Sunday, January 11, 2009

Unplugged - Square Art

The theme this week inspired us to look into famous "square" artists. Picasso was the first to come to mind (think Cubism), but the lovely book called Math-terpieces reminded us that Mondrian was also quite angular. The book is meant to introduce mathematical sets to older kids, but the examples of art pieces and accompanying poems were perfect for E.

We read the book together on Friday night, then tried our hand at abstract art on Saturday. I gave E a little canvas and some blue masking tape cut into thin strips. We looked at the example in the book, and E used the tape to mask off squares, sort of. Then I gave her just the primary colors to work with, and if you know E, you know that she promptly combined them all into some unnamed shade between purple and brown. She painted happily, though, and was pretty proud of herself. I wasn't sure she knew that we were using the book for inspiration, until she commented, "Mommy, he left some of his picture white." :)
Then on Sunday, we tried to imitate Picasso, sort of. I cut some pieces of random faces and some angular shapes out of magazines, and gave E another canvas. This time, she pieced together some Cube-ish faces, and seemed to approach it as sort of a puzzle. She did not mind that the eyes didn't match, or that parts were facing different directions. I wonder how long that freedom of expression will last!I think these activities would be great for a variety of ages...E certainly did entertain me with her uninhibited comments! When I told her how Jackson Pollock would throw the paint around, she said, "He shouldn't do that." The only thing she found odd about the Picasso (a woman with eyes facing two different directions) was that he didn't paint a ceiling in that picture. I asked her what Dali's clocks were doing, and she said, "Ticking." Duh. But she saved the best for last...Andy Warhol, according to E, did not paint soup cans, he painted beer cans. Um, file that one under seriously questionable parenting.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOVE your square project!! I couldn't get excited about anything this week, and THIS... YES very exciting! :) NOW, the key of course, is to do it with my kids and not throw all my expectations onto them! :)

Crescent Moon said...

Very cool! I love all the different projects that a single word can inspire.

Anonymous said...

Oh, her art is fabulous! The book sounds great too. LOL at the beer cans! :)

Anonymous said...

very cool we did something similar!

Dayna said...

wow - your art came out so nice! I love the one with the taped off section.

Isn't it great how kids see the world?

Snuffin Muffin said...

The cubist painting is the most beautiful thing i've ever seen. I cant wait to see my babies.

Anonymous said...

Math-terpieces is a great book. I've used it as inspiration for some fun projects in my classroom. Those unplugged projects are so fun to take and run with! Great interpretations. The Piet Mondrian is wonderful. :)

naomi said...

Those are some lovely pictures!

 
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