“Thinking with her hands”

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

Maya Lin has built monuments in clay, granite, water, earth, glass and wood. Her most famous monument is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, an opportunity she won in a contest she entered anonymously as a college student.  It was controversial from the beginning.  Critics wondered why a person of Asian heritage should design a monument to veterans of a war fought against Asians. Others criticized what appeared to them as a black scar in the earth. But now this monument in Washington, D.C., is visited by more than three million people every year.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial/Creative Commons photo

Susan Goldman Rubin’s new and highly acclaimed biography of Maya Lin – Maya Lin: thinking with her hands - includes photos of the many more monuments and sculptures she has designed, along with her struggles about whether and how to design each one. 

                                    

“I try to understand the ‘why’ of a project before it’s a ‘what.’”

She used the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, to “give people an understanding of what that time period was about.”  She literally sculpted the earth to create a grassy Wave Field at the University of Michigan’s aerospace engineering building. She redesigned an old barn for a retreat center in Tennessee for the Children’s Defense Fund. 

Not only is Maya Lin: Thinking with her hands a thought-provoking story of how an artist works, it can spur conversations and writing as well.  It could be a perfect way to open a discussion of national and local monuments – including the many that are controversial right now - but you could also have students : 

·       Write about a monument or statue in your town. What does it mean to you? Why is it important for that statue to be in your town?

·       Do you think there are other monuments that could be added or removed from your town? Write a persuasive essay explaining your reasons.

·       If your school is named for a person, what sort of monument would you create to honor that person? This could be a class project, especially for younger children. (My own children’s elementary school in Montgomery County, Maryland, was always known just as “Barnsley.” Turns out it was the first Montgomery County school named for a woman. Lucy V. Barnsley not only taught for 35 years, but also donated books to start the first library in Rockville and started the Retired Teachers Association in the county.)

·       Design a monument to any person or event that is important to you and write an artist’s statement about your monument.  Maya Lin’s essay about her Vietnam Veterans Memorial competition entry is included in the book, but may also be read here.

Maya Lin expects her last commission to be a project called “What is Missing?” at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. This ecological history of the planet invites scientists, conservationists and everyone to find ways to “learn enough from the past to rethink a different and better future.” And that can spark many many more writing ideas.

 https://childrensbookguild.org/index.php/karen-leggett-abouraya

Salvador Dali Clocks

by Joan Waites

Creating art based on the work of famous artists in history are lessons commonly used in classrooms from kindergarten to college. While studying and copying from the masters is an important part of an art education, it can sometimes frustrate the younger student that has more difficulty with drawing and painting.

A fun and alternative way to learn about a particular artist and their work, is to have students create a 3-D project based on a painting. A sculpture made of found or recycled objects, papier-mâché, or clay can be a fun alternative lesson.

In a recent art class, we looked at the work of Salvador Dali, perhaps most known for his painting titled The Persistence of Memory. Students were instructed to make a “melting clock” from air-dry clay. After observing and talking about the original painting, clocks were sculpted using about two fist size pieces of clay, with the winding mechanism and clock hands added. Numbers were carved into the clock face. After the project dried for a week, the clocks were painted with acrylic craft paint, using similar colors from the original painting.

For a writing exercise, ask students to observe the various objects in the painting and come up with a short story. Why do they think the shapes are distorted? What do the objects represent? How do the objects relate to one another? What would happen if you found a “melting clock?”

Materials used:

Crayola brand air-dry clay

Plastic bowl (bottom side up) to mold and warp the clock face

Pencil or other tool to carve the clock numerals

Acrylic craft paint (silver, gold, blue and black)

www.joanwaites.com

STORYTELLING IN 3-D

by Joan Waites

This week I will complete a five week artist-in-residence program at an area school. The program has involved working with four fourth grade classes on a large wooden display case with objects inside created from recycled materials. Each class was assigned a different season, with the goal of constructing not just a typical seasonal display, but one that is reflective of their experiences in school during their assigned season. These display boxes will be installed in a new school being constructed over the next two years.

Before the first day, I wasn’t exactly sure how I would be able to work with 25-28 children at one time. Each would have to have something to work on, and the project would need to be completed in about a total of five hours time.

I decided to present the project as a “story” each class would tell, using three dimensional objects. When someone looked at the box years from now, what would they learn about this particular class and what memories they created during spring, summer, winter and fall.

