American Survey - Art Camp

This past week I taught a camp at my school called American Survey. In this camp we learned about a modern American artist each day and created projects that were inspired by their work. I had three kids, one third grade girl, one third grade boy and one fifth grade girl. The third grade boy and fifth grade girl were brother and sister which made for some VERY interesting and hilarious discussions.

Monday: Frank Lloyd Wright

So before we began the project I explained Wright's background and his inspiration. I showed them examples of his lead glass windows that he used in his buildings and let make their own version.

They were given plexi glass, a sharpie, rulers and glass paint. I'm very pleased with the results!

Now they will have a pretty cool FLW stained glass to hang in their window at home.

Tuesday: Robert Smithson

Robert Smithson was an outdoor earthworks artist, often creating his sculptures in places that had been altered by industry or man. This one was a bit of a stretch initially I had envisioned completing an outdoor installation for the school but that was before I found out I was only going to have three kiddos. So we went with the buy-a-kit-at-hobby-lobby-and-make-your-own-outdoor-stepping-stone-installation-option... I showed them a powerpoint giving them examples of Smithson's work and explaining how he was inspired by nature for the girls that translated into flowers and for the boy it translated into a fish underwater blowing bubbles....

Smithson's Sprial Jetty

Here's the stretch...

Fish underwater

Flower

Flower telling you to "Have a purrfect day!"

Wednesday: Andy Warhol 

 Again before we began the project I showed them examples of Warhols work and explained his inspiration of popular culture and advertisements. I pointed out the flat look of the advertisements and the way Warhol applied those flat bold colors to his portraits.

To help them get the Warhol effect I took pictures of them and ran them through a filter in photoshop that gave their pictures the dramatic shadows.

Students then watercolored different areas of the picture in bright bold colors. This was probably one of the more challenging projects we did because they struggled to control the brush and mix the appropriate amount of water with paint to get the right look. Still, it was enjoyable and this day was probably one of the funnier days...

As I said two of the kids in the class were siblings... I had noticed the room stinking a little bit but chose not to say anything because this is sadly one of the things you deal with on a regular basis when teaching younger kiddos. All of a sudden I hear the sister say,

"Stop it! Joey?"
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"He keeps farting!"
I look at Joey and he apologized while giggling.

Given the continued stinky smell of the room I'm guessing he wasn't really that sorry. (Please note I changed his name for the purpose of this story.)

After they finished I matted their watercolors. The girls requested that I mat their in a diamond formation... I hope they were pleased. :)

Thursday: Jackson Pollock aka THE BEST DAY OF THE WEEK

I love Jackson Pollock day. Kids love Jackson Pollock day no matter how many times I do it, they love the freedom and honestly they love the mess.

To help them understand how Pollock worked I showed photos of his work and asked them how they thought he worked. Most think he had the canvas on the wall and threw the paint at the canvas. I then explain that no he worked on the ground allowing the paint to pool and giving him more freedom to paint from all sides of the canvas.

I then showed them an interview with Pollock from the 1950s in which pollock explains his process. Pollock often put bits of glass, dirt, sand, leaves and twigs in his paint. So before we started painting we went on a scavenger hunt outside collecting dirt, leaves and wood chips from the play ground. We carried our texture supplies upstairs, on the way a teacher asked,

"Mrs. Babb what are we doing today?"
"Splatter painting like Jackson Pollock."
The third grade girl said, "We got leaves and dirt!"
Joey said, "To give the painting texture! I learned about it in a video."

I almost cried. Not really but maybe.

To get ready for Jackson Pollock day I covered a SIGNIFICANT portion of my classroom floor in paint to save my room from being totally annihilated. We then placed a big canvas on the floor, I gave them a big canvas as a collaborative project and smaller ones for them to keep. I love collaborative projects because it really forces them to work with each other and not get mad if Joey puts black paint all over the pretty pink color they just spent 20 minutes creating.

Collaborative Prep

 Hysterical video. 

Collaborative in progress.

Collaborative Final.

"Joey" in progress.

"I'm making mine swamp colors!"

