Happy Birthday Paul Klee!

"One eye sees, the other feels." -Paul Klee

I'm not sure how he got his other eye to do that! Mine just see, although I'm pretty grateful they do that. This birthday boy was born Dec 18th, 1879 in Switzerland. And the artist himself provided us with the perfect birthday painting: 

It's just missing candles and a cake. He's really a fantastically fun artist to teach to kids because of his bright colors and simple shapes and his love of children's art. Everybody likes feeling appreciated and validated and he totally saw children's art as valuable, preferable even possibly when it comes to imagination and creativity. 

 I've used his "Head of a Man" painting before to draw fun self-portraits by tracing a circular plate for the outline and then dividing the face and neck into simple geometric shapes. We used oil pastels to get bright colors - you could even recommend trying different color schemes like warm for the face and cool for the background. Try to get them to really simplify and not worry about even including all the normal facial features or about symmetry. Some kids might take issue with leaving themselves bald but no worries, it's up to them! The goal isn't to copy Klee's head but to start with his idea and make it your own. For younger kids: be silly! For older kids: work at making it feel balanced and practice your technique. Can you get a feeling across in such a simplified form? How can you use the other principles of art to work for you?

However, my really favorite project can be found here on my personal art blog. It was a BIG hit. 

Guess Who in Two #2

I'm super excited to introduce you to our new mystery artist. But he or she really needs no further introduction, since it's all in the video anyway. Let me know if you guessed it!

What was your favorite fact about our mystery artist? 

For additional and current information, check out these articles:

"David's Ankles: How Imperfections Could Bring Down the World's Most Perfect Statue"

"Leonardo or ___________: Who is the Greatest?"

"The Hidden Meaning of _________'s Creation of Adam"

"Art and Symbolism: The Creation of Adam"

Also, I definitely recommend the book "______________ and the Pope's Ceiling" for serious students. Not a quick read by any means but FASCINATING details about the artist, his methods, the times, the Catholic Church, and anything else at all possibly related. Lots of stuff I haven't found anywhere else.

Happy Birthday Edvard Munch!

All right, so this is not one of the most festive of projects with which to celebrate but Happy Birthday anyway man! Ha. Munch was born December 12, 1863 in Norway and died there in 1844. Norway's pretty fond of the guy. No offense guys, but they don't have a lot of world famous artists to brag about. He never married, called his paintings his children and said, "For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art." Again not a happy birthday thought, but a really serious issue many people struggle with in their lives. Kudos to him for being willing to talk about it and for finding a way to let it out.

Here are some of my favorites of his works that aren't The Scream:

Dance on the Shore

Train Smoke

Melancholy

The Sun - a huge mural

I have wanted to do this project on The Scream by Edvard Munch (not pronounced munch, more like munk) ever since I saw it on Pinterest years ago but have never managed to get around to it. So glad I finally did! Here are some fun or interesting facts I learned about the artist and his incredibly famous painting:

- the first version of The Scream was painted without a figure in front! Can you imagine how much less attention it would've received if that was also his final version?

- The Scream does not refer to the figure standing in the front. It's nature that's screaming. Munch wrote, "I was walking along the road with two of my friends. The sun set. The sky became a bloody red. And I felt a touch of melancholy. I stood still, dead tired. Over the blue-black fjord and city hung blood and tongues of fire. My friends walked on. I stayed behind, trembling with fright. I felt the great scream in nature."

- The Scream was embarrassingly stolen, a horrible blow to national pride revealed during the opening ceremonies of the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer. In 50 seconds. The thieves left a note, which read, "thanks for poor security." One of my students said "that sure was snotty!" It was thankfully recovered although the thieves got off on a technicality.

- 10 years later, it was stolen again! In daylight by men in ski masks with weapons. It took them about 20 seconds! They didn't take as good of care of the masterpiece and it was pretty badly damaged when it was recovered two years later. 

- M & M launched a campaign to sell dark chocolate M & Ms using the popularity of The Scream because of the second theft, unveiled like a masterpiece at the Guggenheim, and promised a reward of 2 million dark chocolate M & Ms as a reward for its return.

- The Scream sold for $119.9 million in 2012, during a recession!

