Characters from Tape and Recycled Objects

Working with recycled materials, tape is a favorite method of attachment - here the tape added color and design to a series of characters that began with this person.

Who inspired a mouse...

And two friends...

And another man...

Who travels by sled.

The Moon Bounce - Listening to Intentions

This story is a favorite of mine because of the surprise of simplicity. The young artist came to class and announced she would like to make a moon bounce. Most of the kids were working at a center with recycled objects so my mind immediately began imagining ways to construct a box and add textiles to give it some softness and bounce. As I moved to that part of the room talking about considering what materials would be best for a moon bounce, the answer came with a definitive, "I want to make it out of clay."

Now I felt a bit nervous, not sure I had a great plan in mind for how to make a moon bounce out of clay. Hoping to be helpful, I suggested she draw what she had in mind before getting started. The drawing is on the right - you can see she has already begun to recreate it with clay.

Here, she experiments with getting the newly formed moon bounce (modeled on a princess castle moon bounce) to stand up.

Smoothing down a piece in the back for support helps to solidify the structure.

Finally, a carefully constructed figure is placed inside the doorway.

Attached by the arms, the figures feet do not touch the base of the doorway - because she's jumping!

Painting Collaboration and Bridges

For the final day of our winter art in the afternoon class, young artists worked together to create a large painting on paper covering the table.

They began sharing colors but working independently on individual areas of the paper.

Some started to meet neighbor's designs and chose to find ways to connect shapes and work together.

This led to painting "bridges" - lines to connect different parts of the painting.

Here, two painters work together to paint a bridge, then (below) the bridge forms a fork to connect to each of their designs.

The lines of bridges and connections added to the design and increased the complexity.

This artist is interested in a particular point of intersection.

Coming back to fill in spaces between the lines and designs.

A detail of the finished mural.

A Hug from Mom

I love watching stories unfold as kids paint. One fellow educator described it as the marks on the page grounding the story. Here is a simple story really, and the telling came at the end but I love how the process mirrors the narrative.

The artist begins by painting herself within an enclosure.

She adds another figure, using overlap to show this person is behind and around her and then fills in the background.

"It's me and I'm going out to play and my mom is giving me a hug good bye."

Bee Painting and Story

"It's a bee with a black stinger and he's giving me a lot of honey so we will never have to go to the store."

"I'm putting my arms out so the honey doesn't get on top of me. I don't want my bow to get dirty. You know why the bee is dropping honey on my arms? Because he thinks my dress is very pretty."

"The honey has pretend wings. The bee took off the real wings and put pretend wings on."

It is delightful to listen to a story unfold verbally as well as visually. Here is the finished painting.

Mixing Colors - Exploring Fluidity and Smoothness of Paint

This young artist begins with a palette of warm colors mixed in another class. He enjoys scooping the paints and moving colors to another tray.

Here he is fascinated by the drips of white on the dark pink and red - good contrast.

He finds another palette, a greater variety of colors moves to painting with a brush. Smooth strokes across the page with some additional mixing of colors on the paper as they touch.

Then returns to his scooping and dripping technique, this time over the ground painted. The white drips make nice contrast over his colors.

A final image shows Mom's painting as she works across from him. She explores those warm colors as she creates her round shape, using shading and color variations to suggest a sherical form. At the same time, she is sharing his exploration of the material - modeling discoveries about color, smoothness of paint and rounded brush strokes.

Each is deeply engaged in his and her own process; perhaps his mom's image even grounds and the young artist as he works. They are sharing the painting experience as they work across from each other and share materials. Mom's painting also allows her just the right amount of attention, focused on her own process, yet able to be aware and interested in her son's creation.

Dots and Dabs - Color Mixing Exploration

This young artist began with distinct dots of colors on her paper.

She experimented with adding additional dabs of color on top of the dots and using the brush to mix. Here she adds a dab of dark green to each color.

With layers of dabbing and mixing, the colors grow more and more similar.

Sharing color mixing discoveries with another artist.

After noting the similarity between the dots on her sweater and the dots in her painting, she added an in between color to surround the dots like the brown on her sweater.

Painting in Relation to a Partner

This collaboration began with two artists working across from each other and sharing a palette of cool blues and purples.

They decided to try using the same color each time in their paintings.

As they continued, each added lines that began to weave together and entwine. Each pattern was different but the color choices were synchronized.

Other artists in the studio came by to see how they progressed. Warm colors are added as they move to use additional colors.

The working process of the two paintings.

The finished paintings hung together in the studio, along with questions for the viewer, "Do you think these paintings were done by the same artist?" "What do you notice that is different about them?"

3D Design, Drawing, Building, Painting

Working on themes of architecture, drawing and building and 3D design, this artist began with building a structure out of blocks. (Thank you to the Corley's for their wood scraps:)

Above she draws a diagram of her structure to help remember it, also great practice representing relationships among the different overlapping pieces and mapping space by drawing.

She begins to reassemble, adding glue to hold pieces in place.

The final stage begins with painting - using liquid watercolor which seeps in like stain combined with tempera paint which behaves more like paint, drying on top of the wood.

The finished house - notice how the color choices highlight significant shapes and angles in the overall design.