What does the landscape say about YOU?

Happy Friday! In honor of the weekend, I’d like to share with you a unit that I recently finished with a group of Art I students. This unit explored the connection between the concept of IDENTITY and landscape. (Of course, at the heart of the lesson was artful explorations–both of the natural environment and SELF).

Prior to beginning their main project, students began thinking about their own identity through the creation of Identity Thumbprints. For this mini-assignment, I asked the students to either A.) Think of a song that they relate with; or B.) Write out words that describe who they are. They then selected 5-8 words to STYLIZE. Finally, they drew the lines for a thumbprint and wrote their words along the lines. Here are a few finished works:

 

For the second mini-explorations, students went outside to do a little nature sketching. For this assignment, I asked students to fold their paper into thirds. In the first section, they were asked to fill the space with CONTOUR LINE DRAWINGS. The middle section was to be filled with BLIND CONTOUR LINE DRAWINGS. And last of all, the final section was filled with BOTH contour and blind contour line drawings. After they had finished their sketches, we returned to the classroom, where students added shading, textures, and patterns to at least 4 different areas of their drawings. In addition, they had the task of connecting all three sections together. Here are a few examples:

After exploring both their own identity and the landscape, students began working on their own IDENTITY LANDSCAPES. For this mixed media project, students were given the freedom to express themselves through whatever art media they wished to use.

A few students chose to work directly from their nature sketches. Most, however, decided to create their own abstractions, using some of the shapes and forms they had studied in their sketches. The results–and concepts BEHIND the results–were fantastic! Here are a few finished projects:

 

The students seemed to really stay engaged with this project. In fact, many of the students would ask to take their projects home to work on, or they would come in outside of class, asking to work on their projects. That, in-and-of-itself is a victory for art! Giving students the opportunity to explore art media and concepts in their OWN ways provides them the opportunity to truly learn–and discover the art medium that really works for them!

I hope you enjoy this lesson–and if you decide to try it, let me know! I’d love to hear about it.

‘Til later…happy explorations!

PowerPoint Animations!

Happy Thursday!

In just two days, I will be presenting at a Texas Art Education Association conference! The theme for this conference is all about technology, so I will be presenting about both video art (see my previous Video Art Nature Challenge) and animation and some ways that these art media can be used to help students explore their local environment (schools, communities, surrounding nature).

What do you think of this as an image for my business cards?

Along with presenting a few of my video lessons inspired by my nature challenge, I will also be facilitating a hands-on workshop in which participants will be creating animations using Microsoft Powerpoint. Have any of you tried this before? It’s really simple..and very addicting!

In case any of you are interested in giving it a try, check out the Animation Handout I created for the workshop participants. This will also give you a head start on next month’s Nature Art  Challenge (April 1-April 7), as we will be focusing on exploring the natural environment through ANIMATION!

‘Til later…happy explorations!

Nature Art Challenge: DAY ONE!!

Today marks the beginning of this month’s nature challenge: Exploring the natural world through ENVIRONMENTAL ART! After completing my first day of the challenge, I can already tell that I am going to learn a great deal over the next week–SO exciting!

For today’s challenge, I decided to focus my attentions on the concept of death in the natural world. Dead branches and twigs scattered on the ground do not tend to draw as much attention as the trees themselves. Yet these branches were once a part of these beautiful, majestic, and vivacious trees. Once a branch or leaf has fallen to the ground, it seems to lose some of that connection to the larger body of the living tree–becoming a part of the ground. So, with these thoughts in mind, my environmental installation for the day sought to explore the connection that still exists between fallen branches and leaves and the living trees from which they fall.

Here’s the result of my efforts:

For those of you participating in the challenge, I encourage you to find something that is often overlooked in nature that you might highlight through it’s placement in your chosen site and natural colors and shapes you find in the area.

‘Til tomorrow…Happy Explorations!

Working with Textures in Nature: Charla Puryear

Looks like the holidays and my work load got the best of me–managing to pull me away from a new post for an entire week! My sole consolation is that I will soon be posting for a week straight–as the time for another Nature Challenge draws near!

In the meantime, I’d like to share with you the work of another environmental artist, Charla Puryear. As both a painter and sculptor, Charla Puryear works with the natural textures found in nature–particularly the surfaces of rocks.

Through the art of “frottage,” or rubbing, Puryear creates beautiful paintings and images.

To create these images, she wraps a piece of canvas around a rock or tree, applies paint to the canvas, and then by rubbing transfers the texture of the object onto the canvas.

She writes, “This image provides the sketch for my painting, which is completed in my studio. This painting process is my way of documenting nature, partnering with it, amplifying its voice and sharing it with others.”

Often, Puryear will leave her subjects (trees, rocks,etc) wrapped in canvas for days or weeks in order to allow for interactions with the natural elements.

Click on the link provided above to view more of her works. Her work illustrates a wonderful example of a way in which TEXTURES within the natural world might be artfully explored.

Tomorrow I will post more about my next Nature Challenge, which will begin on Thursday, December 1!

‘Til then…Happy Monday!

Nature Sketch Challenge- DAY THREE!

Onto the third day of my nature sketch challenge! If you didn’t get a change to try drawing flowers with only ONE type of mark, give it a try sometime! I found it to be incredibly frustrating and difficult, as I naturally wanted to use more than one type of mark in order to better record my observations. That being said, today’s challenge is what I was begging for yesterday!

Drawing a Flower From 5 Different Perspectives

Select a flower, or some other type of LIVING plant to be your subject. This time, draw your subject from at least 5 different PERSPECTIVES (side view, bottom, top, etc). You may use several different types of marks for these drawings.

The goal of this exercise is to study the shapes and forms that you observe in your subject and to learn how to effectively use combinations of mark making techniques.

Happy Sketching! I will post my sketch later this evening!

Today’s Sketch:

National Arts in Education Week!

Although the week is already halfway over, I thought it pertinent to mention that this week is “Arts in Education Week!”–as designated by a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in July of 2010. This is an awesome initiative and is key to increasing support and recognition for the arts as “a core academic subject and an essential element of a complete and balanced education for all students.”

To learn more about this resolution, check out their webpage:  Arts Education Partnership : : Arts in Education Week.