I used these books: Famous Works of Art and How They Got That Way, Edvard Munch, The Modern Life of the Soul (has lots of great images to share), and Get Into Art People, Discover Great Art and Create Your Own! 

We then studied a few different versions of The Scream, noting the intense "blood-red sunset," the way his lines flow and the variety of color in every part of the painting. They recreated it with Nupastels and glued the picture of them self screaming on top. 

My first group:

The second group:

I so rarely have students try to copy a painting but I love how different these turned out while still being the same. And with all of them having the same 12 colors to choose from, while doing them side by side. And they had a blast, so I win!

This next year, I might try to do projects that try to achieve that amazing smoothness in some of the above paintings or the feeling in others. I'll let you know.

Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci (project 2)

So we ran into ridiculous difficulties making this video, such as the neighbor's lawn mower. Don't even ask my husband about the times he spent double digit hours editing it, just to have it disappear or not open or revert or any of the other horrible things that haunt his dreams. But I think it's worth it! This project is a really cool combination of art and math, proportion and fractions, beauty and calculations. I love it when subjects naturally cross over and I especially love it when I get the chance to show how cool and difficult art is and how it's completely connected to every other subject. Here are a list of the proportions Leonardo recorded, as mentioned in the video:

1. Arm span = Height

2. Head x 8 = Height

3. Forearm x 4 = Height

4. Foot x 6 = Height

5. Shoulders x 4 = Height

6. Hand x 10 = Height

Extras:
1/3 Face = Chin to Nostrils = Nostrils to Eyebrows = Eyebrows to Hairline = Ear
Palm = Width of 4 Fingers
Foot = Width of 4 Palms
Height = 24 Palms
Elbow to Armpit = 1/8 Height
Bottom of Neck to Hairline = 1/6 Height
Middle of Chest to top of Head = 1/4 Height
Palm Width (NOT hand) = 1/24 Height
So without further ado, here's the video friends:

And you know how I said if you make somebody's head too big, they'll resemble an alien or a baby? The opposite is true as well. If you make a baby's head too small in comparison to it's body, they'll look like a creepy, little adult that has some sort of Benjamin Button thing going on. Just ask Giotto, who painted this Madonna and Child about 150 years before Leonardo was painting Virgin of the Rocks:

For more history about the namesake of the Vitruvian Man, click here.

Should Leonardo not be getting all the credit for his Vitruvian Man? Was it a result of collaboration or worse, copying? See what the Smithsonian has to say here.
For more in-depth conversation about the mathematical measurements, click here.
For an interesting video by James Earle (unfortunately not James Earle Jones) about the Vitruvian Man's place in the universe, click here.

Happy birthday Faith Ringgold!

 This is one of those rare times where we get to celebrate a really cool, deserving, award-winning famous artist who is still alive! So Happy 86th Birthday Mrs. Ringgold! She was born in New York October 8th, 1930. She got her degree in art education, taught art in public schools and then went back to get her MA all while raising her two daughters and developing her own art. So naturally, she's a hero to me. She was also a big civil rights activist and women's rights activist, ideals she promoted through her art! Over the years she has painted, sculpted, made masks, designed posters, created dolls, produced textile arts, and written books. This children's book, which you should be able to find in your local library or buy it here on Amazon, based on one of her narrative quilts is fantastic:

It's so imaginative and whimsical. Really resonates with kids. She has a great website here where you can learn more about her, sing her song, and read a story. And here's a great video where the artist herself explains the making of the Tar Beach story quilt. Such a treat to get to see a real artist explaining her work! And here's a recent article on her art career where she tells most of the story herself.

And finally, a painting/quilting project to honor and celebrate Faith Ringgold! We had a blast with it! I first spent the night before cutting out little 1 inch x 1 inch squares of a variety of scrap fabric. We of course started out by reading the book and talking about the artist. Then we talked about places that we would like to fly over to make our own. I gave each of the kids a piece of construction paper and had them paint themselves flying over the place they would most like to have be theirs and then we wrote the words, "If I could fly..." at the top. Then the younger kids gathered fabric squares and glued them around the edges of their paper to make it look more like a quilt. The older kids who wanted to, took the time to then add some stitching with embroidery thread on top of the fabric to give it an extra authentic look.

