Creative moments

 The other day, while my kids were cleaning up after painting, I saw a group congregating by the sink. They were making all sorts of noises, and in my experience a crowd of 12 year olds by a sink can't be good news. As I went over, prepared to reprimand them, I saw this:

Probably the coolest thing I have ever seen....and a testament to the fact that they were surely learning to appreciate aesthetics and experiment with a variety of media. I declare a teaching victory!

eye see you.....

 Painting is my favorite. Teaching painting puts a twinkle in my eye. It is special to be able to share your passion with anyone, let alone, 100+ pre-teens. The biggest issue with teaching painting to 12 year old children, is having them create something that can hold their interest for the duration (3-5 weeks) of the project. In the past I had taught pop art, pointillism, portraits, symbols, graffiti, and I was at a loss for something fresh and new. I started goggling images, looking at trees, and flowers and all the "norm" for painting projects. Then I stumbled upon a close up of a lizard's eye. Perfect! Simple geometric and organic shapes, and a dynamic composition. I gave the project a twist, asking the children to creat "fantastic" animals. We talked about what "fantastic" meant....not great, but from a fantasy. We looked at creatures from dragons to Harry Potter and Narnia. We discussed "fiction" and "surrealism". The kid's were hooked! "Mrs. Rummenie, can I make a dragon?" "NO!", I replied. Not quite fantastic in my opinion. I offered the children books, and web searches and packets I photocopied of all different animals....geckos, zebras, humans, fish, cheetah. I asked that the kids create a new "species" of animal or beast for their work. Something that lived only in their imaginations. The end sketches and paintings were truly fantastic....as in great:

We used tempera paint, and the kids got to choose from 7 color schemes....analogous, complementary, split complementary, triadic, warm, cool, or monochromatic. They were allowed to add neutrals as well. I listed the color schemes with a description of each on the board, and a few color wheels. The children were constantly referring to them, which strengthened their ability to pull information from a chart. They were able to pick a painterly or tight style, and because of the choice, felt really good about painting. One of the things I always set as a goal for myself, is to help each student feel good about what they can create. I think that at the middle school, offering choices and chances for individuality accomplish this in ways nothing else can. The kids who have issues with fine motor skills might be really successful at a loose style of painting, while meticulous students thrive with hard-edged work. I love hearing the kid's talk about the differences in their peers work. Inevitably, they love the opposite of what they had made. It is awe inspiring to see them offer each other complements and praise. Some of the children had difficulty delving into the realm of fantasy. I never forced them to comply with my imagination, and I am glad that I bent on the issue. Some of the more realistic work was extremely strong, and allowing the lieniency in subject matter definately helped with keeping each child on task. We finished them with Mod Podge for a glossy, oil-like finish. My seventh graders were thrilled. I am certain they had no idea they were capable of such FANTASTIC work ;)

Spring is here! Wet your plants...

As the end of the year approaches, I, along with my colleague and friend, Lynn are charged with decorating the stage for the spring music performances. This year we've taken a traditional approach, but the kids in concert decoration club were intent on blasting out of the realm of two dimensional painting and into the three dimensional world of sculpture. This was extremely convenient, since the five canvas panels we usually paint had cracked with layered paint to the point of no return. We brainstormed with the children, mostly about practicality. How would we make 3D decorations? What problems might arise? What will we make them out of?

I particularly enjoy advising concert decoration club. I get to watch kids think. Really think. They think about creation, not just what color comes next, or what step they are up to, like in the classroom. We decided together, that these flowers needed to be light, so the kids took a club period to research ideas for paper sculpture on Pinterest. They printed several ideas from various blogs and project based sites. They decided on a rolled paper sculpture. The site they originally visited had the instructions for a small wreath. Challenge accepted!

Students began by rolling a myriad of paper cones of all different sizes. We decided to back these on heavy corrugated cardboard in order to provide stability. We walked to CVS and asked for some old hanging signs, to use as this material and they were more than happy to oblige. Students then hot glued each of the cones in a circular, random pattern. We wanted an organic look, so the random pattern worked well. Flowers made with a more regular pattern came out mechanical looking.

