Nature Animation Challenge: DAY SEVEN!

Once again we have come to the end of another nature challenge! It has been a very interesting seven days of exploration and learning, as we went through the animation process to explore some aspect of the natural world.

For today’s challenge, I finalized my animation, putting together all of the still images taken yesterday, which ended up coming to about 150 frames. While the standard fps (frames per second) rate for all hand-drawn animations and motion pictures is 24fps, many web animations are shot at 12-15 fps (which is the standard rate for quality television animation). If you’d like to read more about timing and pacing in animations, check out this great article!

And now, onto my animation! Due to time constraints of this challenge, my finished animation moves at a rate of approximately 4-5 fps (which accounts for the jerkier movements). Check it out:

Given more time, I definitely could have worked to make the movements more smooth. Overall, I felt like this was a successful nature challenge and time of exploration. After this challenge, I can definitely see potential applications for artful explorations into the movements in the natural world. (If I get around to it in the coming weeks, I will try to post other lesson/project ideas involving animation!)

I hope you all enjoyed this month’s challenge as much as I did! As always, if you participated in the challenge and would like to share your results, I’d love to see them!

‘Til later…happy explorations!

 

Weaving and Storytelling: A Beautiful Combination!

Happy Friday! After a busy week on my feet, it feels so wonderful to kick back, relax, and check out new artists and ideas out there!

Here are a couple of wonderful blogs that I happened across:

New City Arts

The Crafty Crow

If you click on the above link for New City Arts’ blog, you will be able to read more about this awesome weaving project they did with third grade artists. While studying the ancient art of weaving and its connection to the art of storytelling, students created their own stories using colors and patterns in a weaving. Here are a few of the students’ weavings:

This is such a wonderful idea for a lesson–and it’s just brimming with possibilities for artful explorations into the natural environment! My creative gears are already set in motion!

Enjoy browsing through some of the other projects on these blogs! And I hope you are able to step outside to enjoy a little fresh air and natural beauty this weekend!

‘Til later…happy explorations!

Environmental Art Lesson in Action!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to teach a group of second graders about environmental artist, Andy Goldsworthy, and the process of creating environmental art! The lesson was absolutely fantastic. The students really enjoyed getting to explore their school grounds in search of their “art supplies” and remained engaged throughout the lesson. At the end of the lesson, we took a tour of the student works–each student taking a moment to tell the rest of the class about the materials they chose and the significance of their work. 

Given more time, this lesson has the potential to rock EVEN FURTHER, as students could explore the concept of time and decay, as well as the important role that photography plays in environmental art installations.

But, for being a guest teacher for a 40 minute class period, I’d say the lesson turned out nicely! Here are a few of the students’ works that were created in a span of about 15 minutes: 

Many students liked Andy Goldsworthy’s explorations of circles, holes, and spirals, as was evident in their finished works.

Goldsworthy also explores lines and use of color. One of his processes that we discussed in class was his long leaf lines and “tapestries” that he creates by threading the stems of leaves together. Several students experimented with this process in their works.

A few recommendations that I would make regarding outdoor environmental art making with students (particularly those of younger ages):

-Assign each student a specific area to be their art making zone. They can leave this area to gather supplies, but should spend most of their time working on their installations in their area.

-Discuss boundaries for gathering supplies (How far can they go to find supplies? Should they only use things that they find on the ground, or can they pick leaves/flowers?)

-Toss out ideas for different uses of materials while they are working, such as weaving leaves together, ripping leaves into pieces, focusing on certain colors or shapes, or outlining things with colors or lines to make them stand out.

If given another day with this class, I would have loved to take them back outside to observe the changes in their works! 

Overall a great project, brimming with possibilities!

Happy Friday

 

Arts for the Earth!

This morning I came across this amazing education program, titled “Arts for the Earth.” This initiative strives to teach sustainability and environmental education through the arts, as well as develop more arts-based environmental curricula for all educators to use in their classrooms!

Their website page titled, “Incorporating Environment-Based Art in Schools and After School Programs” contains a wealth of ideas and multiple lesson plans supporting environmental education through multiple art disciplines (studio art, music, drama, writing).  I particularly enjoyed Ashley Schopieray’s lesson plan concerning “Green Art” and recycling. While she proposed that this project is suitable for grades 9-12, I believe the lesson could be easily adapted for younger grades as well.

Happy browsing!

Environmental Art at Umlauf Sculpture Gardens

Last fall, as a part of the TAEA (Texas Art Education Association) Conference, I attended a workshop at the Umlauf Sculpture Gardens in Austin, Texas. Home to the sculptural works of 20th century artist, Charles Umlauf and other contemporary sculptors, the lush grounds of The Umlauf are a perfect place for explorers’ minds to wander freely. As described on their website,

“The Umlauf is the perfect place for visitors of all ages to get comfortable with sculpture and with museums, especially if traditional museum rules make you nervous (Stand still! Be quiet!). Outside in the xeriscape garden you can walk by a sculpture, or walk all the way around it. Sit and enjoy expansive views, or simply savor a single sculpture. You can listen to the birds and the waterfall, or watch the water flow between the two ponds and under the wooden bridges.”

It is in this lush garden that the environmental art workshop took place. The director of The Umlauf, Sheila, began with an introduction to environmental art–showing a slideshow of environmental art by artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, Nils-Udo, and Robert Smithson. She then gave each attendee a brown paper bag and 20 minutes to find natural supplies and a site for our own environmental art installation. She gave us no restrictions–we could pick leaves, sticks, grass and berries, dig in the dirt, move rocks, and set up our installations anywhere we wanted. The only stipulations were that our supplies had to fit in our bags and we could not use any “man-made” materials. At the end of 20 minutes, we walked around the garden, stopping at each installation while the artist talked about their work and took a digital photograph of their artwork.

At the end of the lesson, Sheila downloaded all of the images onto a cd, which was given to each participant.

This is a fantastic lesson that I’ve been itching to use ever since experiencing it myself! Not only are students learning about the processes of environmental artists and learning to talk about their artwork, but they are also taking a closer look at the elements that make up their surrounding natural environment–learning about the native plants, geology, and living creatures as they create new meanings from these objects.