This is a Collage that a Teacher Might Relate to!

I was reading a blog this morning from the TAB (teaching for artistic behaviors) blog. The blog was a lively discussion of "how-to's" in creating collages- how to teach children to put these together, what kind of glue, how do you work with overlap, etc. I believe that collages are an excellent way to use the process of thinking in order to create. You cannot do a collage- you have to create a collage.

There is alot a thinking involved. All of the elements and principles you know are involved in this creation. As an added bonus, the process of creating a collage is a "flow" activity...time passes...and more time passes...in an absorbing activity that stimulates your artistic muscles.

This collage is called "Disruption", and pictures a physics class in action. The student on the right is examining her nails, while the "good" student on the left has the answer and is poised to write it on the blackboard. I really had fun with this one.

I wonder how long students will know what a blackboard is. Aren't whiteboards the way of today?

The Progress of One Painting

Here is a little film (less than one minute) showing the progression in a painting-. It's fun to see how someone goes about beginning a painting, especialy one as different as this one. She has an unusual sense of color, and is not afraid to be expressive in its use. see what you think-

At first I uploaded this video with beautiful music, thinking it was for education and under the time limit... so it was taken off. Does anyone have any good sources for free music downloads that are not copyrighted? Share the url please!

Something Diffferent

If everyone had as much fun as the two girls who painted this, it would be great. They produced this piece with alot of conversation and shared decision making (and a lot of noise and giggling). A little paint flinging, too. Sometimes it is just good to have plain old fun in art class!

This student would prefer to add her own description, so I am awaiting her words!

When only Colored Pencil will do-

This free-standing building was engineered entired by its 7 year old artist, Barb, who figured she wanted it standing by itself. You can't tell but the car is also freestanding.

This is what it is like to live on a hill in the city. Absolutely only colored pencil was used for this drawing. Although I made many suggestions, virtually all of them were ignored. Some children have an intense desire to build and create and express themselves without censure. Barb is one passionate artist!

Painting inspired by life under the sea

This painting took a couple of classes to complete and really is an interesting work. It was inspired by browsing through a book about undersea oddities. It ended up looking like a network of lines and colors that are quite beautiful and abstract.

The effect of the larger pink (ish) lines and the small pink lines intersecting the blue/green backgrounds created a deep sense of space. It was alot of fun watching the painting unfold, as only the artist knew the direction the painting would take.

The vastness of the sense of space created by this 5th grade student might be the envy of adult artists.

Raise your Hand if You LOVE giraffes!

There must be alot of people out there who think that giraffes are wonderful animals. This whimsical one was created with papier mache technique. What a great way to use a paper plate (the lips). Actually this head goes with an entire papier mache body that makes this giraffe almost 4 feet high. Before he left the art room he was dressed formally in a dotted tie that matched the dots on his body.