Louise Nevelson Inspired Fish Assemblage Project

We started a project a couple of weeks ago based on Louise Nevelson's monochromatic assemblages.  Mrs. Luker happened to have a bunch of donated soy milk cartons, which we thought would make a great base for the fish assemblages.  I contacted the owner of 'Ol 42 Grub House to see if it would be possible to exhibit the fish there, and they gave us the green light.

First we took a look at Nevelson's work...

We discussed how these assemblages are made up of many different objects and painted one color, which solidifies all the objects as one cohesive piece and in turn, creating something new.   Because we are creating fish, we thought it would be a good idea to also look at Sandy Skoglund's piece, Revenge of the Goldfish....

We talked about how the fish are all the same color, the background is also one color.  Like Nevelson, Skoglund uses a monochromatic/limited palette.  

We began brainstorming ideas for our carton fish and using cardboard, straws, bottle caps, as well old donated and discarded items to suggest fish parts.  Soon eyes, fins, and tails began to emerge....

The following week, we began painting.  After a short discussion, we decided to divide the kids in half.... some would paint their fish all white, some all black, with 3 students chosen at random painting orange fish as accents.  

I can't wait to see these fish finished and hanging at 'Ol 42 Grub House!  They are really coming along.  

We are also starting our 2 panel fruit and vegetable mosaics, which will be hung in the school cafeteria.   This is a big project and will involve the entire 4th grade class as well as art enrichment students.  See you next week! 

Our 5th Year!

We have begun our FIFTH year of art enrichment this school year.  Can you believe it?  The first art enrichment participants are now in 8th grade.  Time sure flies!

We started with something called The Hexagon Project.  Unfortunately with all the snow days, I was absent for the first few art enrichment classes as the middle schoolers were finishing up the Darby Creek Mural project.  The Hexagon Project is actually for 5th - 12th graders, but as usual Mrs. Luker and I feel that the 4th graders can rise to the challenge.  We chose the topic inspired by a picture that made the rounds on facebook:  "Qualities Not Measured by Tests".

The resulting works will be displayed in the school as an installation piece.

Students came up with very interesting visual images to go along with their topic...

Our next project will result in an installation in a local restaurant called 'Ol 42 Grub House.  Mrs. Luker was given Almond Milk cartons and we brainstormed possible projects using them.  We came up with an aquarium of fish.... each carton will be transformed by a student into a fish.  We looked at the work of Louise Nevelson and Sandy Skoglund for inspiration.

  

I can't wait to see what the kids come up with for this assemblage project!