I thought it would be fun for my first graders to see a famous artist who is close to their age. They were amazed to see someone so young create large abstract art. They really went crazy over how messy she gets while she's painting, I think that was one of their favorite parts!
First I showed them photos of "Abstract Expressionism" artwork. We discussed what they see, what they think it means, etc. They learn that abstract expressionism usually has no specific recognizable subject, but it's still trying to convey emotion.
Then I show them the paintings that their project will be based on. They still don't know who created the artwork. They guess how old the artist is; where they live; what they used to make the piece; and how large they think is it?
First we watched the "Secret Universe" video of her creating her paintings.
Then we go online to explore her website: http://www.aelitaandre.com/
Here is a link to some additional videos.
Here is some information we discussed:
-Born January 9, 2007 (they always want to know her birthday)
-She's from Australia
-She begin painting at 9 months old
-Her work was publicly displayed by age 2
-Her first solo exhibit was in New York at age 4
*She is an abstract expressionist artist*
Now they finally get to learn about what they will be doing for their project. They will have to work collaboratively as a class to make one final piece of art. We created our artwork on donated foam board that was 4'x6', and made holes at the top to tie rope so they could hang. They could choose any of the materials and use them however they want to, but they must think about adding "to" the art and not just completely covering over it.
We spent the entire next class period creating our collaborative piece. They grabbed an art shirt and sat in a circle around the foam board (leaving space to walk around it). We briefly discussed how they could fill up the background space and then layer details on top of it.
I laid out a variety of objects/supplies for them to use:
-Paint
-Brushes
-Foam brushes
-Rollers
-Squirt bottles with paint
-Hand soap bottles with paint
-Spray bottles with paint
-Yarn
-String
-Ribbon
-Feathers
-Bubble Wrap
-Bingo chips
-Playing Cards
-Scissors
-Forks
-Buttons
-Pipe Cleaners
-Rope
-Beads
I would pick five students at a time to pick their item and add/use it however they wanted on the piece. I kept going around and around the circle only letting five students work on it at a time (for about a minute). The other students would watch and discuss ways to change it, or just laugh every time paint would squirt all over the place. They started by painting the bottom, added thicker layers by squirting it on the top and then push the three dimensional pieces into the thick paint.
We made five total pieces; one for each first grade class. It took a day or two to completely dry; but the foam board is so thick that you can easily move them to another location. One was displayed at the Mall Art Show and the others were hung in the school hallways. They were a huge hit! People thought that the fifth graders had created these, which made my first graders pretty proud!
