Wall Vase Art Project

One of my favorite art projects from my childhood was a ceramic wall vase. I used my hand to smash a ball of clay flat to make a slab, but a rolling pin or slab roller can get a more even surface. 

This is a perfect project for kids or adults who are just starting out with clay. My art students started by using a slab roller to make a slab of clay. Then they cut out a shape for the back of the vase and used objects to poke, and roll the surface of the clay to make texture. They made pockets with smaller shapes of clay by scoring and slipping to the surface. And finally a hole was made at the top to hang on a nail. Two holes work as well for a ribbon to make a hanger. Once the vases were bisque fired, my students choose a color to paint their vases. By not using too much paint, or over painting it, the clay can show through and reveal the terracotta color and emphasize the texture. Finally we found little flowers to place in the pockets. It's a fun and easy project that can be used for Mother's Day gifts or a springy look in the home. You know it's a good art lesson if you remember it nearly five decades later.

 

Flower Painting Project

Fluid, flowy flowers are easy to achieve in an a matter of hours. I recently handed my students each a canvas and let them experiment with squishy flower paintings made by gently pressing poured rings of paint with a balloon and rolling and lifting it up to make individual petals or a whole blossom. Follow the steps below and see what you can come up with.

Step 1: Mix a color and paint the canvas. I encouraged students to choose a background color that would contrast with the color they wanted for their flowers. I also reminded them that cool colors were a safe choice because they recede in space, creating a stronger sense of depth.

Step 2: create some kind of repeated mark to help add interest to the background. A subtle pattern can go a long way to activate the negative space around the main subject. Even simple brush strokes can take their painting up a level.

Step 3: Pour paint onto canvas into rings of color

Step 4: press down on circle of wet paint and roll or lift the ballon in one direction for petals. Or lightly squish and pull straight up for a more rounded flower.

Step 4: add leaves and stems as desired

Step 5: add details like the center to the flower or little dots for baby's breath or other small flower, 

 

Art Book Project from CD Cases

 

What do you do when you have 400 jewel cases from old music CD's? Take them to school for an Art class assignment. This assignment was part of our Mixed-Media Unit and came after I finally got my students to use up the cardboard from my discarded boxes. Dick Blick has a great Glass Book project, that I modified to fit the needs of my students; and they enjoyed the process.

We started by disassembling the CD cases: removing both sides, the inner parts. The only part that we actually used from each box was the clear square that didn't have little arms for the hinge. There are little holes on the top and bottom of each of these, that will go on the sides. Once you have four, you can use little pieces of wire to attach them together. The two side will close in on each other, like little boxes, and the center wires have to bee a little longer so that the hinge will fold back on itself so that the final product folds back and forth accordion style to make a "W" shape.

Students either had to write or find a short poem or song lyric that is between 4-8 lines. These were cut into strips and decoupaged on to the bottom of each "page." Some students brailled clear label stickers to adhere on top of their printed lines. Then they cut paper or drew with paint pens on each square to illustrate the words.

Part of the assignment was to create a sense of depth by intentionally layering in a way that created a foreground, middle ground, and background when the images were stacked. Sometimes, even tissue paper was on the back of the last page with something on the front of that page. Snowflakes and Cherry Blossoms were made in various sizes to show so that smaller shapes appeared to be further away than the larger, up close ones. This project was a great way to incorporate literature, learn some assembly and decoupage skills, and understand how to create a sense of depth in visual art.

Stained Glass Window Project for Children with Special Needs

Each week, I teach a few classes art classes for students who have multiple complex needs. They are all blind or visually paired but many also have an intellectual disability and are on working on toddler or a pre-school level curriculum. I try to meet each student where they are and teach concepts on their cognitive level.

Rose Window crayon rubbing

We started the school year learning about media. I shake up a bin of crayons and ask what kind of drawing medium they think I have. They guess and run their fingers through the crayons to get a second clue or see if their guess was right. Then I do the same with markers and colored pencils. We experiment with each one, drawing shapes mostly.

