Take Something Common And Make Something New!

Tara Donovan 

Tara is an installation artist. She installs her art into a space or environment.

Tara uses many of the same objects to make her installation. She take these objects to build, connect, and show them in a fun and interesting way.  Sometimes you cannot tell what the actual object is until you look REALLY close.

In her art, Tara uses slinkys, straws and cups. Sometimes the objects by itself are geometric, but when Tara puts the objects together, they turn into a giant organic shape.

Geometric tree...notice the straight lines...do you see triangles? 

 Organic trees...notice the curving shapes.

In this photograph, you can see Tara took simple, clear plastic cups and stacked them on each other over and over and over again. By making art out of an ordinary cup, Tara gave her art materials a new meaning. She transformed her material.

See how she transformed straws...

In the art room, we have many materials that are the same things.  What could you make from these coffee lids?  

 

Or these straws?

What could you create with a common object like a cup or straw to make something new? 

 

*What is a new meaning for a cup ? 

*What is a new meaning for a straw?

*what can you make?

Paste Paper Fun

Artists can make interesting "papers" to use for projects. Eric Carl makes papers using layers of paint. He puts a texture on them using brushes, fingers or tools. He keeps his papers in color coded drawers. When he needs a green he just goes to the green draw to see what shade of green is needed.

 

You might recognize his work:

One way that you can make an interesting paper is to make paste papers.

Here is how you do it!

 The set up is to have card stock papers, brushes, old combs or marking tools, paste/paste mixture and paper towels. 

So...

1. mark your name on the back of a piece of card stock

2. lay out paper towels to place your paper on

3. with a brush evenly spread some the paste across your paper

4. take a comb or marking tool and twist or pull it to make marks

5. after it dries, do another color and another design

 

You can take these papers to the collage studio to make art. 

You can take these papers to the fiber arts studio to sew them in an interesting way. 

You can take them to the sculpture studio to create sculptures. 

You can paint with a detail brush on top of a paste paper.

They are beautiful and so much fun to do! They are handy to collect...you never know when you need just the right piece of paper for your art!

 

 

School Wide Art Instillation...what you can do with a wire hanger!

I never got around to posting this last spring and I think it is a worthwhile school-wide project to do. I chose to do it the last month of school but it might be a nice thing to do on these cold winter days. In TAB/CHOICE, students are working independently most often. Every year I make sure that I do something that we all work on together. This work was done by kindergarten through fifth grade. I want students to know that with everyone's effort,  we can make a powerful piece of art for our school. maryellen

 Captain Kids...

We have many hangers in the art studio. What in the world shall we do with them? Cutting them gets a little too sharp and pokey. So, we will wrap them in yarns and bend them into lovely abstract forms. We will keep working on them until we have enough for a wall! We will put them together with little pieces of pipe cleaners. We work together at Captain School to make really cool things!

Captain Students

*there is an art center outside of the art studio that has all of the supplies and directions needed to make a hanger sculpture.
*you may take the hanger and yarn home to work on this project
*bring it back to school and we will add it to the rest of them

If you get home and forget how to do it, here are the directions:


1. bend the top of the hanger so it is closed
2. cut yarn six arms lengths long
3. glue the end of the yarn to the hanger...hold on a minute for it to stick
4. wrap, wrap, wrap, until you get to the end of the hanger.
5. put glue on the end of the wrapping to hold yarn in place

You may stop and change colors. Just glue again to stop and start.

Art Can Make You Feel Better

 Art Can Help You

 

If you are sad...art can make you feel happy

 

If you are worried...art can make you feel more calm

If you are mad... art can make you feel relieved

If you are scared...art can make you feel comforted

If you are confused...art can give your mind a rest

If you are happy...art can make you happier 

When you complete a work of art it is an accomplishment to be proud of. 

Artists express their feelings by painting, sculpting, drawing, collage, photography and more!

What feeling would you like to explore in art?

What studio would help you to express those feelings? 

There have been famous artists in the world who have expressed strong feelings in their work:

Joan Mitchel is an American artist who shows strong emotions in her work. 

What can you say about how she uses lines? 

 

Do you feel strong emotions when you look at this artwork? 

This artwork is her expression of a city. Think about how a city looks on a map or from an airplane...hum.

What do you think of this one? Why do you think she used two canvases to paint on but shows this as one piece of work?

The big idea is this...

When you feel sad, frustrated, embarrassed, scared, worried, confused or sorry about something...

 draw a picture, do a painting, sing a song or do a dance....all the arts can make your day be better.  I believe it and I hope you do too!

 

We should also remember our artist friend Shel Silverstein...