Small paintings that explore art history and cultural arts.
Every culture and every historical period see the world in a unique way. I wanted my students to explore some of these ideas with using a personal resource they would reinterpret. My challenge to them was to choose something personally significant and recreate it up to 9 times in the way historical periods or cultural artists might. When students chose cultures to emulate, they were encouraged to research their own cultural backgrounds for resources. Popular choices were self portraits and pets, others chose animals or objects that were symbolic to themselves.
I shared with them a compilation I collected of Mona Lisa images in various styles as a reference. Students were encouraged to find examples of period or cultural pieces to emulate to gain a deeper understanding of the aesthetics of the style.
I shared with them a compilation I collected of Mona Lisa images in various styles as a reference. Students were encouraged to find examples of period or cultural pieces to emulate to gain a deeper understanding of the aesthetics of the style.
We spoke a bit about cultural appropriation so that we could be authentic about our work. In my example, I chose the cultures of Ireland and Japan because of my Irish heritage and that I had spent a year in Japan studying art. I spoke about my struggles making my example. My first attempt at Cubism did not appear fractured enough and was based too closely to my photo reference. It did however fall under the umbrella of Expressionism so I relabeled it that. My second attempt at Cubism was more disjointed and fractured so it felt more authentic to the style.
Students worked on 6-inch squares of watercolor paper or 6 by 8-inch rectangles based on their compositions. Though 9 pieces was our goal for 3 weeks, I said if they only created 8 or 6 they could still be displayed in a group but my expectation would be that they were on task the whole time. To that end I gave 2 grades for the project. The first was “Studio Habits,” and every student started with a 100% on that grade. If they were on their phones, off task, didn’t clean up or set up properly, then 2 points would be deducted from this grade each time. They could lose no more than 10 points in a single class period. The final grade was based on my project rubric. If a student maintained a 100% for their “Studio Habits” but only created 6 pieces, then I knew it was an honest attempt at the project and they would not lose points for completeness, whereas another student who only completed 6 yet had a low “Studio Habits” grade would receive a deduction.
Every day I would circulate around the class and offer advice, feedback, and an informal critique. Though we did this as a watercolor project, any media would be acceptable. When we were at out half-way point, we stopped for peer critiques to help re-focus out work, share successes, and offer advice. These were written, formal, and I gave them a small literacy grade for their writing based mainly on completeness and on-task writing.
At the conclusion, students wrote about their selected symbol, what they felt they did best with and what they might do if they were able to re-do a specific image. This was paired with a diagram letting viewers know what styles were created. The exhibition was a big hit in our school, with our History teachers looking for ways to possibly team up for a future exploration.
Students worked on 6-inch squares of watercolor paper or 6 by 8-inch rectangles based on their compositions. Though 9 pieces was our goal for 3 weeks, I said if they only created 8 or 6 they could still be displayed in a group but my expectation would be that they were on task the whole time. To that end I gave 2 grades for the project. The first was “Studio Habits,” and every student started with a 100% on that grade. If they were on their phones, off task, didn’t clean up or set up properly, then 2 points would be deducted from this grade each time. They could lose no more than 10 points in a single class period. The final grade was based on my project rubric. If a student maintained a 100% for their “Studio Habits” but only created 6 pieces, then I knew it was an honest attempt at the project and they would not lose points for completeness, whereas another student who only completed 6 yet had a low “Studio Habits” grade would receive a deduction.
Every day I would circulate around the class and offer advice, feedback, and an informal critique. Though we did this as a watercolor project, any media would be acceptable. When we were at out half-way point, we stopped for peer critiques to help re-focus out work, share successes, and offer advice. These were written, formal, and I gave them a small literacy grade for their writing based mainly on completeness and on-task writing.
At the conclusion, students wrote about their selected symbol, what they felt they did best with and what they might do if they were able to re-do a specific image. This was paired with a diagram letting viewers know what styles were created. The exhibition was a big hit in our school, with our History teachers looking for ways to possibly team up for a future exploration.
RSS Feed