Decalcomania

Bumblebee, Bryan

A Surrealist Technique

Decalcomania is a technique that inspires creative thinking with art that is largely made by chance.  We poured glue paint onto a sheet of paper that was folded in half. Closed the paper, burnished with our palms and then opened it up to reveal an image.  From there, you search for hidden imagery in the abstract patterns and develop it into a finished work.

Vegetable People Coming Up From The Ground Plus Friend, James

Angels, Chloe

Information + Imagination =

My body is squarish roundish, like a swimming pool.

My head is long and slightly pointed, like a slide at recess.

My tail can change like the day changes to night.

My feet are like tree trunks in the winter, or is it tree branches?

I have patterns on some areas that sparkle like diamonds in the light.

My color can change you see.  How do you ask? I’ll tell you.  If you are happy, my colors will be happy colors.   

If you are sad, my colors change to sad colors.  How do you feel now?

by Me!

This lesson was inspired by The American Museum of Folk Art-

Students explored individual artists' interpretations of animals and created a drawing in response to the description above. What we realized during conversation about the art was that different artists imagine, interpret an depict animals differently. This was especially true for folk artists because of their limited resources. To help us understand and appreciate the folk artists better, I read the description above (of an unfamiliar animal) as they responded with a drawing.

Skyler, Kindergarten

artwork by Kindergarten and 2nd Grade

Communities Calendar

Your client is The Nature Channel.  You have been asked to design a calendar for their viewing audience.  Based on your knowledge of how artists can represent nature, how would you design it?

Two students collaborated ideas to come up with a plan for their particular month. Foreground, middle-ground and background had to be considered for the landscapes.   The images are in order from January- December.  

All artwork by 2nd grade-

I Am From

I Am From

I am from my pens and pencils
from arroz and quesadillas.
I am from the apartments with a light brown fence
that fed me a cool breeze.
I am from La Flor de La Noche Buena
The swaying tree whose long gone limbs I remember as if they were my own.

I'm from Cinco de Mayo
from Mama' and Papa'
I'm from fajitas on Sundays and tamales on Christmas
and from the reassuring smiles of hope.

I'm from "Do your best" and "Don't give up"
and The Itsy Bitzy Spider.
I'm from quinceaneras.
I'm from Houston and Mexico.
Posole and tamales
From playing outside without worrying about bad things happening
joyfully, freely.
A string bracelet in my drawer.

by Yesenia



Entries from  Yesenia's Art Journal:

Expressive Clay Faces and Much More!

Transdisciplinary  Theme: How We Express Ourselves

Central Idea: Art Is A Way of Exploring The Self

This year we've been working on various lessons that have engaged us in reflective and challenging ways.  We started off by analyzing self-portraits throughout time, trying to understand the message of the lines,colors and shapes.   To go deeper into the process we analyzed abstract sculpture and talked about ways in which a connection can be made between an attitude and a sculpture.  I wanted them to start thinking about how they could create an abstract collage that was a reflection of the self.  The discoveries and reflections were many.   For the next component, I wanted them to work with a completely different medium, clay. They were challenged to shape the clay into an expression of their choice.  After the clay was bisque fired it was now white.  How could color help pull out the expression even further?  They chose a warm or cool color palette for this.  Right now, we are in the process of bringing this now character to life by writing a summary describing the personality.  From there, they will create a mixed media narrative painting.  For this component, we analyzed  Homage To Mary Lou by Romare Bearden. 

Images Discussed