Everyone was encouraged to interpret the theme of memory however they pleased. Some chose to illustrate memory loss, others examined the troubling memories of soldiers, and a few students drew upon their dreams and nightmares. Below you can find images of them working, as well as beautiful picture of their final projects. Everyone worked extremely hard and it shows in their meaningful, thoughtful, and symbolic work.

This student did her project on phosphenes, or colors and lights you see behind you eyes -- especially when you rub them. Very cool and abstract idea.

 

Here's a picture of a student as he's finding his grandparents' wedding announcement in the old newspapers (from the 1960s) we were using for collage. He cut out the announcement and brought it home for his family. What a cool coincidence!

This student based her project on memories of the American Civil Rights movement. The gray flowers represent African Americans, while the more colorful flowers represent the oppressive majority. The gray color embodies how African Americans "were not allowed to express themselves freely" and often "faded into the background and weren't noticed" (quoted from the students' artist statement). She separated the rose flowers and gray flowers to remind the viewer of segregation. Even cooler -- the newspaper she used for this collage was printed during the heart of the Civil Rights era -- the early 1960s. 

 

The coolest paper fish I've ever seen! It's about 3 feet long! A lot of engineering went into the creation of this fish. This student worked tirelessly and it shows!

 

This beautiful project reads left to right and represents memory loss, or the fading of memory over time. Notice how even the background fades to white. Very thoughtful.  

 

Here's the same project from a different angle.

 

 

 

Memory of riding an elephant. Red symbolizes how elephants are endangered in some places and should be protected.

Check out what's inside the pupil...! PS this collage is almost three feet wide!

A collage about New York City ("the city that never sleeps").

 

First Project: Secret Messages

For our first project in middle school art this year, everyone created an abstracted "secret message." Students chose a message, idiom, or quote they thought represented themselves in a positive light. Students then wrote the message in all capitals, and using markers, filled in the spaces in and around the letters. This created a kind of flat and abstract painting. Many people didn't even realize the works of art contained words (which means our messages truly are "secret!"). Take a look!