Art Spirit

My Chrysalis Self --Artist in Residence Program - Marie Gibbons at Devinny Elementary

Where to begin with the transformation this collaboration has taken over the past 3 years we've had clay artist  Marie Gibbons at our school.   It is very exciting to know that the children will experience the  kind of art making that is intensely focused as well as opening them to a new understanding of he curriculum they have learned in other content areas. We are so fortunate at Devinny to have such a vital and supportive school community.  The students in the 3^rd grade classes will be continuing this vitality by working with clay artist Marie Gibbons in a five-day Artist in Residence Program.  The Devinny Elementary community, the Devinny PTA, the Science and Cultural Facilities District and donations from students in Mud Club made this wonderful arts experience possible for the 3^rd grade students.

The Artists in Residence Program with Marie Gibbons began on Wednesday March 17, 2010 through Tuesday March 23, 2010   with morning as well as afternoon workshops with the 3^rd graders and scheduled afternoon studio time/visits with the classrooms from the entire Devinny school community. On Tuesday March 23, 2010 from 6pm-7pm in the cafeteria   an exhibition of the students’ art work created with Marie Gibbons as well as a presentation by Marie Gibbons about her own work/studio practice.

The students in the 3^rd grade classes will created hand built clay sculptures and paintings entitled My Chrysalis Self  that were informed by the overarching 3^rd grade Concept  of Change as well as their learning in the unit Life Cycles in the 3^rd grade Science Curriculum Alignment Project. This science, social studies, language arts and art integration will support and weave together the students learning while creating the hand built My Chrysalis Self Sculpture. 

Some of the Essential Learnings are: 

Life Cycles: How do life cycles of different organisms compare and contrast?

First Americans unit for Social Studies: Chronology helps us to understand change over time.

Language Arts: How do characters in a story change over time?

Visual Arts: Art communicates ideas and ways in which color/value communicate an idea/emotion.

Within the art works of My Chrysalis Self the students addressed the concepts of change including imagery, texture, patterns. The clay sculptures with cold finishes (acrylic paint) demonstrated the learning of the concepts of change in imagery, pattern, color, idea and texture as it relates change and to their lives changing as well. Wonderful! 

Marie Gibbons is a regionally and nationally recognized clay artist. Marie states about her studio practice: “Working in clay and mixed media allows me to give form to those things I have in my imagination, to materialize the ways in which I see the world. Art is my way to discuss, give advice, examine, and to always keep a sense of humor about life in general.”  Marie comes to us through THINK360 Arts. THINK 360 Arts is a leading provider of arts education programs and services statewide. THINK 360 Arts is an affiliate of the Kennedy Center Alliance for arts Education Network and Young audiences Inc.

 The whole week of working, visiting and firing the clay works culminated in a very positive story on 9News about the Artist in Residence Program  at Devinny. Very wonderful !  

 

creating a figure in action: completing with collage

The final video in how to create a figure in action is adding on a collage of magazine images... Enjoy!

creating a figure in action: adding the wheat paste and paper

Here's the next step in making the figures adding paper and wheat paste --- messy work but the children love it!

Papiroflexia by Joaquin Baldwin

Beautiful...

making a gargoyle from clay: 6th grade

Here's a another video demonstration. I love doing this the students really enjoy watch they see the steps and see the end result very quickly --- I asked them if this format worked for them and all felt it was "Awesome!" and they even love the music behind it all :)

creating a figure in action: the armature, using proportion

It would be an understatement to say that I was excited about these videos:) A couple of weeks ago I made demonstration videos the 5th graders ---We are studying the figure, armatures and movement as expressed by the figure. The above are the demonstration videos I've shown my students. What's wonderful is the students love this format for their learning. They can see from where ever they are in the classroom what I'm doing--- we stop the video and talk about what was just made , we look ahead to the next step at the end of class. I will most definitely be posting more images and what the children came up with when we get there --- for now this is wonderful learning for us all :) Enjoy!

Reflection is like hairspray.

Yes. Reflection is like hairspray. Not  enough and all the 'work done' goes flat  too much and the whole thing is stiff. Reflection of any kind is at a  tremendous risk of becoming too self referential and too much about the act right then rather than the learning of the whole. Having  just completed  the input of grades for my students --- approximately 2,500 total--- I am wondering and rightly so about grades and grading and the process of learning which is supposed to happen in between. I believe learning does happen.  Often I tell my students that when they are 40 years old  they will  still have this or that art work  they made --- and  what I don't say but wold love to be there when they discover---  they will also have the experience of the making of the work -- the way the room was lit by the daylight , the sound of the   music and the overlay of voices  as they worked, the sound of a brayer loaded with ink, the smell of the clay or the paint and how it feels-- how it really feels-- to create a 'something' and how that is so close to the center of understanding and  true learning that  when they look at that piece on their counter top, or find it in the back of their closet  when they are moving for the 100th time in their adult life they will find the experience, the learning, the feeling of the making alive there too ---- and then this is where the grade, the reflection of the progress, process, and product  falls away and what is left is the gift that is learning, discovery, creativity, true problem solving , true understanding.