Environmental Art: Vermont Winter Inspirations

One thing led to the next, and in the end, a duo of snow artists completed work on a new kind of snow sculpture. 

The project started over the weekend in "C's" front yard, after the two threw snowballs at a tree and noticed that it stuck – this gave them the idea of adding more and more snow and covering the tree as high and low as they could reach. Then, in the manner of environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy, "T" photographed the work from several angles and brought the photos to me the next day.

In a learner-directed studio program such as ours, this sort of independent artistic problem-posing and awareness to artistic possibility provide fruitful "emergent curriculum" which can be developed further in the classroom setting.

Encuastic

The pink cloud series by "Z," Grade 7

This month, students are exploring the ancient art of encaustic painting. Encaustic, meaning "to burn in," is a very old technique and was used by ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman artists. The process is still in use by practicing artists today. In fact, as part of our exploration, we discovered an encaustic painter who lives in California. Students started a correspondence with him, and gained both information an inspiration from the exchange. Check out Ben Hecht's webpage, www.benhecht.com to see his amazing collection of giant wave paintings.

Inspired by Hecht's work, some students took photographs of our Vermont winter landscape and used these original images as a starting place for encaustic landscape paintings. 

6th grade "H" working with and from a photograph she composed from the landscape out the art room window

 

Students remembered that Hecht re-melts his wax pigments with an iron, to blend the colors, after initially applying colors with a brush. Students thought a hair dryer might serve a similar purpose, and be a little safer for our studio. Today  this additional technique was tested  out with favorable results.

15 panel painting by "L," grade 7

  Many thanks to those who have donated crayons for our experiments with encaustic painting, and for the recent donation of our new hairdryer!

Plans for tomorrow

Gateway from art studio - (quote from 5th grade girl)

My new crop of 5^th graders is starting to get the hang of things. I get a new group every quarter, and while the first group arrived all ready to go -go -go, this group has been more tentative in some ways. We still have one more center to open, and only about 2 weeks left until art is over for them until next year. But late last week I heard a student say, as she left the room: “I know exactly what I'm going to do tomorrow,” and I did a little silent cheer. Hooray for a place where  children's plans set the course for learning.

Grade 5 getting to it

One of the BEST things about Choice-Based Art is the predictable studio setting. Students know what materials, tools and resources are available for them each day. Much of an artist's planning takes place outside of the studio setting, while walking the dog or riding in the backseat. Ideas hatched with friends on the bus or dreamed up before bedtime can be brought to fruition during art class. Students know their ideas are supported and that they can work at their own pace in their own way. 

A new way to paint (Click to Play)

It used to be that students would arrive for art class and ask me “what are we doing today?” Now they tumble through the door and beg “can we just get right to work?”

juxtaposition

 

JUXTAPOSITION: the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side; also : the state of being so placed

"Going Deep"

What does "going deep" look like in a choice-based art program?

6th-Grader "M" at the wheel

Since students choose which "center" they will work in and what tools, materials and techniques to employ, they sometimes find they have an affinity for a certain medium or process and stay with it a while. When this happens, students have the opportunity to "go deep."

Family Portrait by"H" Grade 7

Sometimes specialization results in new innovations and other times in true mastery. I have seen this happen in the Clay center, when a student falls in love with clay, or in the Sculpture center, working with found objects. Printmakers who tough it out are rewarded with a unique experience only this technique offers. Students who stay with a line of artistic inquiry often become classroom experts and can offer advise or provide inspiration for others. 

Sometimes this happens in an "ah ha" moment, when a student realizes that they can accomplish something new. Other times, serendipity steps in, as when one material pushes up against another and passively suggests a new idea. 

 I am watching this happening with a new crop of 5th graders. One student has moved beyond the mere mechanics of the paper-making technique I demonstrated to all and is nudging this process toward the expression of ideas.

Paper scraps are sorted into color families, to facilitate color-mixing practice

Handmade paper, by "A" grade 5

Papermaking is a fairly mechanical artmaking process. It always surprises and delights me when a student jumps from being merely an alchemist, mixing magic pulp-potions, to being and artist who communicates an idea. That is what happened last week when a student moved paper from a 2D process to a 3D experience (photo above - featuring a 3rd-year papermaker), and again when the pages from a discarded children's book came in close contact with colors of the night sky.

Text and color used by this 8th grade artist to convey meaning

Conertible Art

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The idea for interchangeable heads and bodies started with a classmate. Here, wood scraps are fashioned into figure-tops that slip into a base.

 

 The base holds one,

         or the other, 

                                          or both! 

November is for the Birds

By L" grade 7

As we head off for Thanksgiving break, and in honor of Tom Turkey, I thought I would take a moment to highlight some of the feathered friends that have populating the art studio recently.

Newspaper, feathers and tape - by "G" grade 6

Tempera painting by "J" Grade 6 "I dream to do daring things in art."

"The Puzzler" by "D" grade 7