Here's two examples:

Artist age 4

Artist age 8

It would be great to follow this up with a writing assignment titled, "If I could fly..." She would also make a great person to learn more about for a biography report, which would pair well with all sorts of history lessons. Anyway, I've never had the privilege of seeing any of her art in person, but when I make it to the Guggenheim someday, I'll be certain to look her up! Happy Birthday Mrs. Ringgold!

Happy Belated Birthday Alma Thomas!

I believe I actually discovered Alma Thomas thanks to Pinterest. See?! All those hours I've spent losing myself in a Pinterest vortex were worth it! Ha. No probably not, but I do really love Alma Thomas. And I have to admit that I missed the chance to post this on her actual birthday, so here is a Happy Belated Birthday to Alma Thomas (9/22)! I just couldn't stand to miss it (although technically I suppose I did miss it) because this is one of my favorite lessons of all-time. So let's begin with a little background on our famous, but little-known artist.

Alma Woodsey Thomas is another inspiring artist, who like Grandma Moses, didn't get her start until later in life. She taught art for 38 years in Washington D.C., and occasionally showed her work in shows featuring African American artists, but didn't begin to paint seriously until she was 69 (she was born in 1891 so what year would that have been?). However, by then she had painful arthritis, which made painting difficult. Most people would've given up at this point but when a museum wanted to display her art, she went about creating a new, more abstract style with bright pure color in shapes or lines that still hinted at natural forms.  Instead of telling you what her art does or how it makes you feel, why don't you take a look at the following images (and find lots more online) and pretend to be an art critic writing an article about her for the paper? Have fun and be descriptive!

The Eclipse

Moving Heaven and Earth

Starry Night and the Astronauts

Untitled from Music Series

So when I was preparing the art project, I knew the younger kids in particular would have a super hard time resisting the urge to paint large strokes with their paintbrushes instead of making small dashes close together. No chance most kids would have the self-control to be so deliberate as to leave the nice white lines in between colors. And that's what makes it really pop! So I put away the paintbrushes and got out building blocks:

We looked at examples of her work, talked about what made it unique, and what they should strive for if they wanted their painting to look like hers. I really emphasized her use of repetition and variety. I then demonstrated how to use the blocks to print the shapes on the paper and let them go to town. It worked so well, that I did it the same way for my older group of students, except I gave them Legos so they could make smaller dashes. A few of them resisted, so I let the older students use brushes if they promised to leave white :) Look at how awesome my 8 year-old daughter's turned out:

Later, we tried it again but with gluing pre-cut scraps shapes on. This worked really well too and was good for the pre-K/kindergarten crowd in particular. Here's my son's finished project (it used to have nice, bright colors but has been hanging in a window and the sun sadly bleached them out):  

So much fun! One last cool fact - her painting Resurrection is the first painting by an African American woman to hang in the White House's permanent collection. So Happy Belated Birthday Miss Thomas!

Check out the article here for a more in-depth history.

Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci (project 3)

"Thus if one is to be five times as distant, make it five times bluer." That's what Leonardo wrote about his conclusions or observations about aerial perspective, which we more often call atmospheric perspective in art classes today. It's such a science/mathy way to give art instruction! I'd expect nothing less from our true Renaissance Man. Today's project is a quick and easy one, or it can be used as a warm-up practice for a fabulous painting.

As a good reference point, here is a late medieval Italian painting that didn't use atmospheric perspective:

Look at how flat it looks! And confusing because there are shadows on those mountains that make us want to believe they're 3-D, but... And the people on them are clearly much smaller than those on horses, but... There is no background because the mountains jump forward along with everything else (now it clearly wasn't meant to be completely realistic because the sky is gold, which is seen a lot in Medieval art, so we could be really generous and assume they flattened the scenes on purpose for some reason? Or possibly that they didn't know how to make the background recede so they embraced it and painted the sky gold to look like it was on purpose. Which do you think was the case? Or did they even think of it or care? And if the latter is the case, kudos to them for working with what they had but it's an example of how learning the rules can improve your own art or at least give you more options to work with)!

If you want to follow-up, you're welcome to use my photos as reference:

Or go out and take some of your own! You'll probably notice this marvelous effect more now and wonder why it's "purple mountains majesty" instead of blue. Ah well.

For further study...

