Eric Carle Inspired Story Collage

This art project was a tribute to Eric Carle and his creations of children literature through stories illustrated with painted, tissue paper collages. For my story I used tissue paper to create the sunset on the first page and painted paper for the night sky on the next page. The ground, moon, and ants were cut from other classmates painted papers. The inspiration for the story depicted came from the idea that Eric Carle's stories seem to have more than one purpose to them. For example, "Brown Bear" has colors and animals. In a classroom, the book could be used for either of those concepts. The story I created talks about the changes in nature. Leaves turning brown, sun and moon rising and setting each day, and children growing up.
The baby ant is concerned that the sun will go away forever but the mother ant assures the baby that the sun will come back just as the moon has on the next page.
An extension activity for this project would be for the students to pair up and come up with their own storyline that can introduce at least 2 concepts to younger children. The partners will have to illustrate the book and then present it to a group of kindergarteners.

Lei Day

This lei was created using construction paper and watercolor paper. The flowers were cut from squares of construction paper and from a watercolor picture using crayon resist and paint blowing techniques. The lei is created by punching holes into the paper flowers and stringing them on to a length of yarn alternating between a flower and a 1 inch length of straw. Once the lei is fully strung, the artist ties off the yarn and can then wear the lei. The inspiration for the project was to learn about the significance of Lei Day celebrated in Hawaii on May 1st of each year. People make and give away their leis to important people in their life.
An extension activity for this project could be to have the students learn how to perform a traditional Hawaiian hula dance and then perform it for the faculty and the younger students in the school.

Marbled Sightseeing

This bulletin board is a presentation of an art lesson created by students marbling their drawings of attractions from around the world. The students had to draw a particular attraction using another picture as a reference. Once they had outlined their drawing in permanent marker the students marbled their picture using paint and shaving cream. The students added their choice of paint colors to a layer of shaving cream, swirled the paint however they chose, and then pressed their drawing, face down, into the paint. When the page is pulled up from the paint/shaving cream mixture, a scraper is used to remove the excess shaving cream. The paint remains, leaving a marbled effect. After the students had framed and labeled their work, the teachers; my partner and myself; created a map of the attractions to visit. The background of the bulletin board is the world with the continents cut out of different colored paper. The attractions are then placed on the board as near to the exact location on the map as possible. Yarn is used to show where the attraction actually belongs taking care to not obstruct the view of any other student's art.
An extension activity for this bulletin board would be to give the students, as groups, the task of creating a tour on Google Earth. Specific sights would need to be included in the tour along with features of the program that zoom-in to view the attractions through photos of the location. Then the groups will present their different tours to the rest of the class so everyone has a chance to travel the world.

Marbled Kremlin

This art project was a demonstration of a marbling technique using shaving cream and paint. The paint remained but the shaving cream is scraped away. The requirements of the project were to free hand a picture of a landmark or piece of architecture using a coloring page as a source. This picture of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia was drawn with permanent marker and then marbled using the colors purple, orange, and red. The picture was then glued to a piece of construction paper and then cut to frame the piece. The label was added with a metallic marker.
An extension activity for this project would be to have the students research the demographics of the city or country that houses their attraction. The students will then create a pamphlet advertising their attraction by using the information they discovered with the cover photo being their marbled depiction of the sight.

Crazy for Coils

This pot was created using air drying clay in the coil technique. The inspiration behind the project was Egyptian culture that included handmade pottery. A requirement of the project was to create a design or a symbol that represents my culture. The symbol I chose was a sun which was placed inside my pot. The sun symbolizes my love for summer days and the necessity of the sun for the agricultural centered region I grew up in. The rainbow on the outside of the pot symbolizes the need for rain and the beauty that nature gives us.
An extension activity for this project could be to have the students research a culture of their choosing and then create a poster of symbols significant to these cultures. The students will then present their research to their classmates. If time allows, the students will compare symbols to see if there is any similar symbols or meanings of the symbols across the different cultures.

Obstacle Course

This project is an example of 3-D paper art. The different 3-D shapes were created by folding, twisting, and gluing the shapes to a piece of paper. The paper was meant to give the project the effect of depth using 2-D paper manipulated to stand up from the surface. The inspiration for the project was Dr. Seuss' "Oh the Places You'll Go." In the book, the illustrations are of scenes that have architecture and landscapes that give the illusion of depth in the drawings. In my artwork, I felt that the best illustration of 3-D art would be the tubes, hoops, and stairs that dogs have to manipulate when they are performing at a dog show. Because of that idea, I decided to create the Whoville's Dog Show Obstacle Course. The dogs start at the orange hoop, continue through until the end at the yellow funnel, and then take their place on the winners' stand.
This project could be an introduction or extension activity to a math lesson in which the students are starting a geometry unit about computing volume of 3-D figures.

Printed Railroad

This art project was created by the technique of printmaking. The stamping process was used to create the train cars of a freight train carrying a resource from South Dakota. Because the requirement of the project stated that the artist needed to portray South Dakota landscapes, I decided to draw a bridge over a little creek. My train is carrying corn from a South Dakota farmer's field to a city far from our flat state.
An extension activity for this project could be to have the students use the printmaking technique to create a stamp that is 3x3 inches in size. The students can then use their stamps to stamp an envelope that has a letter written during their Language Arts class. It is an opportunity for the students to show the person they addressed their letter to a piece of their writing and artwork.