Artists make art about what they love, or what they are fascinated with, or what they are knowledgeable about, or what they are wondering about. They make art to tell a story, or share a point a view. Artists make art from memories, observations and their imagination. Much middle school art seems to fall in the category of “tribute art” – art in honor of favorite sports, favorite teams and favorite players.
This artist loves basketball. He loves basketball so much that he painstakingly clipped the rounded ends of dozens of popsicle sticks and laid them down to make a parquet floor – staggering them, on a classmate’s suggestion, to match the craftsmanship of the real courts he admires. A nice thick coat of glue was added for shine (still drying in this photo, so still a little cloudy) and the tribute to b-ball was complete.
Work in Progress, by "M," Grade 8
We sometimes look at artmaking in the CBMS studio through the lens of 8 Studio Habits of Mind (Hetland et al, 2007). This project is a good example of (at least) 3 of these:
• Envision
• Develop Craft
• Engage and Persist