so the further and further i get into my journey through the college of education, i start to consider more and more ideas for lessons in my future classroom. although i can be very creative, i am often struggling to come up with original and unique ideas that i can use in my own future classroom. the purpose of this post is to provoke myself with ideas and force some creativity. one day i’m going to use these methods and whatnot in my classroom, and that thought is entirely exciting. if you happen to be a current or future art educator, feel free to dip into these ideas and spin them in your own way.
everyone knows that an artists greatest inspiration is often other artists that push them out of their comfort zone. something cool i thought to do was use artwork and styles of other artists to create projects for my students. some of the ideas i stole from pinterest, but many of them are completely my own. ideally, i would love to try each and every one of these ideas out and see what my students think. all of them seem pretty interesting!
dale chihuly
dale chihuly, for those of you who may not know, is a famous glass artist. what is cool about him is he uses a team of people to create his work, so although the ideas are his, the creation and installations are all done by other people. it’s a great definition of teamwork, and it also displays an awesome conception of color, while seemingly defying gravity and proposing a whimsical form of decor. the image on the top right from up above is the installation that is currently in the milwaukee art museum. the image on the bottom is something cool that a younger education classroom may enjoy creating, because it is simply water bottles spiral-cut and colored with multiple colors of sharpie markers. although it is not blown glass, such as something that chihuly would create, it still represents as well as demonstrates the movement of the glass, and it’s ideal for younger students (probably earlier elementary?). this is something totally cool, so if i ever do end up teaching in an elementary classroom, i’ll keep this in the back of my head.
roy lichtenstein
roy lichtenstein is known as one of the leading artists in the pop art movement (including others such as andy warhol and james rosenquist). his work predominantly uses primary color schemes, bold lines, and embraces the style of comic strips. his art also uses a large series of dots that are placed symmetrically where colors are placed, but black and white remain fully filled–which makes his style completely unique. this form of work would be interesting to do in a pop-art inspired self-portrait. i personally did a project using the influence of andy warhol, and i absolutely loved how it turned out, but this would be interesting to do for middle schoolers to improve their sense of symmetry in drawing, as well as give them the opportunity to create something that doesn’t necessarily need to be perfectly representative of value changes. the work would be interesting for both graphic design as well as using tangible mediums such as markers or acrylic paints, so there is a variety of ways this could be done interestingly, but the biggest thing is precisely placing those dots. i think it would be extremely cool.
andy warhol
seeing as i was already on a pop-art roll by mentioning lichtenstein, i figured i might as well include andy warhol in the mix. his bold lines and bright colors inspired me to create the self-portrait i displayed above. i love the use of a small amount of colors to represent value without needing to blend much, if at all. you can easily create a sense of 3-D value changes and light, and i think that is also a great opportunity to create a self-portrait. this would be more ideal for a high school classroom in my opinion, mainly due to needing to create a much more
“perfect” placement of color.
fab ciraolo
now, i just want to point out that fab ciraolo is one of my absolute favorite contemporary present-day artists. although he is not entirely famous, i really think his work embraces pop culture in a way that many artists have not thought to portray. not only do the images he creates capture their external physical features, but they also embrace culture of today. the images were originally introduced through social media sites as “american pop-culture icons turned hipster,” but i think they embrace so much more than that: self-expression, juxtaposition of personality and appearance (for some icons, especially judy garland etc. this would definitely have to be researched for yourselves–view a fantastic collection of images here), a fantastic use of color and visual appeal, and even something almost surreal and curious. i think the best way to use ciraolo in the classroom would be during a lecture focusing on current pop-culture, because his images provoke so many different opinions and thoughts in regards to current day culture, as well as cultures of the past. this form of “out-of-the-box” thought generation is something interesting and fun. many of his images are actually quite controversial, so it may be hard to do the research in any classroom that isn’t of high-school level, unless of course the images were hand selected by the instructor before class. even in high school, you will possibly need administrative approval, but i really think it’s worth it in the long run. in the classroom, the inspiration can be used digitally or through some form of physical media. i’m not sure how i personally would put it into a project, but it is a huge idea that i know eventually will be incorporated in my classroom.
fulvio di piazza
another excellent present day artist is fulvio di piazza. di piazza very often uses human and animal figure in his work. what leaves me in awe is the fact that he has extensive hyper-detailed paintings. yes, he uses oil paints to create the images pictured above. they are not digital, which took a long time for me to even comprehend because they are so very detailed and practically perfect. his work can be used to demonstrate multiple things: human figure, animal figure, use of nature in art, personification of inanimate objects, and even new perceptions of reality and fantasy. i would not use him as the sole source for an example for a class, but if anyone wishes to push boundaries and needs some inspiration, he would be one of my first choices. when i was in middle school we were asked to create images combining two “things” or “ideas”, so this idea is sort of an advanced spin-off of this, where i would have my students find a creative way to combine those “things” or “ideas” in a creative and purposeful way to make a statement. there is also a highly emotional aspect of di piazza’s work, in my opinion. they all use very dark colors (black, deep red, grey, dark blues, deep greens, grey tones), as well as bright blues and bright greens. there is fire, smoke, foliage, industrial representations (broken ladders, pipes, rope), and much more. it’s hard to stop looking at his images because they are always full of interesting detail and it’s almost like an “i-spy” game. here is a link to some more beautiful images.
although i can probably continue this list for eternity, i am going to conclude with just these five artists. i will definitely be posting some updates on these ideas in the future (while including many more artists), but i really wanted to get this posted so i can explore even more outside ideas. hopefully these artists are interesting to you, so definitely research them because they are definitely worth your time (especially the newer, present-day artists). thanks again for reading, i’ll be sure to post some more soon!
emilysparks 