Window Crayons on glass

Circles were a focus shape one week. We exercised to songs about circles by making big arm circles or spinning around. I had a scavenger hunt with circle objects and they drew chalk circles on the side walk, They used all the drawing media in the class to trace circles and  stamped dots with BINGO dot makers. We sang "The Wheels on the Truck go round and round" before reading  a book about trucks (with push buttons that made sounds). 

The next week we did similar activities to learn about squares, and finally we incorporated what we had learned about mixed media, circles, and squares to create stain glass windows. I shared the basic history of stain glass windows and let them touch a real one. Then they drew on our classroom window, with window crayons, made crayon rubbings of a rose window image  that I outlined with hot glue to make it tactile. 

Finally the students made their own stained glass windows, using tissue paper and CD cases. They each chose several colors of tissue paper to tear into strips and shapes. Then they painted Mod Podge (or watered down Elmer's glue) onto the CD case.

Students layered tissue and another layer of Mod Podge to complete the decoupage on both sides of the case. Once the jewel cases were closed, students drew with black paint pens or sharpie markers on the outside to create shapes to go with the colors. (Mostly circles and colors). 

Repetition of concepts is crucial when working with students who have special needs. They need a variety of activities but these  build on the last ones. 

 

Mixed Media Bas Relief Sculpture

For an inexpensive art project that makes a big impact, I gave my students cardboard and let them get busy. They didn't plan anything out ahead of time, just chose a color of acrylic paint and started painting. 

The project itself is part of our mult-media art unit and this was our third week using cardboard. This assignment is specifically to create a bas relief sculpture. There needs to be layers to create a tactile image, of shapes, textures, colors, and pattern.

There was plenty of extra cardboard for students to cut shapes, many of which wet with a paintbrush so that the top layer of cardboard be peeled away to reveal the corrogated middle. I even had really thick cardboard that had an almost honeycomb center.

Stencils and spray paint were used on the bottom structure to activate the background and break up the space. Some students used masking tape to create stripes or plaid from the spray paint. There was no need to worry about the fact that a lot of it would be covered up, because the same types of stencils could be used on top layers and intentionally shifted to make for interesting use of space. Some students also used little wooden shapes or popsicle sticks to make the piece even more tactile. Because my students are blind, this is an important element to every art piece.

Some students used thin or thick cardboard cut into strips of various size that were then stood on edge, like quilled paper.

Collaged wall paper added another tool to add a focal point or a background pattern depending on how it was used. Everyone was so proud at the end of the week for figuring out how to make their relief sculpture one step at a time, by playing with values, colors, shapes, and just seeing what worked and what didn't. There's a life lesson in there somewhere.

 

Stripped Cardboard Mixed Media Art Project

Once they finished making cardboard mono-prints on paper (see my last blog post for instructions), my Art students didn't toss their cardboard "printing plate," they used it to create a new tactile finished piece of art!

The back ink that had been rolled on from printing gave it a nice dark undercoat. Students choose from a wide range of media to layer. Some collaged torn strips of scrapbook paper and others collaged carefully cut parts of wall paper. to keep those shapes from standing out too much, some used whisps of spray paint, or pastel (oil or chalk), to unify the parts of the image. A paper stencil of the subject, and spray paint created more contrast and help their focal point pop out a little. Patterned stencils were used to activate the background or add another layer of color. 

The piece of art that was made from the printing matrix is facing the opposite direction as the print. This is an important lesson for future print projects: left is right and right is left. If you are using words, you would have to write them backwards using mirror writing, like Leonardo daVinci did in his notebook. There are so many little fun things to discuss and learn in multi-media projects like this one. I just love how they turned out, and the fact that they're tactile is a double win for my students who are blind.

 

Cardboard Relief Prints

One of our first assignments for the year was a relief print using cardboard as a matrix. Students found or created a drawing that they taped to cardboard before I traced with an X-acto knife. Once there was an outline cut, students could wet the shapes they wanted to remove with a wet paint brush, and after a minute or so the glue would dissolve and they could peel back the top layer of cardboard to reveal all the corrugated bumps. Some students removed entire parts of the coardboard  to create three values (light, medium, and dark). 