Really cool site that shows the "gradual change of color and tone with distance."
An in-depth discussion about atmospheric perspective from The Helpful Art Teacher.
Want to look more into the science of atmospheric or aerial perspective? Go here.
Can you find other artists that really nailed it when it comes to atmospheric perspective? How about any that ignored it/broke the rules? Here is a start. Have fun!

Happy Birthday Grandma Moses!

Grandma Moses is an amazing inspiration to those of us who aren't getting the chance to paint as much as we'd like to or to pursue other interests at this stage of our lives. She didn't even start painting seriously until she was in her late 70s! And was still painting at age 100! So it's never too late to teach an old dog new tricks :) And never too late to make a dream come true.

Anna Mary Robertson was born on Sept 7th in 1860 and lived to be 101. She was born to a family with 10 kids and then had 10 kids of her own! Bless her heart. She turned to painting because somehow she still had energy left after raising her brood and the needlework she had enjoyed became too hard on her aging hands. Despite the late start, she has now become probably the most beloved American folk artist. Amazing.

Here are a couple of my favorites of her paintings:

County Fair

Sugaring Off

Here's a link to a YouTube video that is a slideshow of tons of her paintings. With some good ol' American music to go along with it.

When I taught her at an art camp a couple years ago, we folded a sheet of cardstock in half (hamburger style) to make a greeting card. I had the kids pick their favorite holiday, talked a little about family traditions and had them draw a picture with colored pencils of what their family would be doing on that holiday. They loved it! I think Grandma Moses is great for kids because she's not intimidating. They look at her paintings and feel confident they can do it too. And everybody loves holidays! One of my daughters kept doing extra cards she loved her so much. I did instruct the kids to fill the entire space. We looked at some of her paintings and showed how she did it, and how she had so many different fun things going on. We talked briefly about helping things look like they're in the background by overlapping and then I told them not to worry about it all being perfect but to just let it tell a story. And to have fun as always!

Here's another great Grandma Moses project idea about the four seasons at Harrington Harmonies. I might give it a try this year!

Creativity Exercise: Scribble Exchange

So this is a fun, quick, and easy little creativity activity. As long as you have paper and pencil or pen, you can do it anywhere! It's a great way to keep kids busy when waiting at the doctor's or when trying to keep kids quiet at church. Not that I've ever used it for the latter...we always just sit there and listen perfectly of course. Uh hum. And it's a great way to get that creativity flowing! Which is, perhaps, why the kids are often better at it than I am!

You need a partner and to each have a piece of paper. Both of you draw a quick scribble and then pass your paper to the other person (the scribble really works best if it's simple and quick, not filling in he whole page with lead). Take a few seconds to stare at the scribble you've been handed, trying to see a picture inside of it or what it could be part of, and then make it happen! Here my 9-year old and I exchanged scribbles and turned them into a snouted snail and a plant-eating dinosaur:

Here my 5-year old son and I switched scribbles and turned them into a cool sunglasses guy with a wicked scar, and a "steigacric" otherwise known as a stegosaurus. We'll be working on spelling this school year 😜

And then my 9 year-old and 5 year-old exchanged scribbles and turned them into a werewolf and a horseback rider:

The possibilities are endless! And prone to create giggles. So get your creativity on and have fun!

Inspired by... Leonardo Da Vinci!

Continuing with our first artist, Leonardo da Vinci, I have finished our first project video! It can be a fun, short project for young kids that I can almost promise will get them giggling. For older, more serious students it can be that as well as a longer study that could really improve their observation and drawing skills. I'd recommend getting them a sketchbook if they're really getting into it. But for starters, you'll just need paper, pencil and a partner (or a mirror or camera). It will take anywhere from a few minutes to a whole week to complete! Hope you enjoy!

Inspired by ... Leonardo da Vinci (Project 1):

If you need to use my photos for reference, here they are thanks to my willing volunteer model (although I really recommend drawing from life if you can because it's just a whole different experience to change something 3D into a 2D drawing)!

Also, here's a link to a really fun Mona Lisa parody project that I've done with my kids and students before. They LOVED it. I recommend explaining what a parody is and doing a quick Google search of Mona Lisa parodies. Lots of giggles. My personal favorite is still my daughter's Hulk-A-Lisa. Hahahaha.

