Kate's Babbles: American Survey

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.