"Mrs. Babb is brown in the swamp?" "Yes."

"Joey's" Swamp splatter finished.

3rd grade girl working.

Progress.

Finished. Now we just have to pray the paint dries before August.

Joey's big sister's painting that he and I worked on for her... she had a pool party. Jackson Pollock vs. Pool Party? JP ALWAYS WINS.

I had a blast and I'm appreciative of my school for allowing me to create and design this camp. Hope you enjoyed.

Doxology Painting

So I had this canvas left over from the painting I completed for a worship painting. He had pasted hymns on the canvas and painted it brown. I tore off the hymns before I had decided to build my own panel, to see what the surface was like. I decided to build my own but I still had this guy sitting around "the studio" aka my half of the office in the apartment. I usually hate working with canvas but I liked the look of the canvas.

 So I decided to work with the words of the doxology...

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise Him all creatures here below,

Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts,

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Amen.

I've already been creating "iconography" to represent the trinity. Burning Bush represents the Father, the Lamb represents the Son and the Dove represents the Holy Spirit.

Trinity Imagery

So I began by singing the doxology to myself. Every word I painted a circle in shellac forming three rings, I did this three times. This was the result, I painted inside each ring a color to also represent a different aspect of the trinity. Gold for the Father, Red for the Son and Blue/Gray for the Holy Spirit.

Then I applied a layer of shellac to even out the canvas.

I cut out each image to represent each aspect of the trinity in paper and painted it the corresponding color. However when I placed them on the canvas they got lost in the background.

So I spray-painted three circle for the paper cut outs to help emphasize them. I painted a thin black ring around each circle and highlighted some of the rings in the background in black.

Then to add a little bit of pop throughout the background. I stamped some black knots throughout the background with a woodcut.

This is the final result.

Prettier picture of the final result. 

Enjoy.

Our Anniversary

On June 4, 2011 I married this guy...

The Hubs... Look at that smile.

I'm pretty lucky. I love this man dearly and for the past two years I have been blessed to be led and loved by him.

So to celebrate the anniversary of our marriage we went to the Ross Perot Museum. My favorite part of the museum was the architecture and the unique details that make the whole experience special, like stairs that make musical notes as you descend or water atoms that perform a synchronized dance in the lobby.  Andrew enjoyed it WAYYYYY more than I did. He loved all of the interactive exhibits and waited patiently for the children from all the different field trips to finish playing.

Loved the exterior.

View of downtown as you ascended the escalator.

The Hubs at the telescope exhibit.

GIANT prehistoric turtle.

T-Rex

Sarah from Land Before Time.

Close up on Sarah.

The Hubs in the sound room.

The Hubs controlling electricity flow.

Apparently all you learn about at the Perot Museum is dinosaur poop.

See the above comment.

Getting ready to learn about the Life of Sue the t-rex.

Spurgeon & Welsh Mountains

"Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing our Welsh Mountains..."

"... When you are at the base you see little; the mountain itself appears to be half as high as it really is. Confined in a little valley, you discover scarcely anything but the rippling brooks into the stream at the base..."

"... Go up higher, and higher still, till you stand upton the summit of one of the great roots and that start out as spurs from the sides of the mountain, you see the country for some four or five miles rounds and you are delighted with the widening prospect..."

"... But go onward, and onward, and onward, and how the scene enlarges, till at last, when you are on the summit, and look east, west, north and south, you see almost all England lying before you... All these things please and delight you and you say, 'I could not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation..."

"... When we first believe in Christ we see but little of him. The higher we climb, the more we discover of his excellencies and his beauties." So we press onward, onward and onward longing for the day when our faith shall be sight.

The quotes come from a sermon given by Charles Spurgeon in Surrey Music Hall on August 21, 1859. The title of the discourse is "Faith Illustrated", Spurgeon uses 2 Timothy 1:12 to explain how faith is the grandest action of the Christians life, how the grand act of trust and faith is justified and how we can have confidence and faith that Jesus will hold our souls tightly throughout eternity.

"which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me."
2 Timothy 1:12