Week 9: Field Museum Field Trip!!!

The Field Museum is such an engaging educational resource for our students! We were thrilled to take advantage of the half day and the beautiful weather. The Ancient Egypt and Dinosaur exhibits won the popular student vote, so these are the exhibits we visited. Students had 2 page "sketchbooks" to draw in and were given handouts to document artifacts and specimens. The Ancient Egyptian practice of embalming was a huge curiosity and interest: a couple children captured quite clearly in their sketches the removal of the deceased's intestines! Also of interest was the Ancient Egyptian cot replica (everyone wanted to take a turn lying in it) and the huge block of limestone that they were challenged to move even slightly (they pulled with all of their might, so we told a small white lie and said it moved just a hair). We had a fast paced tour through the dinosaur exhibits because the clock was ticking, but it was great to examine their massive skeletal structures and to make comparisons among them. A big thank you to Chris Davis who chaperoned the trip with us and for taking the photo below.

Week 9: Abstractions with Oil Pastel

Visiting artist and educator Mike Bochner shared his insights about working abstractly and the common misperception that abstract art is “easy”. Mike questioned the students about what they believe is more difficult: abstraction or representation. A discussion followed about artist preference, skill, detail, commitment, etc. We concluded that many factors are at play for either approach and that it is possible for abstraction and representation to be both easy or difficult depending upon the artist and approach. Mike also shared several of his abstract paintings and drawings: they are bold, colorful and energized, yet anchored by a dominant hue to provide focus. His abstractions were an excellent source of inspiration for the students and they were eager to create their own abstracted drawings with oil pastel. Students were encouraged to fill the paper with shapes, lines, and forms; to blend areas of color; to consider how colors may affect each other when placed side by side; and to have fun! Not only did students' have fun, they also created some fabulous abstract drawings, that are now on exhibition at Oak Park Public Library, Children's Department, throughout the month of November. Congratulations to the artists and a big thank you to Mike for his contributions to Beye Discovery!!!

Mike's abstract painting, untitled

Mike's abstract painting, untitled

Mike discussing abstraction

 

Week 9: Tree Branch Mobiles

In this eco inspired project, Jenny collected fallen tree branches and discarded objects from friends (such as toys, costume jewelry, left over craft supplies and goody bag items) for the students to repurpose into beautiful sculptural mobiles. Jenny made a point to note with the students that what is someone else’s trash may often be another’s treasure. She encouraged students to think about donating unwanted items so that an object’s life span may continue with someone else, rather than end up in the trash. What we love about the finished sculptures is that they provide a potent contrast between the natural and the man made and force us to consider deeper meanings, such as natural vs. manufactured beauty; excessive consumerism vs. conservation; and timelessness vs. trends. 

Jenny's exemplar, representing a family tree

Week 9: Clay Tree Sculptures

This Wednesday, we welcomed artist Jenny Tiner to Beye Discovery! She introduced natural clay as a sculpting medium and demonstrated techniques to bring a tree-like form to life. Jenny discussed the importance of trees to all that live on the planet and asked students to share what they like best about trees. In their sculptures, students were quick to include animals, squirrels, birds, nests and even a park bench under the tree. Coffee grounds added yet another layer visual and tactile information, not to mention enticing our sense of smell!

 

Jenny's tree sculpture exemplar (with a poetic nuance due to 
tattered pages from an old book to suggest leaves)

Daysha pounding the clay flat

Tree sculpture bases and trunks in progress

Note the bird nests and eggs in Daysha's sculpture

tree with park bench!!!

Week 9: Sculpting with Paper and Light

In this lesson, Nina taught the class how to create small sculptural forms using paper and light. She shared a beautiful sample that she had made and then demonstrated a number of ways to transform a flat 2-d piece of paper into something new. Students learned how to twist paper into cones; cut folded paper into lace-like designs; produce a fringe-like effect with long linear elements; and coax paper into organic rolling forms. Nina also showed students how to use a stable support on which to build their sculptures. The class explored all of the techniques above and arrived at some very sophisticated forms!!! It was great to see the students work through their ideas and to problem solve in order to create dimensionality and balance. Adding the tea light to the finished sculpture brought the work up to a whole new level, adding a bit of transparency, heightened color and shadows!