Have fun and keep being creative!

Best of the Best: Leonardo da Vinci

Here's my second, longer video on Leonardo da Vinci that goes into more depth on what I believe to be his 5 best artworks. Watch and then let me know if you agree! What would you choose instead? 

For notebooking pages that accompany the "Best of the Best: Leonardo da Vinci" video, click HERE.

But that doesn't have to be the end!

"Art is never finished, only abandoned"

If your learning about Leonardo da Vinci isn't finished yet either, I've compiled lists of places you and your kids can go to read or watch more.

More biographical info:
-For elementary age kids try here
-For focus on his scientific interests try here
-53 interesting facts here

For a whole unit worth of at-home study and activities, "Leonardo da Vinci for kids: His Life and Ideas" is awesome. Buy it here.

For reading about Leonardo in the news:
-Scientists Reveal Cause of Red Spots Ruining Leonardo Da Vinci's Self-Portrait
-Lost Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Found in the Swiss Bank Vault
-An Art World Mystery Worth of Leonardo

Videos to watch:
-Animation about Leonardo and his flying machine
-10 Worst things to happen to the Mona Lisa
-Interested in how science helps solve art mysteries? Watch here
-If you read "The Da Vinci Code" and have some time, watch this documentary to learn the truth

Guess Who in Two: 1

Here is my very first "Guess Who in Two" video! It's my new series where I try to stuff as much information into 2ish minutes while hopefully making it into a fun guessing game. Because art history doesn't have to be boring (despite my personal experiences in college in a dark sleepy room with a slideshow and a monotone voice droning over the microphone)! And there's so many great gems we can learn from these artistic geniuses. I'm having fun making the videos, and hope they're just the beginning of my many ideas coming to fruition. Enjoy and let me know if you have any feedback! Thanks!

And click HERE for a downloadable notebooking page to go along with it! 

Creativity: Coloring Books?

Loving this multi-colored horse and especially
how the brown mane becomes the brown cloud!

When I was getting my degree in Art Education, I was warned against the many evils of coloring books. Ha. No, seriously I was. Apparently they kill creativity because they tell a child the way something is supposed to look (instead of allowing them to come up with their own way of representing it) and teach them to color inside the lines "or else." I'm not entirely certain where the "or else" comes from but I suppose it means or they get in trouble or they'll disappoint or maybe it means or they will lose confidence because they'll recognize that they're bad at what they were supposed to do. I'm grasping at straws here honestly because after having kids, I discovered that coloring books are not in fact "evil." I resisted, as I had been brainwashed, I mean trained to do. I tried to refuse to allow them in my home but somehow they crept in. And I discovered that my 2 year-old loves scribbling all over Elsa's face (get free Elsa printables here). She gets so excited to have a piece of paper with her beloved princess on it, and that excitement moves her to pick up crayons and go to town. And she is thrilled with the results. Sometimes she pokes holes all over the page with a pencil. Sometimes she ends up ripping the center because she goes over the same spot so many times. Honestly, she's doing exactly what she should be doing in the manipulative stage of art development (usually in ages 2-4 or 5). Experimenting with art materials and making her mark on the world. I'd prefer she do it on a blank page so it's all her, but whatever gets her to start experimenting has got to have some good in it, doesn't it?

See how she even carved her name in the side?

Take my 4 year-old. She's currently making her mark everywhere - her bed cover, my wall, a
squash from the farm, whatever she can find. She scribbles, she creates, and she is so proud of everything she does. And she gets super excited to color in an outline of Tinkerbell I print out for her (find some here). Sometimes she tries to color inside the lines, developing her fine motor skills and sometimes she lets loose. Also, she often will bring a coloring book to me and ask me to color with her, on the same page. It is a fabulous bonding moment that always ends in giggles as our crayons collide. It's not about the end product, it's about the process. Is it promoting creativity? Perhaps not, and I guess that's where the supposed "evil" lies. But is it laying a foundation of art experimentation? A habit of adding color to the world? A love of adding their "mark?" Yeah, I think it does.

Grid drawing might not be the most creative way to
draw but super famous creators like Chuck Close 
have used it to create their paintings and it didn't
 keep my daughter from giving Iridessa her own flair! 

