Chihuly

Dale Chihuly is a famous glass sculptor.

"Glass itself is so much like water.

 If you let it go on its own, it almost ends up looking like something that came from the sea. "

After studying Chihuly's organic glass forms, the students wanted to blow glass.  There are many videos about his work on the internet and the students got very excited.  It wasn't possible to blow glass (why not?) and so we decided to try our hand at investigating his forms through melted plastic.  Our whole school wanted in on the project and so we all started to save clear plastic water bottles.

We collected plastic.

We cut, colored and melted the plastic.

 

We glued them into a sculpture and named it.

 

 

 

 

Clothespin Tree

 

After exploring with clothespins, students wanted to make a tree.  The Tree of Imagination, Design and Memory...  and add "memories of 4th grade" as leaves. 

 

 



Mobiles

 

 

Students have begun studying

Alexander Calder

who was an American sculptor known as the originator of the mobile, a type of kinetic sculpture made with delicately balanced or suspended components which move in response to  air currents.


"I used to begin with fairly complete drawings, but now I start by cutting out a lot of shapes . . . Some I keep because they're pleasing or dynamic. Some are bits I just happen to find. Then I arrange them, like papier collé [paper collage], on a table, and ‘paint’ them—that is, arrange them, with wires between the pieces if it's to be a mobile, for the overall pattern. Finally I cut some more of them with my shears, calculating for balance this time."

"I begin at the small ends, then balance in progression until I think I've found the point of support. This is crucial, as there is only one such point and it must be right if the object is to hang or pivot freely. I usually test out this point with strings to make sure before bending the wires. The size and angle of the shapes and how to use them is a matter of taste and what you have in mind."

"I feel an artist should go about his work with great respect for his materials. Symmetry and order do not make a composition. It is the apparent accident to regularity which the artist actually controls, by which he makes or mars a work."

"To most people who look at a mobile, it's no more than a series of flat objects that move. To a few, though, it may be poetry."
 



4th graders used pipe cleaners, paper clips and DVDs.

 

 

5th graders

 

 

 

Non-fiction

 

 

All students work on non-fiction projects in connection with their grade level curriculum.  There is always writing involved and sometimes it becomes a classbook.  Please check our school website for classbooks.

 

Finished art starts with a preliminary sketch, sometimes studying shapes, sometimes textures, sometimes using research to help add details.

 



kindergarten studied hibernating animals

 

 
 
first grade studied baby animals
 

 
fourth grade made books about animals

 

 
 
fifth grade used non-fiction research to add details and
non-fiction text features to make individual books