Art at RMS

"I love how I can see and reach everything I need"

I overheard a child say this when she was visiting our art classroom. My students are used to the studio set-up, but for visitors, it may be the first time that have had access to tools and materials (instead of having the teacher pass things out!) I think the studio-set up is an essential component of the program; it lets learners behave like artists.

We have had many discussions around this topic, and we are fairly comfortable with the unknown (this is a good time to start humming the Clem Snide song ; I love the unknown), but my students got the point. If this is simply tape-wasting, it’s all over.

"There are many benefits to child centered arts learning experiences, among them,that intellectual growth and increased cognitive function is a direct result of children continuing to become expert in the areas they do well in and building upon these areas of expertise..."

– Clyde Gaw (TAB Practitioner/Art Educator)

“J” is a middle school student who‘s preferred working style is to work in series. Last year he produced an impressive collection of clay bird sculptures. Recently, it’s all about paper.
“J” specializes in designing stencils (early attempts were made of paper and tag board, but he now prefers “scratch foam,” sold for printmaking). “J” prepares paper pulp of needed colors, and proceeds to craft his design into the paper prior to “couching” (blotting).

"J" especially likes the way the trees escapes beyond the natural border of his paper sheet

“What if we used a hammer for printmaking?”

This question, by 7-year old “S,” sparked a mini-lesson about how artists employ objects in their environment to make art. At the start of class, learners were invited to choose any item in the art studio (any item that paint would not damage) to test as a printmaking devise. Each child in turn dipped their new tool into paint and observed the resulting image or texture. As this experiment concluded, learners were invited to stay and make prints or to choose a different center and begin their work.
All but one student moved off to work elsewhere. The learner who remained had more experiments to conduct: What would the imprint of a feather look like? Would a pom-pom work as a paintbrush? Many different items were tested, and in the end, some of the objects that were used to make prints were attached to the paper (did you know paint could work like glue?), becoming a permanent part of the resulting image.
Art education professor and artist George Szekely (University of Kentucky) once told me about a field trip he conducted with his class of undergraduates. He gave each student a dollar, and drove them to a dollar store. Their mission: find something to make art with or to make art out of. They returned to the studio to make art with their odd-ball treasures-turned-art –tools (picture; toilet plungers, mustard squeeze bottles, feather dusters, pizza cutters…).

Wouldn’t that be fun?