I do think there are situations in which coloring books can cause problems. Those would be ridiculous situations in which a child is marked down or criticized for not coloring inside the lines or for "doing a better job." Or when an adult or older child deflates their happiness by informing them that Elsa's skin is not supposed to be purple and that the sky should really be blue. Have you ever seen that happen, whether it's with a completed coloring page or a unique drawing? Oh it's so sad. So just as money is not the root of all evil, the love of it is, coloring books are not the problem, we are. Our response is key. Our attitude may just determine whether they pick that crayon up again or not. Coloring books can be a vehicle to get a child excited, especially one who lacks the confidence to confront a blank page because they don't yet have the skills to properly compose what they see in their heads. It would be a problem if coloring books were their only exposure to "art making" (And don't even get me started on adults calling their coloring in the recently trendy adult coloring books "art"). Coloring books can relieve tension and can be good-old-fashioned screen-free fun. In fact, I'd venture to say that coloring books only squash creativity when we take the creative part (i.e. purple-skinned Elsa) away as an option.

Argument for Arts #1: Opening Our Eyes

"To my young friends out there: Life can be great, but not when you can't see it. So, open your eyes to life: to see it in the vivid colors that God gave us as a precious gift to His children, to enjoy life to the fullest, and to make it count. Say yes to your life."  -Nancy Reagan

The United States, the country most in which most of this blog's readers reside, is a nation that has been cutting funding for arts education for years. Why? Well, quite frankly, it's not going to be on the test. And it's not on the test because it's not deemed to be essential. While I heartily disagree, it's probably more important that my view is supported by countless studies conducted by people who are much smarter than I am. (For a quick overview, check out the 10 studies compiled here). I am an art educator, so my bias is clear. But my background also means I see first hand what art can do to improve our lives.
So thus begins my series: Argument for Arts. The arguments that follow in this series aren't necessarily ranked in order of importance because that's just not something I'm up to doing--but I have to start somewhere.
Argument #1: Opening Our Eyes.
A study of the arts by adults and children alike opens the eyes to a better understanding and appreciation of the world around us. Why do people go to the theater? Because it allows us to see a life, a situation, or an event from somebody else's perspective. If you're the actor on the stage, the only way to adequately connect with the audience is to fully understand the character yourself--to see the world through your role's eyes. How do they feel in the situations that are presented to them? The performing arts teach us, both as actors and audiences, to see--and feel--from a different perspective. Is there anything this world needs more of than its inhabitants to have this skill? (Not to get too controversial here but, for example, think racism and acts of violence towards and from police). I mean, amazingly enough, the uber-popular musical "Wicked" has inspired international throngs to feel sorry and root for the "Wicked" Witch! I certainly never saw that coming after "The Wizard of Oz" scared and frankly scarred me as a kid.
Photography is another apt example. Photographers learn to see what others overlook, or aren't patient enough to wait to see. In a really cool way, you could say that their camera becomes your eyes. I may never get to see Antarctica in person, but professional photographers Michael Snedic and David Burren have. Just look at their photos! Breathtaking. I can see what it looks like without getting off my couch. And thanks to them, I now want a pet penguin; although, I could also blame that on having read Mr. Popper's Penguins as a kid.
Then take my forte: painting. My grandma once told me how her painting teacher had asked her to look at a tree out the window and tell her what colors she saw. My grandma said it was green. Her teacher responded, "but how many shades and variations of green do you see? I see dozens!" Wise words. I see so much more variety, so many more marvelous details, and so many more colors and shapes than I did before I spent time painting them. My husband often asks me to point out different colors I see in a shadow or a cloud. He then squints and gets excited when he can see them too. Without my art training, I'd never see this deeper beauty. On family walks, I tend to be the one who points out a funny-looking bug or a cool-looking rock on the path--but only because I've been trained to look. And because of this training, I am able to see the beautiful in the mundane and I appreciate the richness of my life so much more! Sure, it might drive my kids a little crazy when I pull the car over and point out an amazing cloud formation, or tell everybody to stop what they're doing and notice the way the sun is highlighting that crazy-shaped mountain. But I don't want to miss it, and I want to train them to see it too.
Whether it's to appreciate the beauty in the world that surrounds us or to better understand the lives of our fellow humans, we all need our eyes opened in a way only the arts can accomplish.