SMART Earth Art

Today in SMART we finalized our discussion about Earth art. And, we were able to go outside and in groups try to make our own rendition of Earth art. Earth art  an art form that is created in nature, using natural materials such as soil, rock (bed rock, boulders, stones), organic media (logs, branches, leaves), and water with introduced materials such as concrete, metal, asphalt, or mineral pigments.  Sculptures are not placed in the landscape, rather, the landscape is the means of their creation. I was impressed with just how easy it was to make art using merely the world that we live. 

Here are a few pictures of what the different groups were able to come up with.......

SMART Pictograms

Today in SMART all groups were busy finalizing each of there pictograms. Most groups were putting the finishing touches on their projects while others were working steadfast to finish. From the looks of each group, all pictograms seem to look stellar and resemble a clear understanding by just taking a glance at there projects.

Here are a few pictures of the hard work we accomplished!

We will pic up our next SMART class with presenting our final projects to the class; while finishing our PowerPoint on Pre-Historic Art. 

Today in class all of the groups were working on their projects. Some are painting, and some are drawing. Looking around it seems like there are going to be a lot of cool presentations when we're all done!

Paleolithic Painting PowerPoint and Pictogram Project Planning

Today in lunch block SMArt, we finished up our Powerpoint on Paleolithic Paintings and began Planning our Pictogram Projects! (I'm having fun with this alliteration.) We reviewed the three main caves: Chauvet (France), Lascaux (France), and Altamira (Spain), and talked about some of the paintings found inside.

This painting (above) is the only painting in Lascaux Cave that depicts a human. We spent some time trying to figure out why the human isn't depicted in nearly as much detail as the bison (and why there's a bird on a stick). Although we can't know for sure, we think that humans simply weren't as important to the painter as animals, and also that the painter most likely didn't see many humans because of the secluded lifestyle during that time. As for the bird on the stick - we've settled on the "Paleolithic Lawn Flamingo Theory."

We discussed the main theme of this unit further: Why did these people create art? Because we can't know the answer for sure, we came up with lots of plausible answers. Perhaps they created art to teach lessons, or to tell stories. Maybe they were filling free time, since tools like the atlatl made it so they weren't spending all day hunting. It's possible that they were decorating the caves, trying to impress others with their ability to hunt, or using the paintings as target practice. Or maybe, they were just creating art for the sake of creating art - something that we can relate to thousands and thousands of years later!

We watched a great video about pictograms (above) and made some connections to the Paleolithic Art we had just been studying. Afterwards, we began planning out own projects: a series of pictograms that tell how to do something! My group was making instructions for a banana split. I can't wait to see the final products!

SMART Day 1

In our first lesson of Scholars Making Art, we went back to prehistoric time and learned about cave art. Cave art comes from the paleolithic and neolithic eras of prehistory. We looked at everything from sculptures such as the Venus of Willendorf to the more commonly known cave paintings. We discussed the subject matter of the paintings; they would often include scenes of animals and nature, a reflection of their interests and the world around them.

We used the Venus of Willendorf to explore the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or in this case, the society. Though today she would probably be written off as morbidly obese, at the time of her creation the Venus of Willendorf epitomized the ideal prehistoric woman. Finally, we dove into why prehistoric man created art. Even the experts don't know why exactly this happened, but we explored a lot of possibilities. One such possibility was that they created art simply because it was personally rewarding, fun, and something to pass the time. Another was that perhaps they used art to teach their children about the world they live in. There are so many possible reasons that we'll probably never know exactly why it was created.

Finger Paint for Everyone!

 

Our first day in SMArt was an eventful one!  We all were able to channel our inner child and do some finger-painting on the stage.  It was nice to get a chance to relax and enjoy the cool, gooey paint and smear it around the paper while listening to music.  

        Most people got very into the experience and created some cool art simply based on gestures.  While others, like in the image on the left, created representations of real objects.  Interestingly, this was meant to be a tree (a very cool tree) but when I was showing my daughters what I did in school yesterday, my five-year-old pointed out that this looked like a dress upside-down!

       Miss K and I even got in on the finger-painting action!  You can guess which side was hers...  I had fun though.  This is like my home away from home.  Even though I am not a great artist, I love coming to this class and trying out new things.  I have found over the years that everyone is quite capable of making great art, you just have to keep trying new techniques (and listening to Miss K, she is a wise woman!).  

     At the end of class, Miss K and I went over the main purpose of our class: to explore why people make art.  Since human beings had the first free time ever (once they had enough food to take a little break) the first thing they did was create art!  Why?  Why do people create art?  

     The lesson we did yesterday related to a movement in the mid 20th century in America called Abstract Expressionism.  After the activity (finger-painting!) Miss K and I hoped that students would have a better understanding of what artists like Jackson Pollock (see image above - Lavender Mists) were trying to show with their paintings.  Students correctly pointed out that Pollock was trying to show nothing more than how the work was created: his gestures!