Romare Bearden Inspired 'My Block' Collage

After their Pop Art inspired print project, 4th grade artists looked at the work of another American artist named Romare Bearden. Bearden lived in New York City. We looked at and discussed one of his collage artworks called "The Block."

Romare Bearden, The Block (1978)

Students noticed that there were many different buildings and a lot of detail -- windows, people, signs, etc. Students also noticed that some of the buildings looked like they were made of brick. We discussed how the street in a city is very busy, with many different kinds of buildings, such as apartments and restaurants. We also talked about how we can tell that it is a city street, but the mix of materials, colors, proportions and views are not completely realistic. For example, you cannot really look inside the stairwell of a building from the outside, and the lightbulb in one of the rooms is much larger than the people around it. The longer we looked at it, the more there was to see!

We then began our own mixed media collage artwork, using a long piece of construction paper to start the city street. We talked about what kinds of buildings students could add, and how to overlap and layer different materials together to add detail and interest to our street. There were many different materials to choose from, including construction paper, corrugated paper, metallic paper, fabric, felt, tissue paper and foam.

Students thought carefully about what other details they could add to their street, such as traffic lights and stop signs. Some students were inspired by visits to Boston, New York City, and Rio de Janeiro. After they were done with their collage, they used a black pen to add details such as window frames, bricks, and signs for different buildings.

At the end of our third class, we did a turn and talk so that students could talk to a partner about what inspired their collage, what they were most proud of, what they might change, and what was most challenging about making their artwork. For our turn and talks, we use a fortune teller that contains these questions, instead of fortunes, to help jumpstart our conversations and make them more fun.

Many students were proud of specific details in their mixed media collage, and their use of a particular material. Some students found it challenging to work with the fabric and felt materials and add the level of detail they wanted with them. Below are some examples of our finished collage city streets, inspired by Romare Bearden. Some of them will also be on display for the 4th and 5th grade winter concert in December, so look for them in the connector hallway that week!

Ava, 4th grade (Mattson Graves)

Elena, 4th grade (Mattson Graves)

Wellington, 4th grade (Doherty Barbieri)

Trisha, 4th grade (Cikacz)

Lily, 4th grade (Dubuque)

Halle, 4th grade (Dubuque)

Shahd, 4th grade (Doherty Barbieri)

Edward, 4th grade (Cikacz)

Endangered Animals of the Amazon Rainforest

2nd grade has been learning about the Brazil across different subjects, including art. We started by looking at the Amazon Rainforest, 60% of which is located in Brazil. Specifically, we looked at the endangered animals of the Amazon Rainforest and talked about what it means to be endangered. These animals include the hyacinth macaw, jaguar, poison dart frog, golden lion tamarin monkey, and the three-toed sloth.

We began by learning about the Amazon Rainforest and its environment and climate, as well as reasons why certain animals are endangered there. For example, the jaguar is endangered because people hunt them for their fur and the trees that are home to the three-toed sloth and poison dart frog are being cut down.

Students selected one animal to sketch, using reference images, and drew the animal it its rainforest habitat. Using oil pastels, students added color and thought about the texture of their chosen animal. 

During the following class, students added select details to the background to suggest the Amazon rainforest, such as leaves, branches, and vines. Then they painted over their oil pastel drawing with liquid watercolor to create a resist, since the oil pastel and watercolor paint do not mix.

As a conclusion to the project, students participated in a turn and talk, where they discussed their artwork with a partner using special fortune tellers to help start the conversation. 

We also came up with titles for our work and had a gallery walk to see everyone's finished artwork. Students shared their observations afterwards, noticing that everyone included the rainforest environment in their backgrounds and focused on the texture and pattern on their animal's body. Here are some finished examples:

Zach, 2nd Grade

Emma, 2nd Grade

Jaylyn, 2nd Grade

Jefferson, 2nd Grade

Kate, 2nd Grade

Pop Art Printmaking, Part 2

Artists in 4th grade began their Pop Art inspired printmaking project several weeks ago, looking at examples of American Pop Art and creating their own printing plates inspired by current pop culture. It took us longer with all the snow days in between, but we were finally able to print our plates!

