Making It Pop: Empowering Students Through Pop Art!
My students need 60 bottles of laundry starch to transform recycled newspaper into paper mache sculptures as well as acrylic paint to make their Pop Art burst with color!
Pop art-an important art movement that surfaced in the 1950's-amazes my students-even 60 + years later! Pop artists revealed the beauty of the ordinary everyday object and elevated commercial graphics to fine art status. Students-with their pulse on pop culture-can't wait to create their own Pop Art!
My students brighten my day and force me to get a good night's sleep every night just to keep up with them!
I am never bored teaching art to middle school- just exhausted!! I love that I teach in an ethnically diverse school and that I can learn new things from my students-and be awed by their artistic creations with each project we do. My arts curriculum is full of multicultural and hands-on art projects that give my students an opportunity to design, build and create-not just draw and paint. My arts classroom is very diverse-and includes Gifted, English as a Second Language Learners, and special needs children with a variety of learning disabilities. I love that we all make art together in (mostly!) harmony and happiness. These young people may have different needs, challenges, and personal histories, yet the arts enable them to share a common thread, as they discover the magic and delight of making something beautiful with their own hands.
My Project
Since the school year began, and with help from parents and teachers at my school, I have collected newspaper in preparation for this incredible hands on and collaborative experience for my students. After a brief art history lesson about Pop Art, students can’t wait to experiment with the Pop Artists’ techniques, subject matter and media to create their very own Pop Art! First they brainstorm with a partner (or two) and choose an object from "Pop/popular culture" they would most like to make-perhaps a giant Sharpie marker or an Almond Joy candy bar?! Working from their inspiration, (a label or tiny replica) they create a gigantic 3-D form of that chosen object using crumpled newspaper-lots of it- and masking tape to temporarily hold its shape. Next, they paper mache the sculpture with strips of newspaper, white paper and starch to make a permanent and hardened surface to draw on. Final step-paint-as work POPS with explosions of bright color, images and font transformed into Pop Art!
Middle school is challenging for art teachers.
One huge challenge is that middle schoolers are ESPECIALLY critical of their drawing abilities. Certain art projects hook students-enabling success for every student in art class-like making a giant sculpture that students build together, then draw and paint on. Employing 21st century skills, this project allows students to create an original artwork, engaging them in a creative process of collaboration and communication with their peers
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