Then students used a brayer and relief ink to evenly cover their cardboard with ink before placing a piece of paper on top and rubbing it thoroughly with their flat hands.

Once they had a print they could work back into it in several ways. It's important for the ink to be dry before adding layers so it doesn't smear around, but some students rubbed chalk pastel in parts to add a little color, while others used marker for bold colors. Some people made their prints on patterned paper to add a layer of interest without any post-print additions. I love how the cardboard texture adds such a distressed or vintage look to the images, and the areas of richer black make a bold impact. I wish I had experimented with this years ago, and may need to buy a gel plate to take the printmaking to the next level in the future.

 

Trip to Germany

A few hours in Frankfurt let me check out the highlights

Last month, my husband I visited our daughter in Germany for a week, and although we didn't spend a lot of time in Art museums, the architecture and history left me feeling like I had feasted on culture for the week. Here are some of the favorite cities we visited.

Heidelberg is a lovely old city with red roof buildings and a rich history. Much of the town is pedestrian only which makes it perfect for exploring its shops, restaurants, three gorgeous churches, and one of the oldest universities in Europe. The castle on the hill is easy to see from anywhere in the city. You can make the short but steep walk to it, or take the furnicular up. The castle was built in 1218 but suffered destruction from lightning strikes, fires etc. and each time it was rebuilt with new additions and updated styles over the next 400 years. One of my favorite parts of the castle was the apothecary museum, which walks you through the history of medicine. 

Mainz is home to the Gutenberg  and his famous printing press with movable type. Around 1455, Gentenberg printed 180 copies of the Bible. These were just commissioned pages that the buyer had to have someone illustrate and bound. About 48 copies of the Gutenbuerg Bible still exist today, and you can see a few of them here. As printmakers, my husband and I loved the demonstration of creating a mold, smelting lead to make the type, and then actually printing on a press that is a reproduction of the original Gutenberg press. Kirschegarten is a charming neighborhood in Mainz that translates to cherry orchard. All the half timber houses there were built in between the 1500's to 1800's. We stopped there for lunch. I would have loved more time to explore that city.

Strasbourg is in France, but it was just over the border and has actually gone back and forth as a German city to a French city many times. The cathedral is gorgeous and it's just a block away from the river tour is a great chance to get the history and sites from a unique view! The European Parliament is also in Strausbourg. La Petit France was an area of the city that was where all of the people who had contracted syphilis were quarantined hundreds of years ago. This is the cutest part of the very walkable city.  Strasbourg is famous for its Christmas markets and decorations, but I loved seeing the flowers everywhere. Try to find some traditional Alsatian food while you're there. It is delicious! 

Trier is a gem of a place just minutes from the Luxembourg/ Germany border. It is called the Rome of the North, and contains many ancient Roman treasures such as the largest standing Roman hall (now the oldest church in Germany), an ancient amphitheater and an elaborate bath house complex (Kaiserthermen.) The underground tunnels provide some relief from the summer heat. I ducked into every church I could find, as the doors are always open, but don't expect air conditioning. One of my favorite stops was the Lindt chocolate store, where you are greeted with samples and all sorts of unusual flavor options to buy a little pick-me-up.

Trier's Porta Nigra would have probably been dismantled like the other city gates for the the stones to be repurposed, had it not been for a hermit who lived inside the port for years. Later, this Roman gate was made into a church and named after that man. 

Trier Cathedral is one of the nine Midevil and Roman monuments that make Trier a UNESCO world heritage site. The courtyard has two churches in one and it feels like something out of a fairy tale!

And if you are looking for a place where there are virtually no tourists, look to Kaiserslauten, where there is a really special Japanese garden, and a short hike through the woods to explore free castle ruins (Burg Hohennechen) and a nice view. Nanstein Castle isn't far from there, and though it cost a small fee, it comes with a set of headphones for self guided tour, and some fun exhibits. I love how the castle is built right into the red rock cliff. 

