Destination Imagination: Splatter Paint Pollock Comes Alive!

Posted on March 20, 2012 by homeschoolhappymess

The modern artist is working with space and time, expressing his feelings rather than illustrating.

Jackson Pollock

 

Our Destination Imagination Senior Level team is alive and well.  They paint, glue, sing, create and compose.  This year they are faced with the seemingly impossible challenge of creating a 4-minute thriller introducing the audience to multiple cultures and leaving us all hanging on the edge of our seats, literally.

Think this looks innocent enough?  Look again.  Team I.C.E (Imagine, Create, Empower) is just getting started.

One thing they are sure they want to share with us is their love of spontaneity.  The disorder in our house is a true testament to this endeavor.

As a final memento to their Destination Imagination experience they have created a video that encapsulates their team experience.  And what better way to show their love for one another than to splatter paint everywhere?

If you are brave you may want to check out their I.C.E Productions Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsNKW9ybrVE

This group has really formed a very supportive team.   They have their ups and downs but they are learning to resolve conflicts, make compromises and share both the limelight and their various talents.

What better way to make friends than to struggle with an international challenge, study art, culture and language; laugh, create and perform while also learning complex construction techniques and unusual improvisational styles?

This Destination Imagination team has truly learned so much this year.

Please leave your paintbrushes outside, if possible.

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is not minding when your sink is multi-colored and so are your floors, walls, doors and clothes. 

Filed under: Art, Contests, Humanities, Theater | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

State of The Art: A Homeschool Studio

Posted on February 3, 2012 by homeschoolhappymess

I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.

Vincent Van Gogh

The best part of art is getting a chance to make it yourself.  With this in mind, Happymess kids have invited their friends over for an all-day art festival.  They plan to take their studies in to their own hands, literally, and create the paintings they have been studying.

Happymess kids have been studying Impressionism, modern 20th century art and various forms of sculpture.  They are particularly interested in Pointillism.   This school year, Happymess kids have had great fun visiting several museums in NYC and Washington, DC.

The artists they most want to learn from are Seurat, Van Gogh and Monet.  They have chosen three specific works to study.

Seurat: La Grande Jatte

Van Gogh: Starry Starry Night

Monet: Water Lillies

It is now time to try their hand at the artistic process.

They want to create a composite painting that will encompass several different Impressionist techniques and will reflect the work of Monet, Van Gogh and Seurat.

 We have almost a dozen children filling our small art studio.  They are involved in several projects simultaneously:  painting, gluing, folding, drawing and drilling.  The biggest obstacle is trying not to step on wet paint and buckets of glue.

The younger group is creating a sculpture from found objects.  This is a major project, with this being only the first step but they are hard at work building, gluing and constructing separate pieces to be added later.

Meanwhile, Van Gogh is beginning to make an appearance in this Impressionist collage…

Quantum is learning origami.  He is hoping, with his friends, to fold 1000 cranes so they can make a wish for good luck.

It is time to begin adding Monet to the masterpiece…

Finally, the composite Impressionist painting is completed.  The final painting is 8’ by 8’ and has been painted, in one day, by a total 5 student painters.

The best way to know God is to love many things.  Vincent Van Gogh

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is spending the entire day in the art room, studying and painting in the tradition of the grand salons.

Filed under: Art, Contests, Field Trips, History, Humanities, Theater, World Awareness | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments »

Exploring Pop Art

Posted on November 19, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

“They always say that time changes things, but actually you have to change them yourself.”  Andy Warhol

We have had a fascinating week exploring Pop Art and experimenting with different painting techniques.

Bounce and Scooter were entranced with Warhol’s colorful rendering of common objects.

Bounce abstract with hands

They loved the repetition and cartoon-like simplicity of Warhol’s silkscreen paintings.

We also read some simple biographies of Warhol’s life.  Bounce and Scooter sympathized with his childhood illness.  Quantum was more impressed with Warhol’s “partying” lifestyle and popularity as an adult cult figure.

We concentrated on learning to mix colors and mix media.

Bounce’s favorite style was the Jackson Pollock splatter paints.  He had a great time splattering paint and adding random leaves and twigs to enhance the texture of his paintings.

Jackson Pollock

Bounce abstract

Jackson Pollock Number 18

Bounce Abstract Number 2

We had fun comparing Pollock’s work with Bounce’s paintings.  We discussed that although it might be easy to imitate the works of famous pop artists, these ideas were once considered original.

Roy Lichtenstein Drowning Girl

Warhol, Pollock, Lichtenstein and others were among the first to create “art” with modern commercial techniques and images.

Athena: Girl and Mother

Athena loved creating pop art images of her family and friends.  She loves the irreverence of these images and the way an ordinary photograph can tell a story that is different from the original.

And isn’t that what art is really about?

All artists, in every media, strive to take a moment of reality and transform it into a story that highlights a unique world vision.  Art is an attempt to redraw the everyday so that important details are highlighted and specific ideas are communicated.

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is teaching our children to tell their own stories through art, creative writing and drama.

Filed under: Art, History, Humanities | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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