May 13th, 2013- May 17th, 2013
Art Studio Group:
Week Six Imagination Atelier
Week Six Imagination Atelier
Theme: “Out of Time and Place: An Exploration of Surreal Art Expression."
Students: Avalaine, Flynn, Sam, Thomas, Zane, Landon
This week in our Art Atelier we explored the idea of the "Surreal" as expressed through art.
The book incorporates three-dimensional letters placed on a stage. This stage may be a theater or a puppet show. Ask your child to use their imagination to decide. This imaginative process can help determine whether each page depicts something that was real or slightly tweaked (surreal). Some of the letters are clearly transforming in a surreal way, such as melting. The melting "M" is very similar to the melting clocks and you can ask them how this compares to the Dali painting.
Your child may be able to recognize that certain transformations might happen in our own reality. These transformations would not be considered surreal. Some examples of depictions that we recognized as "real" include a shoe squishing a foam letter and a block letter being coated with a layer of frosting. Some of the other transformations in the storybook definitely do not occur in our classroom or homes. For example, we decided that letters would not normally "vanish", "evaporate", "smoke", "grow horns", or "melt" thus those are "SURREAL!". Letters wrapped in blankets, or letters being snatched up by glove covered hands, might easily happen in our versions of what we consider reality. Thus we labeled those actions as "real".
On Monday we started with brown paper with blue paint. We used our fingers and brushes as our painting tools.
On Tuesday we used "Fancy" scissors to cut out our objects and we explored and decided where our objects would go tomorrow. Sam noticed right away that the zig zag scissors look like [alligator] teeth. Avalaine made stairs. Landon worked diligently creating many shapes using the fancy ridged scissors. He used most of atelier period to carefully and attentively cut many little creative pieces, which were later used to glue objects into our desert scene.
Wednesday we made a collective "surreal background" for our cut outs from the previous day.
On Thursday, it was time to add the elements of our artwork together by gluing the cut out objects to the settings that we drew for them. Thursday brought our final pieces into a unified artwork.
Friday was our Mock-Critique!!!! We shared our thoughts on our work and the process.
On Friday, we discussed our surreal art piece together. Each willing participant shared a little information about their new interpretations regarding their works. They used a long pointer show others which part of the collaborative work they were referring to. After making a piece of art, the meaning of an artist's piece can transform. Often this can occur when an outside observer reinterprets the work, and in some situations the artists themselves view their own work with new eyes. In this case, students almost all viewed the art that they had created all week with a different understanding.
Avalaine: "It's an elephant....playing with his mama and dada elephant."
Sam: "I made me when I was born. I was getting a baby in the picture. I was getting up to the sky and I was getting stuck."
Zane: "Mine is right here. It's a lion. It bites."
Outcomes:
We learned about Dali & Surreal Art. We explored melting clocks and what does and does not melt in our classroom and elsewhere. We created a monochromatic finger painting of an object, which we turned into Surreal Art by placing the object somewhere where it would not normally be. The setting was created collectively on one large sheet of paper, making it even more surreal with multiple settings on one canvas. Our group decided to use a desert as our setting, similar to the setting in the Dali piece.
We learned about Salvador Dali, a prominent Spanish surrealist painter. We learned what a painter is: "A person who paints!". We went on to examine Dali's famous piece "The Persistence of Memory" (1931). We used the wooden figurine as a caricature of Salvador. He gave the atelier lessons this week and was able to capture their attention as a puppet. Zane commented on the Dali puppet stating: "That's a nice guy." Later Sam took on the puppet himself saying: "I'm Dali."
We noticed that the clocks are "melting" and that they do not normally melt in our classroom. Other things do melt, however, including ice, snow, candle wax, and popsicles!! The clocks may be melting OR they may have turned into fabric like hanging towels on a tree. We can use our imaginations to decide.
The third element of the painting that we explored was that the clocks are in the setting of a dessert, near a water body. This is very odd. We were interested in talking about how "funny" it is that the clocks are performing such a strange action in such an unusual place. We find humor in placing an object in a setting in which it doesn't belong and have the object perform an actions, which it does not normally do!