 

Charles DeMuth Museum

A mile and a half from the hospital where I was born, is the Lancaster, PA home of Charles Demuth. He was a successful Modernist who was playing with the big time artists in New York City (at the time of Alfred Stieglitz) and Paris (at the time of Gertrude Stein). Demuth lived in this brick house with his family since he was six, in the late 1800's.

Demuth was proficient in a range of styles and media, but was probably most famous for his precisionists paintings like "My Egypt" and "I Saw the Figure in Gold" (1928) based on the William Carlos William's poem "The Great Figure" of 1921.

There is a gallery downstairs where local artists were having an exhibit, and a room with a short documentary about Charles Demuth playing on loop, but my favorite part was his studio upstairs, where he made 1,000 paintings and drawings. His 100 year old art supplies are still there, ready to be resurrected. And on the wall, is a small Georgia O'Keefe painting, gifted to him by the artist herself. She thought she was the most fun of the contemporary artists.  Next door is the Tabacco shop, which was a Demuth family business since the 1700's. Charles decided to do his own thing, but it's fun to get a feel for how his parents and grandparents made their living. 

It doesn't take long to drop in on this little treasure while exploring Pennsylvania Dutch Country.

 

Ohio Gardens and Art Day

The east and west coasts get a lot of credit for being the places to go for the Arts, but when I lived in Columbus, OH as a graduate student, I felt like I was in a cultural hot spot, with free evenings at the Museum of Art and bustling first Friday gallery walks. But it wasn't until this year, that I finally saw some of the free outdoor sights, including the Field of Corn (with Osage Oranges) by sculpture Malcom Cochran. This installation is a roadside attraction in Dublin, OH and was right by my favorite Columbus food places: W.G. Grinders for lunch and Graeter's Ice cream for dessert. You can park in a company parking lot and walk among rows of giant ears of corn, or rest in a hammock in the shade of the trees.

Columbus Park of Roses is another treasure that I never seen and in fact, didn't know existed until I saw a sign as we were driving down High Street. I'm so glad we took the detour because walking among a gazillion roses is a beautiful way to spend a morning. I imagine a lot of senior or bridal photo shoots have been done there. 

Downtown Columbus offers a Topiary garden where the School for the Deaf used to be. The bushes are sculpted to re-create the famous George Seauraut Painting "Sunday on the Island of La Grand Jatte." There's even a bronze reproduction of the painting to use as reference. 

Of course I had to make a pilgrammage to Ohio State University, with it's free Wexner Center for the Arts, and more importantly, the Hopkins Art building where I met my husband. Behind that entire 2nd floor wall of windows was the my studio (shared with my studio mate, Julie). And just inside those front doors was where I met my husband. There are always shows in the gallery on the first floor. The building to the right is where I taught drawing and 2D design every day. "Cultured Mind Skilled Hand" is engraved above the door.

The Franklin Conservatory ended up being a favorite stop of our Ohio Day. The children's garden was especially amazing, with tree houses and play houses, places for water play, hills for rolling down, and koleidoscopes for viewing plants. And the trains! I couldn't get enough of them. 

But of course, inside the conservatory was magical as well, thanks in part to the Chihuly sculptures that grace almost every room. There seems to be throughout the country to show is work in botanical gardens from Atlanta to Pheonix, and I'm here for it!

We had started our morning in Columbus early enough that we were able to still fit in the Toledo Museum of Art into our afternoon. If you are ever Northern Ohio, stop by the museum for free parking and free  admission. They have an impressive Matisse mosaic and a nice Asian collection. 

Many of the galleries were closed for renovations were closed for renovations, but the sculpture garden alone was worth the stop. And across the street is the Glass Pavilion where there are glass sculptures on display and they've got a hot shop to see glass blowing demos. It was a lot to do in a day, but nothing took so long that I wasn't able to make it to Michigan in time for dinner and a relaxing evening.