 After creating a variety of flowers (and running out of room to store them) we began to think about color. The logical answer was spray paint. We sprayed each flower with two or three colors, at a great distance, which created a tie dye effect.

For the centers, we added crumbled tissue. Next, we had to hang them....We tried wire, and they fell. We tried more wire, and they fell once again. Finally we added some t-pins to the mix and were successful! We got an awful lot of complements on these, and the kids felt super successful. There is something to be said for making artwork intended for community enjoyment.

Creativity Quiz!

Spring has sprung! The air is light, the flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, and the substitutes are being booked. If you are a teacher like myself, spring is a huge jumble of deadlines, art shows, and meetings. Many of these require absences from the classroom, and the problem of meaningful, yet simple, one day projects begins to eat at you. What could possibly be beneficial in art that realistically takes ONE DAY?!? My answer is...anything that fosters creativity.
We are stuck in the middle of an educational era fixated on standardized tests, when in fact, our children's success depends on their ability to solve issues in a unique manor. Nothing that forces children to think outside of the box is frivolous. Creativity is a life skill.

I was thinking of ways to get my students thinking creatively, in one class period. Of course there is writing, and there is sketching, and there are puzzles. All very inside of the box answers to a very outside of the box issue. So, I began to use my noodle. I was looking around on my desk, and saw my stapler. Now, normally a stapler would not serve as a trigger for such an exercise, however I happened to have purchased funny eyeball stickers one year. Being a woman who enjoys humor, i decorated almost every inanimate object in my room with them. So, there was my stapler, staring back at me (with angry eyes, no less). I thought the kids might like to change the stapler, to morph it into something or someone else, so I quickly ran down to the copy machine and put my angry stapler under the cover. ( I wish you could have seen the look on the ELA teacher's face, as she waited to use the machine next.) The only instructions I left were to use colored pencils to build a drawing using the stapler, a found object. I also asked that they not label anything they drew, to provide enough details, so that words were unnecessary. I suppose in the future I might leave an article on Surrealism, and ask for an artist's statement or creative story to go along with the activity.

I'm pretty happy with the results. I have to admit, I chuckled out loud on a few occasions, which I consider a major plus. Nothing is worse than grading 150 drawings of the same exact thing. I am already thinking of our next morph! A spatula? A whisk? A remote control? Hmmmm......I'll be back, my creative juices are running wild. :)

A color wheel a Delaunay, keeps the boredom away...

12 years of teaching the color wheel to sixth graders can get, well, boring. Even a paint passionate abstract painter like myself, will cringe at the thought of having children fill in another wheel based coloring page. I thought I was destined for the monotony, until a tiny print in my classroom caught my eye. There she was. How could I have forgotten? Sonia Delaunay in all her concentric circular glory was calling my name! What a fantastic way to teach the wheel!

I began by briefly describing Sonia and showing a power point of both her and her husband, Robert's Orphism (coined by Guillaume Apollinaire) paintings. We discussed Orphism, the culture of Paris at the time, and the electric street lamps that inspired these abstractions. We held a debate about abstract vs. abstractED while pretending to be art critics. I watched in awe as my kids got excited about the thought of abstracting something they observed, much like Sonia must have, when seeing the aura produced by the streetlamps which inspired these paintings. Long before Sonia Delaunay committed to working on textile design, these paintings acted as shining lights in the art world. After the gloomy neutrals of Cubism, these colorful, playful paintings carried a humor and warmth that caught the attention of even my most unruly students. In Sonia, they found an artist they could both emulate to perfection, and understand.

Each student created hand drawn (the quirky shapes they make by hand, have the most life), concentric circles that radiated outward on the 18x 18" square paper until they reached the table surface. They then divided their work into 12 sections using a yard stick. Each section would serve as a color on the color wheel.We discussed color mixing (using magenta, yellow, and cyan) and had a demo. The children then began to bring their own concentric circle wheels to life!

