Creating in the style of Andy Goldsworthy (Part I)

We dedicate this post to those who lost their lives and those who are affected by the recent events in Newtown, Connecticut. Our prayers are with them.

The inspiration for this project came from looking and examining the "Land Art" by Andy Goldsworthy. His art was influenced by the American movement of the 1960s. Goldsworthy was aware of Robert Smithson's Spiral Jelly in the Great Salt Lake of Utah and Michael Heizer's Double Negative in Nevada. Goldsworthy's art, however, has an ephemeral character. His works don't last long, and this is the central focus in his art.

We are fortunate that our school is surrounded by beautiful trees. Our nature trail often becomes a site where ideas for projects are born. After learning how nature plays a big part in Goldsworthy's art, we decided to take a walk in our "little forest," and see if we could get an idea for a project by just collecting dead branches. Every student collected dead branches in zip lock bags.  One of the students had an idea of  using the branches to create trees. We all loved the tree idea and proceeded in creating our Goldsworthy trees.

Andy Goldsworthy

Working in separating the branches according to size and thickness  

Students used water colors for

the background paper

Our bodies participated in this project

Some of the thick branches had to be broken using our legs.

Students helping each other in placing and gluing the branches 

 The students who finished first were happy to assist  their fellow artists

Elf Feet Visit Again

We decided to make elf feet again since our students had fun with this project last year.
Click here to see the project from last year.
We used poster board paper and a variety of water colors.
Some students enhanced their compositions with a touch of golden paint.

The Power of Words

The inspiration for this project came from viewing the works of nine women artists who explore the use of language in their work. 

Their work is featured in the exhibition 

Girl Talk 

                                                              Women and Text 

Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) 

We examined the way the artists explored the ambiguity of language in their work.

The students decided to create their 'word collages' based on the work of the artist Kay Rosen.

This project had six steps:

1.The students looked for words in a variety of books, newspapers, and periodicals.  

2. From the variety of words, we each decided to use only one word.

3. We created new words out of a singular word by rearranging or adding letters.

4. We used black sharpies to write our new words on water color paper. 

5. We used water colors to paint over the letters.

6. We cut the letters and created our word collages.

During the art process, the students were able to discuss word choice and creation of new words with their fellow artists.

   

Kay Rosen

The student learned that Ark is the Latin word for box.

Kar is an Armenian word meaning "stone".

Rak is a river in Slovenia.

Kay Rosen

Kay Rosen

Experiments in Weaving

Weaving is an art activity that most students enjoy. I prepared the paper and cardboard looms with larger openings for the Kindergarten class. Students had a choice from a variety of yarn. We discussed how you can create patterns by using regular or textured yarn.

By using our fingers to weave in and out, over and under, around and through, we learned to coordinate our eyes, hands, and minds. Some students made changes in the middle of the weaving because they were not happy with the results. Problem solving came into play when they were trying to decide on which yarn type to use and how, by using a different hand motion, they could create a different pattern.

My example