Class # 5 - October 8, 2019
Painting ROCKS!
Today's Lesson
In today’s class with ArtAbilities, students created art on non-traditional art surfaces, in order to see the world from a different perspective, wherein anything can be art. The focus was for students to see how the world could be more intriguing by making it their own. The were asked to create a composition on the non-conventional surface of a rock after brainstorming with a predisposed worksheet. The students explored the possibilities of how a rock can be transformed via simply pencils and paint.
Essential Understandings
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Understand how artists and designers use everyday objects as materials.
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Understand how artists and designers make connections between art and nature.
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Understand how artists and designers use the fundamentals of design to create.
Outcomes
Students will be able to...
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After completing the project inquiry guide, students will be able to devise their subject matter for the project by analyzing their interest-based responses and choosing one topic to base their project on.
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After devising their subject matter for the project, students will be able to produce sketches for their final product by visualizing their chosen interest on paper.
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Using their sketches, students will be able to transfer their final ideation onto the rock by using paint to best replicate the imagery.
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After creating art on a non-traditional surface, students will be able to make connections between art and the world around us by discussing the shift of an ordinary object to a work of art.
Skills
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Creative thinking
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Flexibility with open-ended prompt
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Visual thinking
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Following prompt
In our fourth session, the class explored art making by creating a painting on a non-traditional surface; a rock. The artist's struggled with filling out the inquiry guide for their projects, as well as transferring their sketches to paint on the rocks. Upon introduction of the project, the students became excited about the possibilities and discussed a multiplicity of ways in which rocks can be used for art making. At the end, they all brought their completed artworks to one table and discussed the imagery they used and how eventually the use of sketching and the inquiry worksheet helped them come to that conclusion. Check out the videos of rocks from before and after the process!
Before we started class we had the students sit around a table with a pile of rocks. We asked them some of the following questions:
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How do artists leave their mark on the world?
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What do you all think about this? Is it boring? Why?
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How would an artist or designer these rocks as materials for art making? Are there any materials that can’t be used as an art surface? Why?
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How can we transform these everyday objects to make them more interesting and personal? I.e. how can we as artists leave our mark on the world by transforming this material?
The video to the left shows their answers.
This student’s inspiration was their favorite place, Estes Park. The student decided to focus on the colors of the landscape; employing “green and orange for the leaves of the trees” and “black for the mountains”. The student struggled understanding the concept of sketching, viewing a sketch and final product as two separate projects. The sketch ended up serving as a starting point which the final product blossomed from and changed along the way.
After completing the inquiry guide this student chose to create an image based off of camping. After creating her sketch on paper she decided to plan out her drawing on her rock before starting to paint it. She had a hard time with the sketch with the bumpy surface of the rock so we talked about how to fix it because she couldn't erase the sketch she made. She chose to paint over the sketch with her favorite color purple and then when it dried she made a new sketch over it. Before she could mix up the color purple she asked me “Well how do you make the color purple?” and she responded with “Yellow and red.” So I told her well lets try it and see if it works, it didn’t make purple. So we continued to mix different colors until she said “Blue and red make purple!” In the end she was happy with her project and said “It’s actually pretty good!”
This student decided to choose her favorite place, Los Angeles California, to base her rock painting off of. For the largest rock surface she chose to create a series of highways because “There are so many is Los Angeles California!” For the sides of her rock she chose to paint a series of palm trees. When asked why she chose palm trees she stated “They are everywhere and so tall!” She struggled with the fact that she was having a hard time getting her idea down on paper the way that she wanted. We had a conversation about giving up an how we can still enjoy what we make and the process of making it. We then talked about how not being perfect is okay and we can learn from our experiences and get better next time. She was very thankful for the help and she was happy that she finished her project.
This student struggled with coming up with ideas for their inquiry worksheet--so one-on-one completion was the best option for completion. Providing a few examples assisted the student in brainstorming their own unique answers. For the project, they took a more broad approach painting one rock to exhibit “the blue of the night sky” and the other more representational of the idea of beauty by painting a “shiny red color--that is beautiful”.
This student had many ideas for their rocks--finding it difficult to choose just one per rock. The student decided to create a different theme for either side of the rock. One rock depicted the student’s favorite food, pizza. On the sides, the student painted “Easter eggs representing their favorite holiday”. On their other rock the student decided to depict their “favorite activity, playing volleyball, by painting a volleyball”.
This student focused on their favorite places for this project. The use of sketching was useful to the student as it “helped them plan”. The student also employed both sides of their rock, depicting two different environments. On one side the student used imagery of “trees to show the forests of Colorado” and on the other side depicted “sandy beaches” to show the opposite environment.
This student struggled at the start to figure out how to transfer her ideas from the worksheet into a final painting. However, she soon realized that her piece didn’t have to be figurative, and could represent her interests in an abstract way. She used colors to represent her love for Disney movies. She used red to represent the “fire”, white to “represent the snow” and purple to “represent the mountains” from one of her favorite Disney movies. She also decided to not do a sketch because she knew that she wanted her design to be more about color than an image, and did not feel that a sketch would help her process.
This student chose to focus on her favorite activity. She “rides horses every Tuesday,” and chose to represent her horse “Willow” on her rock. She also chose to paint flowers on her rock to represent her love for flowers. She said that drawing the sketches first helped her to “remember what the horse looked like, before painting it on the rock”. She also agreed that painting on the rocks helped her to realize that art materials can be found anywhere, and go beyond the conventional materials.
At the end of the class we all gathered around the table again but this time they all brought their completed rocks. They were prompted with the following questions:
What did you learn about devising a specific subject for your rock painting? What steps did you take to reach a final decision?
How did the use of a sketch assist you in visualizing and completing your final product?
How did the use of a non-traditional art surface allow you to see the world from a perspective that “anything can be art”? Did this broaden your horizon of the availability of material and opportunity to be creative?
Their answers are in the video to the right.