We began with the primary colors, and filled in each alternating stripe in the appropriate section in the pure hue. In the other stripes, we mixed the primary's opposite to create a tone. Tones were used only in the primary slots.

We moved onto the secondary colors, and again left alternating (checkerboard type) patterns of blank space between the painted sections. We followed with the intermediates (and a brief lesson on ratios), mixing most of one color, and a bit of another. The kids stood in amazement as they added a drop of cyan to their yellow and watched it turn into juicy, limey, yellow-green. All of that color needed grounding , so our next step was to add a neutral. We mixed black and white and created all different values of gray. The kids were encouraged to be free, and creative during this step, since we had so many rules for creating our wheel.

The end products were nothing short of spectacular bursts of color with sophisticated neutral points which allow our eyes to rest. These mini-Delaunays made me proud! We learned all about mixing paint, we created a visual chart, learned about ratios, AND produced some fantastic, finished work (unlike a coloring page). I hope you find time to try this one with your kids! It was truly a breath of fresh paint...er, I mean air! Happy teaching!

The ART of caring....

   The other day, a seventh grade student came running into our fifth period class. "Mrs. Rummenie, I have to show you something on You Tube!" Leary, I brushed her off and said I'd do it later. I am always cautious about watching student sponsored videos while teaching, as anyone should be. "But you'd really like this, I promise!" she continued. I asked her what it was about since she clearly wasn't going to draw anything until I viewed it. She explained, "bullying". Now, my fifth period class and I have, on more than one occasion, discussed being good to one another, why gossiping may hurt, and thinking before we speak; so this intrigued me. After settling the rest of the class, and getting them started on their realistic drawings, I ventured onto the web. I sat at my desk (with my eager student), and viewed the video. I have to admit, I was prepared to blow the whole thing off with a giggle. What happened next was completely unexpected.
     The video first grabbed me with it's silly looking graphics. A porkchop, a karate suit, both awkward in their animated movements. Then I heard the story begin, and the magnetism of the words made me forget I was in class. I was whisked away by the hypnotic poem read by its author, Shane Koyczan, in spoken verse. The graphics and animation (which I later learned was created by several different artists in response to Koyczan's solicitation for contributions) were perfect, and equally encapsulating. After realizing the power this short clip possessed, I turned the classroom projector on and shared. Though the video had nothing to do with what was going on in class, it had everything to do with what was going on in class. The stories were heart wrenching, and the children were glued to the screen. I saw a few tears, a few heads bow in either understanding or possibly, remorse. We spent the rest of the period sharing stories and discussing how bullying made us feel, and learning to coexist. I shared stories of times I had bullied ( I explained that we all do it at one time or another, even if by mistake) and stories of being bullied. The children were in awe as I admitted to having called two classmates the "roach" girls. We discussed mistakes, and empathy. I told them about my high school math teacher who always called on me, despite his awareness of my severe dyslexia and school anxiety. I told them how hard it was to be the only kid in school who disliked this beloved, funny, and charismatic teacher. They whispered to each other, and some cracked a smile. We had connected. I was no longer the art teacher, I was a survivor. Just like Shane. I was living, breathing proof that things get better. They realized that I had not forgotten any of the times I was hurt. They realized that I had found a way to push that hurt aside.
  Of all the lessons I have taught in my twelve years of employment, this was the least planned, and the most powerful. I implore you to share this with loved ones, young and old. This video is a must for every middle school classroom....the fact that the awesome animation makes it art room appropriate is a bonus! I'd like to say "enjoy!" but that's not a fitting wish. I will say "absorb!" instead.

To This Day.... by Shane Koyczan

A journey through creativity!

Welcome students, parents, fellow educators! This is a little space I'll be using to showcase my talented students, my lessons and art advocacy. Creativity is the only true way that we can set ourselves apart from a crowd, and here on the smARTies blog, we celebrate being outside of the box! I hope you enjoy every post I share, and I hope you'll share your thoughts as well.