Happy Birthday Jackson Pollock!

Jackson Pollock was born in 1912, so he would be enjoying his early hundreds if he was still around today. Sadly he died back in 1956. I must be getting old because I look at those numbers and think he sure was awfully young to go. He only got about 20 years to share his ground-breaking art with the world, and that includes his years as a student. The best part, and the bit that makes him the most fun for kids to emulate, is that he combined the act of painting, the movement, with the painting itself. 

You could say he was involved with his paintings. :) He said, "On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting."

That resonates on a very basic level. In fact, for toddlers and young children, the act of moving the crayon across the page is more important than the finished product. But for most of us, that changes as we get older. My daughter had SO much fun dancing as she literally flung paint around from the bottom of her brush. Anyway, you could read a short biography on him here.

For the project, I had bought massive rolls of paper, because if we're going to do this, we were going to do it right! He painted on enormous canvases, so we should too :) (if you used chalk paint or anything that washes off easier than the leftover house paints we used, you could even have your whole driveway be your canvas!!) With the older kids, we started out taking a survey. I asked them on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being not important at all and 10 being essential, how important different things are to art. Or in other words, how important are these things to making a piece "good" or not. I listed off a bunch of things like the art is beautiful, the art has a political purpose, the art is in a museum, the art was done by a famous artist, the art has good lines, the art looks realistic, the art is impressively big, this kind of art has never been done before, the art took skill to make, the art makes you think, the art tells a story, etc. We read "Action Jackson," and watched this short video of the artist himself working. So cool to see the real artist in action! I asked them each to point out something they'd noticed about his style or techniques. They couldn't wait to get started! I gave them the option of collaborating on a really huge sheet, or doing their own smaller work.

Darn North Dakota wind caused some problems, but overall it was a hit! And they turned out pretty impressive too! Oh and my bathroom looked like a color wheel had exploded in it. Make sure you have access to LOTS of soap and water if you give this a try. And a press washer for your driveway. Tee hee. Oh and if at all possible, do your best to discourage intentional paint flinging at fellow students, but I wouldn't mention it if they haven't started on their own. Better not to give them ideas! Ha!

To see examples of students' work, check out my original post here. And have fun!!

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.