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| Salvador Dali "The Persistence of Memory" (1931) |
We noticed that the clocks are "melting" and that they do not normally melt in our classroom. Other things do melt, however, including ice, snow, candle wax, and popsicles!! The clocks may be melting OR they may have turned into fabric like hanging towels on a tree. We can use our imaginations to decide.
The third element of the painting that we explored was that the clocks are in the setting of a dessert, near a water body. This is very odd. We were interested in talking about how "funny" it is that the clocks are performing such a strange action in such an unusual place. We find humor in placing an object in a setting in which it doesn't belong and have the object perform an actions, which it does not normally do!
Educational Home-Play for Parents:
Read Chris van Allsburg's "The Z was Zapped" to explore the question of "Is this real?" or "Is this surreal?". Please take this book out of the library and spend some time carefully looking over each page asking your child whether each letter would exist in real life, ie. in our homes or in our classrooms. Let them decide if they think that a "toy letter" in your home would do some of the actions performed in this book.
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| The Z was Zapped by Chris van Allsburg |
Read Chris van Allsburg's "The Z was Zapped" to explore the question of "Is this real?" or "Is this surreal?". Please take this book out of the library and spend some time carefully looking over each page asking your child whether each letter would exist in real life, ie. in our homes or in our classrooms. Let them decide if they think that a "toy letter" in your home would do some of the actions performed in this book.
The book incorporates three-dimensional letters placed on a stage. This stage may be a theater or a puppet show. Ask your child to use their imagination to decide. This imaginative process can help determine whether each page depicts something that was real or slightly tweaked (surreal). Some of the letters are clearly transforming in a surreal way, such as melting. The melting "M" is very similar to the melting clocks and you can ask them how this compares to the Dali painting.
Your child may be able to recognize that certain transformations might happen in our own reality. These transformations would not be considered surreal. Some examples of depictions that we recognized as "real" include a shoe squishing a foam letter and a block letter being coated with a layer of frosting. Some of the other transformations in the storybook definitely do not occur in our classroom or homes. For example, we decided that letters would not normally "vanish", "evaporate", "smoke", "grow horns", or "melt" thus those are "SURREAL!". Letters wrapped in blankets, or letters being snatched up by glove covered hands, might easily happen in our versions of what we consider reality. Thus we labeled those actions as "real". 
On Monday we started with brown paper with blue paint. We used our fingers and brushes as our painting tools.
On Tuesday we used "Fancy" scissors to cut out our objects and we explored and decided where our objects would go tomorrow. Sam noticed right away that the zig zag scissors look like [alligator] teeth. Avalaine made stairs. Landon worked diligently creating many shapes using the fancy ridged scissors. He used most of atelier period to carefully and attentively cut many little creative pieces, which were later used to glue objects into our desert scene.
Wednesday we made a collective "surreal background" for our cut outs from the previous day.
On Thursday, it was time to add the elements of our artwork together by gluing the cut out objects to the settings that we drew for them. Thursday brought our final pieces into a unified artwork.
Friday was our Mock-Critique!!!! We shared our thoughts on our work and the process.
 |
| Avalaine: "I painted a big big house in the desert." |
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| Avalaine: "The is food on the truck and trains in the water." |
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| Avalaine: "I have a jumping girl and a spinning girl." |
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| Sam: "A paint around the circle. I'm still making it!" |
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| Thomas: "I made a desert." |
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| Sam: I'm making a scary guy. |
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| Sam: "I made a dad AND a mom." |
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| Griffin: "Sam, tell me about your surreal art. What did you make?" Sam: "Candy, I tried to eat it....in the desert." |
Avalaine: "It's an elephant....playing with his mama and dada elephant."
Sam: "I made me when I was born. I was getting a baby in the picture. I was getting up to the sky and I was getting stuck."
Zane: "Mine is right here. It's a lion. It bites."
Outcomes:
We learned about Dali & Surreal Art. We explored melting clocks and what does and does not melt in our classroom and elsewhere. We created a monochromatic finger painting of an object, which we turned into Surreal Art by placing the object somewhere where it would not normally be. The setting was created collectively on one large sheet of paper, making it even more surreal with multiple settings on one canvas. Our group decided to use a desert as our setting, similar to the setting in the Dali piece.
