Dream Catchers

Second Graders used paper plates and shapes to explore the concept of rotational symmetry.  When their designs were complete, we added color using markers.  Students then learned about the legend of Native American Dream Catchers.  These creations are placed above the bed to snare bad dreams in their web and let the good ones trickle down the feathers to the resting person below.  Student learned how to weave their own web and finished their art by attaching beads and feathers.

Crayon Still Life

Second graders were amazed by the incredibly realistic work of artist Audrey Flack.  Flack is known for her  photo realistic paintings.  We discussed that two of our elements of art help your art appear more realistic; value and form.  We watched a video on how values (lights and darks) could be used to create form (three dimensions).  Inspired by Audrey Flacks still life of crayons, students set out to create their own realistic still lives using colored pencils.

Audubon inspired birds

Second graders explored forms by creating sculptures with model magic.  Inspired by James Audubon and his many detailed artworks of birds, students created their own exotic birds!

Some of our birds on Display at the District wide art show- May the Arts Be With You!

Some classes painted their birds when they were complete, but other classes mixed marker colors into their clay prior to sculpting!

Modigliani

Second graders discussed the portraits of Modigliani.  Modigliani is known for his pictures that include elongated faces, long noses, small mouths, slouchy shoulders and mask like eyes.  I introduced the artist by looking at some of his art and then showing them another video from the series Mati and Dada series (which I love!)
After the video we looked at Modigliani's work compared to other portraits like the Mona Lisa and discussed how artists normally try to make faces look real by paying attention to the rules of proportion.  For this project we wanted our portraits to resemble Modigliani's so we folded the paper to help guide us to create stretched proportions.  Students used chalk pastels to add color to their art and black charcoal to add emphasis.

End of the year Matisse

I love doing a Matisse inspired collage at the end of the year.  It allows me to use all those beautiful scraps of paper I've been collecting all year long!

Joseph Albers inspired paintings

Joseph Albers was an artist who liked to explore how colors interact with each other.  He noticed that red looked different when placed next to green than it did when surrounded by violet.  He created many painting of squares within squares to show what he learned about the interaction of color.
Second graders explored color as well.  However, instead of using the square we painted circles within circles.  Once our circles were complete we veered away from Joseph Albers and added a variety of patterns to each ring of color.  These paintings will also be used for our next project...stay tuned!

Eggcubism

Second grade students began the year by discussing Cubism.  Cubism is a style of art where artists try to show things from many different angles all in one picture.  Students examined works by Picasso to understand how cubists create their work.  Next students shifted their attention to artist Enno de Kroon.  Enno de Kroon is also interested in showing the viewer many different angles but approaches his work differently; because instead of painting on a regular canvas, he creates his art on egg crates!  He calls this new experience of painting and viewing art Eggcubism.  Unlike traditional cubism where there’s just one right angle to view an artwork Eggcubism has various viewing options, that turn a beautiful smiling lady into a five eyed monster.  The bumps on the egg crate make the images painted on them appear differently depending on which angle you look at them from.

Students created their own Eggcubism self portraits by painting on recycled fruit cartons we collected from the cafeteria at school!