Tonight's picture was taken in April 2006. I was outside on our deck watering the plants. Mattie came out to observe me and wanted to be treated like a plant. So literally I took the hose and watered him. He thought it was an absolute riot!
Quote of the day: There is not a day that goes by that it doesn't cause me serious grief. ~ Rob Mitchell
I began my day at Mattie's school, in Donna's kindergarten classroom. I was there to conduct my second art session with the children. Last Wednesday we discussed Picasso and today we focused on Henri Matisse. You may be asking yourself...Why are we focused on these two artists only? It is the result of the wonderful children's book by Nina Laden entitled, When Pigasso met Mootisse. Donna introduced her class to this story earlier in the year. At the end of the book, the author encourages the children to learn more about these two rivals, who are considered the two most famous artists of the 20th century. In the Fall of 2010, Donna invited me to her classroom. She wanted to give me the opportunity to interact with the children, and she asked me what things or topics interested me. When I happened to mention art, she told me about Laden's book and her desire to expose the children to these artists. The rest is history. Donna and I have been brainstorming this project for months and I have worked hard at trying to present these artists in a fun and memorable way. My goal was to bring these great men to life and to also enable the children to see that art is within them. I want them to acknowledge that they are all artists and that art is a wonderful form of self expression and emotions!
I am fortune that my friend, Christine, has volunteered her time to help out during each of these art sessions. Because we really need her assistance and her insights. Each week, Donna records our reactions to working with the children, and Christine and I usually dialogue back and forth about her observations. Christine doesn't have a child in this classroom, she is simply making the time to help and spend time with me. I consider that not only touching, but the sign of a good friend.
The children remembered me from last week, and in a way, that recognition helped us jump right into content this week. I have been an educator to college and graduate students for many years. So I admit the five and six year old age group isn't where my training lies. I began this week's presentation by asking them questions about what we covered last week. I was expecting very little carry over to be honest. But guess what?! I was VERY wrong. They remembered Picasso, they remembered he was a cubist, that he was born in Spain, that he liked to paint at night and his studio was a mess. They remembered he began drawing and painting when he was their age, and actually as they kept reflecting on content, I was simply amazed. Those little brains are very much soaking up material and taking in all the visual cues I am showing them!
After our recap of last week, I began today's lesson by handing them stickers of the French flag. Since Matisse was born in France. Last week we visited Spain and this week we journeyed to France. I created a PowerPoint of slides so the children could see what Matisse looked like as well as see photos of his actual paintings. The children were fascinated to learn that Matisse grew up in a part of France close to the Belgium border. A location that wasn't the recipient of much sun. The buildings and town that he lived in were drab and really lacked color. Yet Matisse was known as the Master of Color! I asked the children how he could have learned about and developed such vivid colors in his art work if he wasn't surrounded by them. It turns out that Matisse's parents owned a seed store in town, and the store sold house paints. Matisse's mother helped customers pick out and match paints, and she passed on this skill to Matisse. In addition, Matisse's extended family were weavers. When he went to these factories, he could see materials dyed in all sorts of colors. This was the start of his love with colors. However, art was NOT Matisse's first career. Matisse went to school to become a lawyer and passed the equivalent of the bar exam. It wasn't until his 20's did he fall in love with art.
When Matisse was around 20 years old, he developed an appendicitis, which made him extremely sick and bed bound for a long time. His mother was caring for him and noticed he was getting bored. I told the children there was no TV, computers, or video games back then. So instead to occupy his time, his mom bought him a box of paints and gave him some paper. One of Matisse's famous quotes was, "From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life." Matisse credits his mother for introducing him to art.......the true love of his life.
The children learned that Matisse was one of the founders of the art style called Fauve. Which in French translates into "wild beast." This was NOT a complimentary title, but it was one that was developed for Matisse by his critics. Fauve painting uses raw color, lack of details, and wild brush strokes. Matisse's art work was not appreciated in his home country until after he died. His art however was always valued and admired in America. When Matisse reached his early 70's, he was diagnosed with cancer. After his surgery, he remained wheelchair bound and was unable to stand up and paint. However, that did not stop this artistic genius from creating. In fact, Matisse's spirit intrigues me. He loved art so much that nothing was going to stand in his way, and in his mid-70s he developed a new art form that remains popular today! His famous art form was called cut outs. Matisse would cut out shapes in colorful paper, and with the help of an assistant he would arrange them in artistic ways. The creation of each collage of cut outs could take months or years to develop and perfect. Since Matisse was so ill, and really wasn't mobile, he used his cut outs to bring nature and the outside world into his home. He would create cut outs of landscapes and sealife for example. These cut outs would be pinned to the walls of his house, until he was pleased with the composition. So in essence his home became his canvas and as he often says, cut outs were "painting with scissors." I showed the children a 47 second video today of Matisse creating a cut out and collage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlnBcaZEGb0
Later in the morning, the children had the opportunity to create their own cutouts. I provided them with pre-cut paper as well as uncut paper. They seemed to love the uncut paper and loved the idea that they could generate their own patterns from their imagination! Wonderful! By the way, just like last week, today I asked the children to raise their hands if they considered themselves an artist. Last week three children raised their hands. This week, seven of them raised their hands. It is my hope by next week, all 15 raise their hands. I am trying to reinforce in them that art is about shapes, colors, and imagination. That the feelings and the thoughts they bring into art makes it unique and special. Therefore, we are all artists in our own right.I captured some pictures of the cutouts being created today. As you can see each child had a piece of foam board, a paint brush for glue, and various forms and colors of paper.
I captured several of the cutouts today and wanted to share them with you. I loved the children's use of color and their own creativity with developing their own cutout shapes.
Just like last week, thanks to Donna, I have a wonderful voicethread to share with you. Just click on the this link below. Once the window opens up, the presentation will start on its own. Also you can click the right arrow key on the screen to advance pictures and see other videos!
http://voicethread.com/#q.b1892612.i0.k0
A VoiceThread is an online media album that allows a group of people to make comments on images, videos, and documents, really simply. You can participate 5 different ways - using your voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam). It's easy to control who can access and comment on a VoiceThread, which makes it a secure place to talk about almost anything: business and academic presentations, travelogues, family history, art critiques, language study, tutorials, book clubs and digital storytelling. A VoiceThread allows an entire group conversation to be collected from anywhere in the world and then shared in one simple place.
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