Curating With Postcards

I LOVE museums! And of course to me, shopping in the museum store is the best part. Okay, viewing the exhibits are VERY important and seriously meaningful. BUT, when you get to the store, you can always BUY something! Maybe a book or postcard about what you saw, which you can then share with your students, like I do.

I have lots of postcards. LOTS. Of. Postcards. The photo at the top includes only the ones I chose to use that day. In the past I have displayed them on bulletin boards in my art room. I also, have an art center in which I use the postcards.

 

However, last summer during a teacher institute I attended, we got to play with some postcards. We actually did an activity where we were grouped at tables with a stack of them. Our assignment was to sort through the stack, take turns laying out the postcards and arranging them. We were to assemble the postcards as if we were a curator putting an exhibit together. Oh yeah, AND we got to split up and KEEP the postcards afterwards! ( Lots of postcards, remember?)

So, picture this-my art room is just about ALL packed up, AND we have 3 more days of school.....
AND I have all these postcards, and since I put in a proposal to do some museum activities at my FAEA conference, why not try out this activity with my students? So I did! AND it was incredible fun.

   

 Above they are busy sorting through their piles.

 Here they are starting to arrange their exhibit.

   

 I spoke with my students about how they should decide on a theme for grouping them. They would need to tell me the theme and about the postcards they chose. They also needed to pick out a piece of colored construction paper to place the postcards on. After all, curators do consider and change out the wall color for an exhibit!

 

 They were also told that they could work individually or as a team. Afterwards, it was time to share out. Students grouped together and we moved from table to table to hear about each exhibit.

 

 Laminating to preserve paper items is a wonderful way to make them last longer. Unfortunately it does not make them very photogenic.

It was absolutely amazing the thoughtfulness my students put into arranging the postcards. They created and told stories, in the day or life of a person, as you viewed the art in their exhibit. AND the wall colors they chose, seriously, brought out the tiniest details in the art work. WOW! Just WOW!

And you know what? They actually enjoyed the activity!! Interestingly, it didn't take very long. So next time I plan to include the concept of negotiating with other curators to borrow from them for an exhibit. Maybe have students look up info about the art and decide on its value.  Or research the artist and write wall text. There are many ways to extend this lesson to include those Higher Order Thinking skills!

Tomorrow I leave for NY to spend some quality time with my sister*. We are planning to visit MANY of the wonderful museums in NY City where I can buy more........... POSTCARDS!!

 *I was originally planning to write, my sister, who I have not seen in over 3 years. However MY family gave my the most AMAZING surprise party last night for my birthday, which is in 2 months. YES, it's a BIG one! And on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most surprised- it was a 20! And she is here with me now! So we will fly up together! Truly feeling the love today!!

Thanks for reading!!!

Batik Workshop

SUMMER IS HERE!! AND I'm gonna have me some fun! Starting with this Batik Workshop I took through the VSA Florida and held at the USF School of Art and Art History. AND it was FREE!

I have not done batik in many, many, many moons. I actually think it may have been during a summer program that I took while in high school. And from what I can remember, it was done a little differently. More about that below.

While the program was free, we were told to bring a sketchbook. So I figured that meant I needed to have sketches in it. (Really-need-to-get started on one of  the many sketchbook challenges I've been following.) Anyway, since my school mascot is a lion and I'm a Leo, I decided a lion would be perfect.

We were given a white, sheet like fabric and a embroidery hoop to stretch the fabric over. Then we were told to trace or copy our design to it.

 

If I wanted to keep any parts white, then I needed to paint melted wax onto those areas. Afterwards, depending on the look I wanted, I could spray different colored dyes onto my fabric. I sprayed yellow, orange and a little red. Before I could continue, the fabric needed to dry, with a little help from a fan. Then whatever area that I wanted to remain those colors, was again, painted on with melted wax.

 

To have stronger areas of color, I painted right on the fabric with dyes. Dried the fabric again, then waxed over areas that I didn't want to turn black during the next step. Batik is at it's best, if there are cracks in the wax for the black dye to ooze into. Soooo after removing it from the hoop, I scrunched up the fabric to create some cracks.

   

Then it was time to soak the fabric in a tub of black dye.

   

 A little scary 'cause I'm hoping I have enough wax on it. Totally happy when it was pulled from the tub! Then it was spread out and rubbed dry.

     

Next, I ironed out the wax and TA DA!

     

Here are a few batiks from people who were in the workshop with me.

   

I love the fact that everyone did something different. We came prepared with sketchbooks and were not influenced by seeing the instructor's art. It is probably the first time I was happy with something I did at a workshop, and again, I think it was because I was prepared.

The batik I did in high school was different because instead of painting with the dyes, we blocked the colors with the wax then dipped it into a tub with the color of dye we needed. I believe I also ironed out the wax to dye other colors so as not to mix them and turn them brown.

It was much easier this time. I know I won't be doing this anytime soon with my elementary age students. But, that's okay-it's my turn to have some fun learning artsy stuff!

Thanks for Reading!

Britto: My Favorite Contemporary Artist

Two years ago this month, I went on a cruise and fell in love with Romere Britto's art. I absolutely love the bright colors, uncomplicated patterns and the overall happiness I feel when feasting my eyes upon it.  And since I teach elementary age kiddos, this artist would be perfect for teaching sooooo much of what I need to teach them. 

I started with a few images I pulled off the internet, showing students what Britto looks like.

 

And then showing them this wonderful example of his use of lines, shape, colors and patterns.

Which we had a big discussion about.

I showed a few more images and had students talking about why his art is soooo happy!

   Then I modeled on this practice sheet for them, what my expectations were. The top part was to help inspire their patterns and the bottom part was for them to FILL with the patterns they made.

Download here. They always have the option to make their own motif to create a pattern.

I did this during the last few days of school with my kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders.

 

 

They had a choice of using markers or colored pencils.

 

   

 

 It's sweet that one student decided to be patriotic about it!

Now for my Higher Order Thinking on this, I encouraged students that were done early to apply what they learned and create their own design. By any chance did you all remember I mentioned this was during the LAST FEW DAYS of school? Not a whole lot of applying going on. HOWEVER, and this is a big one-THEY WERE ALL ENGAGED AND FOCUSED!!  

Okay, maybe they were all talking and fighting over the markers, it doesn't matter now!!!

Happy Summer everyone and Thanks for Reading!!!

Trying to figure out gadgets and widgets on my blog........... I added a Share This which will share to Face book and Twitter, so please share if you see it!

 Really would like to add to my Google circle, please think about following me! THANKS!