Project Art Room

Alright, for those of you who know me know that I love Project Runway. I don’t know the first thing about making clothes nor do I consider myself a fashionista… but I do love watching a group of talented artists get together to create  and showcase new things. The unconventional challenges are my favorite because designers have to use unconventional things (like candy, flowers, stuffed animals, hardware…ect) to come up with their outfit.

This week in art, I got to play Tim Gunn as 2nd graders filed into the art room.  Their tables were filled with autumn-themed party favors and napkins that I picked up at the Dollar Store.Image

2nd graders probably thought we were going to have some kind of autumn party with all of these decorations…and in a way, they were right.  Before I announced their ‘challenge’, I defined assemblage. We discussed ‘found objects’, layouts, and how to assemble objects into our artwork. Image

Their challenge: Create a beautiful work of art (assemblage) by using the fall-themed objects at your table.  This is a 2 week challenge, meaning they had all of class today and all of class next week to complete their pieces.

Today was all about creating interesting backgrounds as solid foundations for our assemblages. All of the fun stuff (leaves, little plastic pumpkins, flowers, ect) will be glued on next week. I started off class with a quick demonstration of how to tissue paper bleed. I showed students how to run watery glue overtop of their napkins, too, to so that designs would blend in with each other. This technique gives a sense of transluceny and creates interesting layers.  I rung my bell and 2nd graders got started!

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I walked around the room and gave advice. The layers were starting to look really cool. I encouraged a few students who were hesitating to ‘go wild’ with their artwork by telling them that this was JUST the background. If you decided that you didn’t like something, you could cover it up next week with a sunflower, ribbon, or leaf!ImageImageImage

Who knew napkins could be so fun?  Next week, the flowers, leaves, paint, foil, stamps, mesh, felt, ribbons, and pumpkins will come out. Stay tuned!

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