“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
If you visit the pre-K to 2 visual arts classrooms you will find this quote by Pablo Picasso. This quote has driven the foundation of my visual art classroom because it rings so true. If you spend time with anyone under the age of five you will be overwhelmed by their creativity, individuality, and confidence but as our students grow and become more self aware they often lose these characteristics. My goal as an art teacher is to help students embrace these characteristics, give them a safe space to try new things and project guidelines that breed creativity instead of copying. Part of how we do this is by cherishing the process instead of the product that is created.
As the pre-K to first grade art teacher I am lucky enough to often be a student's first experience with different art mediums. My hope is that these first moments become memorable moments that drive that desire to always want to create. At the end of the day our students remember the process and not the product that was created. This year my students got to live this out in a new and very special way. For the last five years, Rome Area Council for the Arts has teamed up Redmond Regional Medical Center to honor the arts and Heart Health Month by creating heart statues that live in our downtown area for the month of February.
I knew I wanted to use this opportunity to celebrate the process with my students so I applied for a heart garland that celebrated the work of Jackson Pollock and Jim Dine. These two artists were kings of embracing the process! I was so excited when we got approved and received our white heart garland!
First, we learned about Jackson Pollock and the amazing textures he was able to create. We threw in some color theory and embraced our cool colors. It was then time to get to work. We put on a base coat of color using rollers and texture combs then we used bath loofahs, bubble wrap, string, and toothbrushes to add some extra special textures.
The next part is where math came into play… Each student got to pick a square on our heart and draw a heart using white chalk and the V with two humps method. After all the hearts were filled in with white paint we looked at the work of Jim Dine. We mainly focused on his heart paintings and observed the colors he used and the textures he created. We decided to use the best paint brushes God gave us, our fingers and some warm colors to add some contrast to our hearts.
Next, it was time to put it all together! We finished our hearts with a quote by Jim Dine that we try to live out in our classroom every day. “More important than having a romance with the object that i’m drawing is to have a romance with the mark that I am making.” In art, like with most things, it is about enjoying the moment and doing the best we can.
If you are in Rome I encourage you to walk around downtown and enjoy the art that is displayed by so many talented artist in the community! But make sure you visit the walking bridge, behind the Forum, where you will find our pre-K to 2 HeART garland that was created to celebrate the process.
