O'My, O'Keeffe!

And with one whole week still left of school, this is pretty much how I feel right now...

OVER IT.  Pretty sure my students and I are counting down the days in a BIG way.  The days lately have been perfect summer days and being cooped up inside is tough.  So we've been going out to our butterfly gardens and doing a lot of nature sketching with chalk.

Our last artists of the month this year were Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe.  We read Through Georgia's Eyes to kick off our study of Georgia in 1st grade and 4th grade.

The Fourth Graders studied the work of Lauren Fensterstock, an artist whose work I had previously seen at the Kohler Arts Center last summer.  I also attended a fantastic workshop studying her pieces while at the NAEA convention this year too!  Her work will blow your mind.  She sticks to mostly black paper and will throw in some mirrors amongst her intense quilled installations.

Seriously, research her if you get the chance.  Her pieces fill up and take over a room in such a remarkable way.  They have this crazy effect of "creeping" around a room's perimeter.

My Fourth Graders borrowed inspiration from Lauren Fensterstock to create their Georgia gardenscapes.  Each gardenscape had to address the following criteria:

- at least 5 quilled pieces
- the foreground, midground, and background
- elements from Georgia's paintings
- a clay skull

I had a bazillion scraps of white paper stored in my hoarding boxes,  so we looked specifically at O'Keeffe's Cow Skull with Calico Roses, as this piece features the black and white contrast we were trying to achieve.

Check out our Georgia gardenscapes below:

The student above created a mini bed for Georgia on the roof, just like hers since she would climb onto her roof to sleep at night.

I'm digging the pop-out sun in this one!

And my little First Grade friends, created their own versions of O'Keeffe's Sky Above the Clouds (housed locally at our very own Art Institute).  

This piece is HUGE in real life, measuring about 8 feet by 24 feet.

Now, our pieces weren't that big, but we used about 16" x 20" paper for our skies.

After folding our papers in half, we used cool colors on one half and warm colors on the other.  Clouds were added the next class.  I had students paint big and little clouds on a separate sheet of paper too.  The big clouds were used for bulletin board decor and the littles as pop-outs on our paintings.

Welp, that's all for now folks.  More artwork coming your way soon, don't worry!

Rockin' Rauschenberg with First Grade.

I adore all things Robert Rauschenberg and after my recent travels to Palm Springs (post the NAEA convention in San Diego), I got to check out a few of his pieces.

Now, I didn't snap any photos while at the museum as it was verboten, but he was one interesting dude.

Rauschenberg was born in 1925, but didn't start delving into art until 1947 while serving as a Marine.  He became disenchanted with the Abstract Expressionists and wanted to find his own style, so he started experimenting with found objects in his work.

Monogram, 1959

Monogram (see above) was one of Rauschenberg's first combines using strange found objects to create an assembled piece.  The work consists of a stuffed goat, a tire, a tennis ball, part of a shoe, and paint.

Rebus, 1955

I also shared some images of works like Rebus, which are good examples of Rauschenberg integrating 3-dimensional objects into 2-dimensional paintings.  My First grade students loved trying to spy what objects and materials Rauschenberg used in his pieces.

Now, as you have gathered by now, true to the spirit of art teachers everywhere, I am a serious hoarder.  I recently acquired a large donation of mat board pieces from my aunt-in-law, who snagged them from a local frame shop.  They came in all different colors and textures, and I pulled out the scraps with the most texture for our project.

So, I chopped up these pieces into our "canvases" and we got busy with our "combines."  Sorry guys, no stuffed goats or tires in our pieces!

I also collect the castoff papers from the teacher copier in my hoarding closet(s), and we used these to create four stick bridges.   The first graders had to roll up their papers into little pretzel sticks, dot down some glue, and then sing the first verse of "The Star Spangled Banner" every time they were gluing both sides to make sure the sticks stuck.

Needless to say, I have never heard so many strange versions of our national anthem.  "By my dog's early light" and "the Skittles still screaming" were some of the many gems I overheard.

We used only the primary colors of our tempera paints to first paint our backgrounds, then our pretzel bridges.  Mixing AND weaving in one project??? Yeahhhh buddy!

                                                

Next class, we wove the following into our looms:

How do ya like those mad technology skills?  Yep, that's right, nothing beats a whiteboard, scotch tape, and some visual examples.

                                             

Some students chose to do more than 2-3 of each objects, which was a-okay with me.

This little guy was so inspired by our singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" whilst gluing, that he went all Jasper Johns up in this Art Room and incorporated the flag into his painting.

This little artist below didn't quite "get" the weaving component, but his final piece definitely has a Rauschenberg assemblage vibe about it, don't ya think?

Until next time, rock your Rauschenbergs!

Every Hedgehog Has Its Thorns.

The fox has many tricks.  The hedgehog has but one.  But that is the best of all.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Remember how I said foxes are the new owl of the fashion world?  Well, now I'm going to have to eat crow, because hedeghogs are fast approaching!

I keep seeing these little guys pop up at my local Anthro, and while 50 bucks seems like a lot for something to wipe dog poop off my boots, hedgies are pretty darn cute.  I can't get enough of them, and I sure do have fond memories of long car rides playing a handheld game with this speedy little hedgehog...

To introduce my 1st graders to this lesson, we read Jan Brett's Hedgie's Surprise.  I have adored Brett's books since childhood, as her Scandinavian illustrations are always reminiscent of my own Danish heritage.

This book is a fantastic read aloud due to the illustrations full of exciting details and little side vignettes, plus, my 1st grade artists loved making predictions as to how Hedgie was going to save the day for dear Henny.

Our 1st grade hedgehogs were constructed using the pinch pot method to create a turtle shell effect.  Students then pulled out the snout and added the eyes and prickles using a toothpick and a fork.  The final touch was the cute little round nose.

Before:

Annnnnnd After:

One little ombre fellow

Love this little chocolate chip hedgie!

Eeeeek! In my completely biased opinion, I think they are so darn cute.  I want to take them all home and put them around my tulip garden (once we kick this darn winter outta here).

Stick around (get it?) as there will be more fun projects coming soon!

Old Yeller.

"I made a picture of my dog, because, well....sigh...my mom kind of hates our dog because sometimes he makes bad choices.  Actually a lot.  I wanted to show her how good he can be when I walk him."

- a Devoted Dog-Owning First Grade Artist