CPE1: Central Park East 1 Elementary School

Dear Families,

I am always so delighted and encouraged to see and talk with you either when you visit the school/ art room or at our special events like our Winter Concert and Art Exhibition and The Festival of Lights. So many questions arise and as usual there just isn't the time to answer them properly. Your questions tell me that you are interested in a variety of topics - "Why are creative art experiences valuable and valid for the child?", "What kinds of experiences are provided?", "What happens during the art lesson?" and "How do these experiences promote and contribute to future learning throughout the child's total educational life?"

Our school recognizes and supports creative visual arts. It is not viewed as a “fun or play time” but as a valid component to the child’s total learning experience. What a child creates by painting or working with clay demonstrates a comprehension and response that is unique within itself but moreover provides and supports pathways to reading, writing, using numbers and creative problem solving. Before children read or count they draw pictures and construct forms to tell “their stories.” Often these creations are misinterpreted or dismissed as ”childish scribbles or piles of stuff” but in fact they are valid, perceptive visual responses that are fundamental to all future learning. In time these scribbles and constructions evolve into recognizable images due to the development of the child’s fine motor skills and visual and cognitive thinking, which in turn support all future learning, work and social interaction.

Often children’s work is praised for its seemingly “modern, abstract art” appearance. This is a misconception. It looks like it does because it is made by children who are evolving, observing, discovering and making sense of themselves and their experiences through on-going physical, mental and visual development through manipulation of art materials. It is a fact that such artists such as Picasso, Klee and Matisse drew inspiration from children’s work but their purposes were those of adult, highly skilled artists who consciously chose motifs for their means of expression.

Children love to talk about their art work. Ask them to tell you about it, encouraging a conversation that arises from their stories and observations. Pose specific questions - What is happening? Why did you choose that color? What was difficult to do? How could you improve it? What did you like best? and What would you like to do next? All those “childish” images/constructions will be viewed and respected in a different light of understanding. Children tell their “stories” through their art work and it is this vital, honest truth that is at the heart of everything they create.

The Art Program provides a variety of stimulating two and three-dimensional experiences for visual learning and application.

Two-dimensional work is flat work, such as drawing, painting, collage and printmaking. Here the child creates by drawing, painting and composing with paper. Often materials are combined, such as collage with drawing, which is called ”mixed media” These experiences enable the child to make sense of their world and feelings by recording with paint, crayon, pencil, marker and paper.

Working with paper is fundamental because it requires the child to engage in two tasks -- visualizing the desired shape and then creating it by either tearing or cutting with scissors. When using scissors this operation is more highly refined and complicated. First the child must visualize the shape and then use the tool to create it. This is a highly sophisticated operation, integrating visual thinking and eye-hand coordination.

When a child draws or paints they make choices as to the arrangement of shapes, lines and colors. and application of paint. These compositional elements are the word pictures that communicate meaning, intent and feeling. Making a collage is an immediate, tactile contact with the materials, making compositional choices by physically arranging and rearranging the shapes to the desired effect. This is a total learning experience, mind and body.

Three-dimensional work is tangible, it can be picked up, created in the round, such as construction, paper-mache, puppets, sculpture, clay and sewing. When a two-dimensional image, which is called a shape, is created in the round, it is called a form.

Translating shapes into forms provides another dimension for the child’s vision and creative expression to grow. It opens new pathways for endless possibilities for visual learning. Thinking three-dimensionally supports and permits the child to create by combining thinking and doing through creative problem solving, a total integrated learning experience.

When a child works three-dimensionally, regardless of the project or media, they make choices by experimentation with materials and methods of construction, integration and manipulation of materials thus arriving at conclusions and solutions by creating and translating a two-dimensional idea into a three-dimensional form. This is a very complex and sophisticated operation, requiring a variety tasks, both physical and mental. Whether it be a pre-k child pinching and pulling clay or an upper school student constructing a paper-mache animal the work demands the same variety and application of integrated learning modalities. regardless of age or level of development. Words cannot express the delight a child’s face radiates when he or she holds their creation in their hands and declares, “I made this!”

In order for children to fully participate in their work the subject matter must be appropriate, that is, engaging, imaginative and challenging. Children, like all artists, create from two sources:

1. Direct Observation - Visually recording, either two or three-dimensionally the immediate experience, situation or environment. This may be a still-life painting, clay sculpture, self-portrait or a model of the art room or any subject which the child observes while simultaneously recording their responses.

2. Remembered/Imaginary Experiences - Visually recording, either two or three-dimensionally remembered/ imaginary experiences such as “A School Trip, “My Family”, “I Am IceSkating with My Friends, “If I Were a Bug in the Garden” or any other subject of imagination and/or fantasy

It is from these two sources or combinations of each that subjects for projects arise in addition to current/topical themes and school-wide curricula. Often the children offer more inspiring suggestions which are always relevant and engaging because they arise from their interests and and visual development.

Each art period, regardless of level or project, has a consistent, structured form.

Opening Meeting -

Establishing the environment of the art room

Introduction to projects

Demonstrations of techniques and materials

Student sharing of their work

Re-visiting projects in progress

Work Time - Individual participation in the art activity "Making the Rounds" This is the time when I work individually with each student.

