Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Outdoor classrooms, Nature, Josef Frank and Kehinde Wiley

These past few weeks have been so gorgeous outside, and as someone who truly believes art and education does not take place in a vacuum, we have taken advantage of this and have engaged in some place based, project learning.  This new project is very personal to me in that it touches on everything I value about teaching art: Movement, mindfulness, place based learning, outdoor education, the artist's process, design thinking and technology, and artists dealing with contemporary issues.  We spent time outdoors in either the classroom in the woods or the gardens, found sit spots, and drew from observation.  We then studied the artist/designer Josef Frank and his stylized way of working, specifically focusing on his textiles and wallpaper. The challenge for them is for them to create their own stylized wallpaper inspired by the flora from being outside.  From there, our hope (fingers crossed for funding!) we will be selecting 6 student pieces to make into actual wallpaper for installation in the new wings once construction is done.   I also like to show and have discussions with students about artists that are working in the world, connect to what they are doing, and would also just really inspire them.  The artist for this project was Kehinde Wiley.

Here are some works in progress:










No comments:

Post a Comment