Unit 3: Stories
Artists: Thomas Hart Benton & Diego Rivera
Group Murals: Drawing and/or collage
Materials used: colored pencil, sharpie, construction paper, watercolor
Text (from left to right): "Timmy, draw a plain black and white tree." "But, Ms. Jones, what if I want to make a colorful tree?" "There's no time for creativity in class today."
Group Murals: Drawing and/or collage
Materials used: colored pencil, sharpie, construction paper, watercolor
Text (from left to right): "Timmy, draw a plain black and white tree." "But, Ms. Jones, what if I want to make a colorful tree?" "There's no time for creativity in class today."
Artist: Faith Ringgold
Story Quilts: Watercolor
Materials used: colored pencil, watercolor, oil pastels
Story Quilts: Watercolor
Materials used: colored pencil, watercolor, oil pastels
Artist: Jean Shin
Mini Sculptures from Found Objects
Materials used: brown paper bag, bobby pin, construction paper, notebook
Mini Sculptures from Found Objects
Materials used: brown paper bag, bobby pin, construction paper, notebook
I am a massive fan of stories and fairytales so I absolutely loved each and every studio and would most definitely use each one in my classroom. I really enjoyed the first studio that we did in this unit because it made us use our creativity to come up with our own story. I liked that fact that I was able to create such a big idea just by a drawing and words on a paper. This is definitely a studio that I would use in my classroom, but maybe for the upper levels because I know younger students struggle when coming up with ideas. I loved our second studio that we did because it focused solely on stories, but not just any kind of stories. I absolutely loved the fact that we were given a choice of what story we wanted to pick and had complete freedom. This really helped me depict the story that I wanted to tell. I chose to do the story of Little Red Ridding Hood because it was my favorite one as a kid. I chose to use a black piece of paper for the background because I felt as though it gave a darker and evil feel to the piece, which is what I wanted. According to Bang (2000), “White or light backgrounds feel safer to us than dark backgrounds because we can see well during the day and only poorly at night” (p. 68). I completely agree with this statement and it is the reason why I chose to do a darker background to give the viewer a feel that Red is wandering aimlessly alone in the dark. For our final studio, I liked how we used our creativity and combined our found items to create something beautiful. We created a dying tree out of a paper bag to represent that waste of paper and how we use it so carelessly. This piece helped us really get across the point we were trying to make and allowed us to tell a story of what would happen if we keep wasting paper like we are. I felt as though Pink described this perfectly when he stated, “Stories…encapsulate, into one compact package, information, knowledge, context, and emotion” (Pink, 2005, pg. 103). Through our piece, we were able to deliver information, knowledge, context, and emotion just by simply using a brown paper bag and bobby pin. Even though the piece was small, it was able to depict a large problem to the viewer that needs attention. Overall, I really enjoyed every single studio in this unit and would definitely use each one in my classroom.
References
Bang, M. (1991). Picture This: How Pictures Work. Boston: Bullfinch Press/Little, Brown and
Company.
Pink, H. D. (2005). A Whole New Mind. New York, New York: The Penguin Group Inc.
References
Bang, M. (1991). Picture This: How Pictures Work. Boston: Bullfinch Press/Little, Brown and
Company.
Pink, H. D. (2005). A Whole New Mind. New York, New York: The Penguin Group Inc.