Fall & Winter 2020-21

Learning at Home

This year has brought many challenges for all of us -  students, parents, and teachers. We have learned to be flexible and pivot to the point that we are pirouetting! And yet, the children are using their imaginations, creativity and joyful perspectives to create beautiful and meaningful art! I am delighted to share with you some highlights from the art program at Concord Hill so far this year.

We began the year with a look at homes around the world. We certainly are spending enough time in our homes to put visual images of home to memory! This led us to making our houses through a collage process. The older students went outside and did observational drawings of their homes, and then interpreted them through collage. The youngest students started with a square and built a house from that.

Here are some of our homes:

Next, we "walked" outside our homes and into our yards and the surrounding areas. We explored the trees around us. The students saw a slide show of trees and looked closely at the structure of trees, their trunks, branches, and leaves. Some classes explored oil pastel and watercolor paintings, while others created their trees through collage:

 

In the winter when the air felt crisp and hinted of snow, we cut out snowflakes! Creating snowflakes is always a favorite, and I've been pondering the reason for that. Ask your child what makes cutting snowflakes so fun and see what they say. I think it is the element of surprise, the big reveal when a child unfolds the paper and sees the intricate pattern they were able to create by manipulating the paper. One cut creates 4 or 8 holes. It's magic. And this continues snowflake after snowflake, because no two snowflakes are alike, in science and in art!

Throughout the fall and winter we explored a variety of watercolor techniques and did some experiments with water based markers. Exploration is a huge part of the art program, as children are naturally curious and love to add to their repertoire of art skills. The process of experimenting is a true artist's work; it is the creative process in action. 

Pivoting back to the here and now, in January the students expressed their personal dreams for a better world, inspired by MLK Jr's birthday and his I Have a Dream speech, making the connection that as MLK expressed his dreams with words and actions, artists express their personal voice and dreams through art.

We are now working on a series of portraits which include observational self portraits, torn paper portraits, abstract portraits, and animal portraits. We began by looking at images of many people's eyes, noses and lips, and then identifying the lines and shapes that make those facial features. Observational self portraits are about what the artist sees, as opposed to what they imagine in their head. Here is the beginning of this work:

 

Now, more than ever, children benefit from the creative process, art making, and using their imaginations. Art making can have a calming and therapeutic effect in stressful times. Spending time creating art that doesn't need to look a certain way, and can allow children to express their joys and concerns, big and small, is an important way for children to make sense of this world. Having a designated area where children can go to create is a gift.

Stay tuned for more updates in the Spring!

Fondly,

Jan