After creating their printing plates, students were ready to make their prints. We discussed how printmaking allows artists to make multiple copies of the same image, or repeat the same image. It is hard for us to imagine now that we are surrounded by newspapers, magazines and screens, but the invention of printmaking in the 1400's was the first process that allowed us to repeat the same image multiple times! 

We learned about the steps involved in the process of printmaking, as well as the necessary materials, before doing it ourselves. We split up the class so half the class printed on one day and the other half printed the following week.

Students selected colored paper and printing ink in complementary colors and set up their printing station with a bench hook to use for printing ink, a brayer to roll out the ink, and newspaper to keep the area clean.

First, we rolled out our printing ink with a brayer, listening for a sticky sound that tells us that it is a good amount in an even layer. We rolled the ink on top of the printing plate, making sure to get the corners! After moving the plate to the clean side of our printing station, we placed the paper on top and smoothed it over with our hands or a clean brayer. Then we pulled the print, lifting the paper to separate it from the plate. Ta da! We repeated this three times to make three prints.

The following class we learned about how print makers sign their prints. To sign a print, print makers use pencil and there are three components. In the left hand corner is the edition number as a fraction (math connection!). The edition is the total number of prints pulled at one time. So if you pulled 3 prints, your first one would be labeled 1/3, the second is 2/3 and the last one is 3/3. In the middle is the title if your print in quotes. In the right hand corner is your signature.

We also did a turn and talk and a gallery walk to share our Pop Art inspired prints. During the turn and talk, many students shared that the most challenging part of the printmaking process was making sure there was enough ink in an even layer on their printing plate before putting their paper on top. Some students found it challenging to press down hard enough on their Styrofoam plates with the stylus.

For many students, the thing they were most proud of was successfully pulling a clean print, and also having all of their lines and details come out. Here are some examples of our Pop Art inspired prints:

Elizabeth, 4th Grade

Jack, 4th Grade

Kailee, 4th Grade

Adrina, 4th Grade

Anita, 4th Grade

Collin, 4th Grade

Kelsey, 4th Grade

Bonsu, 4th Grade

Aboriginal Animal Dot Painting, Part 2

Artists in 4th and 5th grades finished their Aboriginal Animal Dot Paintings before winter break, adding dots to the background around the body of their chosen animal (and listening to more didgeridoo!). We then spent a class discussing, looking at and reflecting on our artwork.

Sadie, 5th Grade

We did this in 3 different ways: a turn and talk, gallery walk, and written self assessment. For the turn and talk we partnered up with classmates and used fortune tellers that were made especially for talking about artwork. They work similarly to regular fortune tellers, except instead of fortunes, they ask questions about your artwork. They acted as a tool to help jump start our conversations so we could reflect on our work and tell each other about our artistic choices. 

 

Next was the gallery walk. We walked around the room quietly, going from table to table to see each other's artwork. We shared observations that we noticed from each other's artworks and it was interesting to see that they all came out very differently! 

Among many other things, we noticed that some students used bright colors and some used colors that were more natural for the animal, the space between the dots varied, and some students added patterns to the animal's body.

The last part was a written self-assessment to reflect on our artwork. We had to consider whether it met the criteria we had been working on, including featuring an Australian animal, using at least 5 mixed colors, and creating a pattern with the dots. Students were able to think back to the responses they had during the turn and talk to answer some of the questions, such as "What are you most proud of in your artwork and why?"

Saleena, 4th Grade

Students took their time to think through the questions and reflect on their work, which was evident in their completed self-assessments. It was interesting to read that several students had a personal connection to the animal that they chose, whether it was as a pet or having seen the animal on a trip.  

Eleni, 5th Grade

Students were most proud of the range of colors that they mixed and how carefully they painted their animal. The most challenging part of this project was definitely the dots! As one student wrote, "sometimes the q-tips just did not cooperate with you." It was also challenging to mix the same color for the dots in order to repeat the pattern. 

Ashley, 4th Grade

Some of the paintings will be up in the glass case downstairs on the first floor soon, so look out for those. In the mean time, here are some examples:

Anas, 5th Grade

Kelsey, 4th Grade

Catherine, 5th Grade

Esmeralda, 4th Grade