A place to see what is happening in Fine Arts at Rocky Mountain School for the Gifted and Creative

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Artistic Spaces Support Artistic Behaviors


"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.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Tape Artists

It started with a balloon and a roll of duct tape. The first balloon popped. One boy spent days working on his tape-ball, until it became heavy and very un-balloon like. Of course more followed. Watching the tape supply flag, I issued a challenge: “I see that is a lot of fun, but is it art?”
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.

The multi-layered form which once covered a small balloon was opened to create a zig-zag jaw line. Another had several long, dangly legs attached, becoming a “brain-slug” or spider alien.


And one, which by now was the size and heft of a coconut, became a coconut. A tree was added to hold up the coconut (and also to finish convincing me that it was, indeed, art - it is hard to argue with a palm tree).

There is a popular art trick involving clear packing tape and human volunteers: you simply wrap the volunteer in tape, (first layer is either saran wrap or the tape reversed so it won’t stick to the model), then after many layers, the form is cut away and reassembled. This is a very popular project in high schools and art camps. http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/high/Kris-TapeFigures.htm But it takes about three roles of tape per sculpture (ca-ching)…


Sunday, February 15, 2009

Quotes for thought

"Children and their art develop from the inside out, rather than from the outside in." ~John Dewey


"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)

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Save the Trees!



From Paper Maker to Paper Artist

“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


Sign over Papermaking Center


Papermaking Center


If I Had a Hammer

“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?

Arthur Ganson’s Machines

I like to run Arthur Ganson’s dvd in the sculpture center sometimes when students work. It is amusing, sometimes captivating, and always entertaining. Ganson’s work reminds me a lot of the work I sometimes observe my students engaged with. Like Ganson, learners in the sculpture/construction center are inventing, experimenting and engineering. There is often an element of humor. Occassionally, like Ganson, learners design their own tools to suit a special, idiosyncratic task. I think of Arthur Ganson as a grown-up RMS student, and am pleased that he found his own path and relishes creativity. Today I found liner notes in the Machines dvd case. Here is how it starts:



For me, the practice of fusing material with idea and emotion began when I was a child. I was very introverted and found it difficult to talk directly to anyone about what I was feeling. What I did do, however, was retreat to the basement where I would pour my heart into little things that I would make for people. It became my way of speaking, and to some extent it was critical for my survival.
~Arthur Ganson, (2004) Machines, Liner notes



If you would like to see some of Arthur Ganson’s machines, go to:
http://www.arthurganson.com/pages/Sculptures.html


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