Trends Modern Art

I am a big fan of American sculptor Louise Nevelson. She appeals to my love of symmetry and found object sculpture. She is well known for assembling "crates" grouped together to form a new creation, then painted in a uniform color to unite the objects.

"When you put together things that other people have thrown out, you’re really bringing them to life – a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created."--Nevelson

As is my custom, I've been mulling over a Nevelson project for quite sometime now. I found an interesting take on the project here, but I had my own ideas to take the project to another level, to appeal to my older students.

I have six children, so broken toys, mismatched legos, naked dolls and bits of junk abound. So what I did was, with my kids, go through all of their toy bins. We pulled out stuff they no longer played with, multiples, etc. etc. This was a good way to clean up their stuff, so I totally killed two birds with one stone.

And now I had a collection of things for our sculpture. I wish I had a pic of the sculpture that was created with a doll head that I sawed in two, but it came out completely blurry and the student took it home. Boo hoo. It turned out fab, though. And the doll heads cut in half were big ticket items the day we spent assembling sculptures, to be sure.

Heads up: This was a project that I had to extend into two class sessions. There is too much to do in one class period, even with classroom helpers.

• Acquire some sturdy cardboard as the base for your sculpture. I used the backing from all of my Canson Value Artist pads because I had so many laying around. They worked out perfectly. Of course you can used regular old cardboard and cut it down to the size you wanted to work with. We worked with a 9 X 12 piece.
• Arrange your classroom so you have three working stations: one to assemble, one to glue with hot glue gun and the third for painting. This will make life easier for you because there are always students who rush through their work, and others who are very meticulous.
  
• The fun part: after showing students examples of Nevelson's work, they got to dig into my found object/toy graveyard piles and pick out objects they wanted to work with. Break up the squabbles over the coveted doll heads and airplane parts.
• Encourage students to explore different arrangements just as Nevelson did.
• Then its off to the hot glue gun table. Yes, it might be a little time consuming and I usually melt off half of my fingertips, the end result is much neater and more sturdy compared to basic white glue.
• This is the point where I end the first part of the project. Now I get to lug home all of these sculptures. Yay!
• To prepare for day #2, you will need some white primer. Any primer will do. Students will need to paint a coat of primer over their sculptures so that the paint will adhere to the toys/buttons/dominos/matchbox cars, etc. I also mixed up my own shade of charcoal gray. I believe matte looks best.
  
• On day #2, let students go to town priming their sculptures. The challenge is to get into all the little nooks and crannies of the toys. Primer dries fairly quickly, but if you want to speed along the process, break out with the hair dryer.
• After the primer coat is dry, they need to paint using the charcoal grey color. I choose this color so it would look similar to Nevelson's pieces. Several of the students asked why they couldn't use blue or red...so feel free to use whatever color you want. Use the hair dryer again.
  
• IMHO, the charcoal grey made the sculptures look very dynamic.
  
• At our open house at the end of the semester, these sculptures were one of the most eye-catching displays.
  

The sculpture above was created by a third grader. As you can see, he couldn't quite get the paint into the thread spools and lego nooks. Still looks cool, though!

Wayne Thiebaud is an American artist associated with the Pop movement and he was famous for his paintings of cafeteria-style food. He used heavy pigment and lots of repetition in his artwork. I thought it would be fun for my students to draw some whimsical ice cream cones they could create with whatever color they desired.

• Hand out 9 X12 sheets of drawing paper.


• Make sure everyone has their own pencil and oil pastels. Oil pastels are great because their color is so rich and bright and the consistency is just a giant crayon!


• Encourage the students to color in their entire drawing, making sure to press down with the oil pastel so that the color is vivid and looks finished.


• The students can use multiple colors, they can create patterns and outline their backgrounds.


• Instruct students how to blend with oil pastels.


• Everyone had fun creating their own flavors and toppings.

It is nice to finally introduce American artists to my students. Jasper Johns emerged as a contemporary artist in the 1950's. He is most known for his usage of classic iconography such as flags, targets, and maps. He liked to use everyday objects such as numbers and letters and elevate them to art.

I thought it would be good to get away from all the abstract artists we've spent time studying that was prevalent in the modern art world and focus on an artist whose work is more literal. Johns is one of those artists whose work commands millions of dollars. And as an artist with a spouse who is also a working artist, it makes me feel very good to know there were artists who went before us who were successful in their craft. A nice change from the whole starving artist story we are all so familiar with.

For this project, I brought lots of books about Jasper Johns so they could get a good look at his artwork. Many of the students were pleased to discover the had seen some of his work, specifically his American flag paintings. For this project, we focused on his painting titled, Numbers in Color.

• Hand out 9 X 12 sheets of drawing paper, rulers and oil pastels. Also, make sure students have pencils to sketch with.
• Instruct each student to measure out a grid of eight squares on their paper.
• Within each square, students should lightly sketch their numbers. Encourage them to be creative with their shapes. They do not have to be confined to traditional number shapes. They can make them as organic and/or geometric as they want.
• When students are ready to begin coloring with the oil pastels, teach them to use contrasting colors within each square, perhaps create an outline around their numbers, they can create a pattern of some sort, or they can blend two colors together.
• In other words, let their imagination go wild!

I was very pleased at the outcome of this project. Everyone created their own unique design, no two looked alike. For the younger children, it was fun to experiment with new number shapes and patterns. The students are also becoming familiar with the oil pastels, so they are trying their hand at blending two different shades.

The artwork above was created by a middle schooler.