Art and Poetry 1.4: MS & Upper Elementary
During our second to last class, we focused on emotion and storytelling in abstract art. We looked at artworks by Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, and Jackson Pollock, seeing how simply knowing the title or the description or the background of the artwork made a big difference in how we perceived it, but also observing that abstract art is ultimately up to the interpretation of the viewer in many cases. The students created their own abstract artworks that portrayed a story or an emotion; I was very impressed with the creativity!
Each child was sent home with a small canvas to use as they create their final art project. I returned their acrostic poems to them so they can use their poem as inspiration for their artwork. I would like the canvas to be painted, colored, drawn, and/or altered to be a reflection of their acrostic poem, which will be turned in next week as a duo (the poem and canvas art) that tells a story and portrays something important to them. Here are a few more things I told the class:
- If they want to change their poem, they may, but it still has to be an acrostic of their name and it still needs to be about something they like or that they feel describes themselves.
- Middle Schoolers are required to add some kind of element to their canvas that provides texture or layer or multi-dimensional appearance. See the link below with Rachael Speirs' art for ideas! Upper Elementary are welcome to do this, too, but it is not a requirement.
- The poem and artwork's subject MUST go together. If the artwork was hanging on a gallery wall, the poem would be next to it as a way for viewers to understand the art better, and vice versa.
- The artwork can be realistic or abstract. It can have a person in it or not. They are fairly small, so I would recommend not making it too busy, but there's a lot of room for interpretation.
Here is a link for amazing art that tells a visual story and draws the viewer in! Choose a few of these artworks for your child(ren) to observe, and see what kind of descriptions, ideas, thoughts, and interpretations they come up with. Also, you can have them describe the different elements of art that Rachael uses.
https://rachaelspeirs.com/everything-in-its-place
I want everyone to watch these two videos about the purpose and definition of art. While these mostly address visual art, I want the students to think more broadly about what art IS, with all kinds of art forms that involve all our senses and sensations. Dance, music, theater, etc. are all art forms. This brings us to the broader picture of what art is and how it is all connected, which is what we will discuss in our final class.