Paintings Inspired by Artist Emily Carr

After viewing the artwork of Canadian painter Emily Carr (1871-1945), the third grade students were inspired to create paintings of the Manistee National Forest!

Final Works

Stomp on it!

The first graders created textured pendants by stomping on a peice of clay. Students learned about the processes of firing and glazing the clay peices. They also learned a lesson in patience after making several attempts at stringing the bead/pendant and tying the string. In the end all students were sucessful!

I found this lesson on another art teacher's site http://www.useyourcolouredpencils.com

A Pleasant Surprise

As an elementary art teacher I tend to receive many drawings and notes from the students (I'm sure you other elementary teachers have the same experience). This note was an absolute gem, so I thought I would share it:

Recent Work

The aesthetic attitude

The twentieth century, American logician, Nelson Goodman, describes the act of viewing artwork in his article "Art and Inquiry" (Projects and Problems, 1972):

"We have to read the painting as well as the poem, and that aesthetic experience is dynamic rather than static. It involves making delicate discriminations and discerning subtle relationships, identifying symbol systems and characters within these systems and what these characters denote and exemplify, interpreting works and reorganizing the world in terms of works and works in terms of the world. The aesthetic "attitude" is restless, searching, testing-is less attitude than action: creation and recreation."

How can I compel my students to adopt this attitude? How can I exemplify this attitude in my own practice?