Clean-Up - Students clear the work space, put away their work and materials and get the art room ready for the next class.

Closing Meeting - An opportunity for students share their work, engage in conversations with and ask questions.

A preview of the next art class

We started the year by working through a variety of media, drawing, painting and collage. These were short-term projects for the purpose of establishing routines, procedures and review of foundational art experiences and materials. The students chose their own subject matter which gave them a safe point of departure and an opportunity for me to observe and plan for upcoming projects. After these initial experiences we began full-length, frontal self-portraits drawn with cray-pas. I chose this project for the following reasons. Students are always ready and eager to tell about themselves and self-portraits provide a rich variety of visual learning experiences that are basic and necessary for future visual learning and expression.

Drawing a full-length self- portrait is a highly complex, multi-layered task. It requires the child to observe and then draw what they see paying attention to proportion, sequence of body parts and details of facial configuration and clothing. We have several full length mirrors which the children consulted as they drew. When they viewed themselves as a whole they were able to see their physical presence and the relationships and proportions of their body. Often they were surprised to see and learn that their shoulders were wider than their head, that their arms stretched down below their waist and that their thumb was shorter and different from their fingers. This kind of questioning observation is a result of the child's ability to recognize and document differences size, shape, proportion and color.

Next we shifted from working two-dimensionally with the self-portraits to the three-dimensional experience of working with clay. Our new kiln is up and going firing the students glazed pieces which were on view in the Art Room during the Festival of Lights. Clay is so inviting: asking us to be totally engaged by touching, pulling, pinching, rolling and squeezing. The students love it! Initially the students experimented in order to learn the nature of the medium, but now they are modeling and constructing pieces which will eventually be fired and glazed. As inviting as clay appears, it is very demanding and requires constant care and attention. The students have learned how to keep it moist, work it to get rid of the air bubbles and most importantly, how to construct by scratching and using slip. The completed pieces, "green-ware", were left to dry and then "bisque" fired. After the bisque firing the pieces were painted with liquid colored glazes and returned to kiln for the final glaze firing. If these terms are "foreign" to you, just ask them, they"ll explain! We have an ever-growing array of animals, birds, monsters, dinasaurs and figures.

As the children were constructing their clay pieces we took time out to look at photographs of all sorts clay work from different times and cultures. We talked about the variety of subject matter, where the pieces came from and how they were constructed. During our conversations the children remarked "Those pieces are made from the same kind of clay that we use!", "They had to make a base so their animal could stand up, just like I did!" and "That's the same kind of texture I used on my dragon's tail!"

We have returned to the figure, but instead of a static, full-frontal view, we have taken what we learned and experienced from the earlier project and expanded it with the addition of color mixing. Now the children are painting "people in motion". telling about ice skating, playing in our new and amazing playground, activities at home, trips and/or any activity that depicts movement of the body for a specific purpose. We have just started these paintings, but already the children are fascinated by the power color plays in their paintings. They are discovering how to mix a variety of browns, how to lighten colors and how to mix shades within the same color family. Color sets the tone, mood, environment and atmosphere of a painting. Much color mixing results from what I call "happy accidents" and the children are enjoying these discoveries, but when a specific color is desired for a specific purpose they are ready for the challenge and their work shows it.

It is my purpose that each child’s art experience be a meaningful combination of two and three-dimensional experiences, thus provisioning for optimum creative and mental growth, self-esteem, as well as comprehension, application and respect for the creative process.

Now let me tell you what each class has been learning by creating.

YVONNE, ERIN and CATLIN

- drawing - crayon, craypas, marker - painting - watercolor and tempera - collage - torn and cut paper, fabric, fiber - mixed media - clay -creating forms by pulling, pinching, rolling and creating textures

MARILYN

-drawing- pencil,crayon, craypas and marker -painting, watercolor, tempera - mixed-media - clay -creating forms by pulling, pinching, rolling -creating textures and constructing by using coils, slabs and attaching by scratching and using slip

MAGGIE

- drawing - pencil, crayon, craypas and marker - painting- watercolor, tempera - Mixed media -collage -clay - creating forms by making pinch pots, constructing with coils and slabs, attaching by scratching and using slip and decorating by creating textures with hands and tools

CHRISTINE

- drawing - pencil, crayon, craypas, marker -painting - watercolor, tempera - mixed media - collage -clay - creating forms by constructing with coils, slabs, pinch pots, attaching by scratching and adding slip and creating textures by hands and tools

CORINTHIA

-drawing - pencil, craypas, marker - painting - watercolor, tempera - collage - mixed media - clay - creating forms by making pinch pots, constructing with slabs, coils or a combination of both, attaching by scratching and slip, decorating by creating textures with tool

JOSE

-drawing -pencil, craypas, marker - painting - watercolor, tempera - mixed media -collage - clay - creating forms by making pinch pots, constructing with coils, slabs or a combination of both, attaching by scratching and slip, decorating by creating textures with tools

*** We are very delighted and fortunate to have a student teacher who will be with us in the Art Room. Her name is Lee Dolan and she comes to us from Teachers College. She is an artist in her own right and has had previous teaching experience.

Please feel free to visit the art classes and join in the projects.

Thank you, especially for your children. They make my work a joy!

Tim Lively