We started the first day with a planning session. Each student was given a folder to write down ideas, make a list of materials to bring in, and paper to do a rough sketch or two of what they thought the display should look like. Next, each student had a chance to present their ideas to the class. About two or three similar themes seemed to emerge with each class such as the Halloween parade, the winter music concert, the last day of school, or the spring carnival. After a vote was taken on what theme the class wanted to work with, we proceeded to break up into five groups of about five children each.

I assigned each group a different portion of the display to work on. We had the “background painting group,” “the nature group,” “the structure group,” “the people group,” and “the hanging elements group.” The children were then responsible for dividing up tasks. I met with each group each week until all the separate parts were completed and the display assembled.

This same project could be applied to any number of 3-D storytelling assignments. An original story, a favorite picture book, an event in history or even a poem could be illustrated using found objects and a little paint. Displays could be worked on individually using shoe boxes, or on a larger scale as a group with a larger display case. After the projects are completed, have individual students or groups observe their classmates work and write about the “story” depicted in the display.

It will be hard to say goodbye to these wonderful fourth graders as we complete our work this week, but nice to know their stories will be shared and enjoyed by many in the coming years.

www.joanwaites.com

THE COLOR OF WORDS

by Joan Waites

Having just taught a class that focused on simple color theory with my young students, I started evaluating the color choices I have used in my own work, which prompted me to look more closely at the color palate some of my favorite illustrators have chosen for their work. Color can tell us a lot about the era, season, or mood of a story or poem, even before we begin to read the first word. 

 A wonderful example of deliberate color choice is the book Sharing the Seasons a Book of Poems, (Margaret K. McElderry Books /Simon and Schuster, 2010) selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by David Diaz. Warm, vibrant oranges, purples and greens illustrate the poems for autumn. Crisp whites and pale blues illustrate the winter poems, while deep blue-greens are used for summer. These seasonal color choices make sense and complement the text perfectly.

What about mood or emotion? A sad poem illustrated in bright neon hues would seem too stark a contrast. A poem about love illustrated in muted browns would not capture the right emotion.  The choice of color can also be very important to a story taking place in a different time, place or country.

To use these ideas in the classroom, first have a discussion about warm and cool colors and how certain colors are typically used to illustrate different seasons. Next, talk about which colors evoke certain emotions ex: (red for anger, yellow for happiness, grey for sadness or despair, etc.). Using the book mentioned above or another illustrated book of children’s poems, ask students to talk about the color choices the artist used and if they are (or are not) a good match for the poem. 

For a hands-on exercise, read several poems aloud to students and ask them to create an accompanying illustration using deliberate color choices.  Plain white paper, crayons or colored pencils would work well. Use as examples some seasonal poems, but also challenge students with poems that have an emotional content. Have students share drawings with the class and explain their color choices.  Older students can be given an assignment to write their own original poems to illustrate.

I’m anxious to try this with my students and find out what colors they will chose to color their words!

www.joanwaites.com 

VISUAL LITERACY IN PICTURE BOOKS

by Joan Waites

As we have discussed in previous blog posts, the words and images in picture books make up two equal halves of the whole project. Whether a book is read independently by an older student, or read to a younger one by an adult, the images an artist uses to accompany the text add another level of understanding-Visual Literacy. Visual Literacy refers to the ability of an individual to understand and interpret images. The term "Visual Literacy" is credited to John Debes, Co-Founder of the Visual Literacy Association.

An artists' choice of images, style and medium all help to further tell the story. Point of view, cause and effect, mood, emotions, setting, features, and age of characters etc., can all be conveyed in the illustrations, even if not explained in the text.

Two exercises I have used with student groups which focus on Visual Literacy are as follows:

1.  Pick out several of your favorite picture books. After reading the text aloud, ask students to point out examples of how the artist tells the reader more than is explained in the text. Do we learn more about where the story takes place? Do we learn what the character's room looks like? Do we see how the main character reacts when he meets the new kid on the block?

2.  Present several examples of the same story illustrated by different artists. There are endless versions of Fairy Tales such as Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid  Ask students to point out the similarities and differences between each version. How has each artist depicted the main characters? How are they dressed? Do the versions show the characters in similar settings ? What about the choice of colors used?

Lastly, chose either one contemporary picture book or well known Fairy Tale and ask students to illustrate the same scene. Have students present their work to the class and discuss how each artist has used their own unique point of view to tell the story in pictures.

For more information Visual Literacy go to:

International Visual Literacy Association