Surrealist Apples

As part of their unit on shading and value, seventh graders learned about the Surrealist art movement. Surrealism began around 1920, and the works often have a dreamlike or odd quality. Many art historians see Surrealism as a reaction to the horrors of World War I, as artists struggled with the dissonance of normalcy versus life during wartime. Some of the most famous Surrealist art works are by Salvador Dali, who created the "melting clock" painting entitled The Persistence of Memory.

For this project, we explored Son of Man by Rene Magritte.  This well-known, often parodied painting features one of Magritte's typical subjects, a man in a bowler hat.

Students used this painting as a jumping-off point for their own apple-centric Surrealist works. We had been working on shading to create dimensionality in apple drawings for quite a few weeks before this, and you can tell in their beautiful and technical depictions of the apples. 

Year of the Rooster Paper Cuttings

Fourth graders researched traditional Chinese New Year paper cuttings.  They learned about the Chinese Zodiac, where each year in a cycle of twelve years is assigned a symbolic animal. This animal is believed to represent characteristics of the people born in that year.  This year is the year of the rooster.

They admired the intricate shapes and textures of the traditional paper cuts. To start the process, I projected a picture of a rooster on the board. We identified rooster characteristics, such as the different feather textures, the jutting chest, the comb, and the long neck. Then, they drew and cut two of their own roosters. One rooster is the traditional red color, which means good luck and happiness in Chinese tradition. The other rooster is in their own personal choice of non-traditional colors.

Seventh Grade Collage

Seventh graders explored the work of Romare Bearden (1911-1988), an African-American artist who worked in collage, oil paint, watercolor, and many other materials.  He created many of his collages as social justice statements during the Civil Rights movement, to celebrate and to make public the arts and culture that was taking place in predomininantly African-American areas such as Harlem. His collages captured both the struggles and the 

joy that African-American communities experienced during the Civil Rights movement.

Seventh graders chose a social justice topic with which they feel a connection. They used collage materials such as magazines to create their own statement pieces.

Cozy Winter Pattern Portraits

Kindergarteners used several pattern-making techniques to create their own beautifully decorated papers. These included special paint combs, rolling marbles in paint, and crayon drawing. Then, they used their patterned papers and stencils to create all their cozy winter gear.

Eighth Grade Zentangles

Eighth graders learned about Zentangles, complex and multi-step patterns that are designed to be combined and to flow together.  I teach Zentangles because I appreciate how accessible the patterns are to all interest and ability levels. Each student is able to choose their own level of challenge and their own media, and it allows for a great deal of individualization. For this project, students used three official tangles from the official webpage, then designed and employed three original tangle designs.

Learn more about Zentangles on the official webpage:

Here are some examples of the beautiful and varied student work: