STORIES
Studio #1: Cartoons
Pushing Back
This studio was created for the idea of making a political or editorial cartoon. I chose to comment on the need to care for our environment, where all of our color and excitement in this world comes from. The young boy in the middle is pushing hard against the growth and expansion of city and crowdedness.
This relates to the "big idea" stories because it is a picture in itself that is trying to comment and say something. Many cartoons oftentimes have meanings underlying what they show and tell what the artist is passionate about or wants to change. The story behind this, for me, is that we all want growth, excitement, and new but we are turning our backs to the things in our lives that provide genuine color and beauty in our world. I feel passionate about protecting the environment and that is why I felt I needed to cartoon about that.
In my future classroom, I think it will be a very important lesson that students learn how to say something with what they create, either with words, music, or art. Cartooning is a good way for them to make an impact with a short, light medium. Students could also learn dialoguing techniques through this studio and could write stories to accompany their art, possibly an editorial like would be done in a real newspaper.
This relates to the "big idea" stories because it is a picture in itself that is trying to comment and say something. Many cartoons oftentimes have meanings underlying what they show and tell what the artist is passionate about or wants to change. The story behind this, for me, is that we all want growth, excitement, and new but we are turning our backs to the things in our lives that provide genuine color and beauty in our world. I feel passionate about protecting the environment and that is why I felt I needed to cartoon about that.
In my future classroom, I think it will be a very important lesson that students learn how to say something with what they create, either with words, music, or art. Cartooning is a good way for them to make an impact with a short, light medium. Students could also learn dialoguing techniques through this studio and could write stories to accompany their art, possibly an editorial like would be done in a real newspaper.
Studio #2: Crayon Resist Story Quilts
Title: Cloudy With a Chance
Asked to pick a favorite story or book from our childhood, I chose Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the original story before the movie was created. I loved this story because it brought me to a different kind of world for the first time in my reading and seemed fun to stretch my imagination and think what I would do if food fell from the sky. Spaghetti is hung from the trees and pooled under it while meatballs and lemonade rain down from the sky.
Though there is the obvious connection to stories in this studio, I think there is also more to it. Choosing a favorite story from your childhood also tells something about yourself, about how you grew up and what interested you from the time you were little and remembered until now. Stories made a big impact on the people we became or what draws our attention and holds on in life.
In my classroom, I think this would be a great way for students to learn contrasting colors, patterns, or even different techniques to create a feeling in art. It would also be a great project for students to write from or try to extend their favorite children's book. Math could be incorporated through the students' use of patterns, squares, and even the quilting aspect.
Studio #3: Mini-Sculptures and Found Objects
Side view: Thirst for Knowledge
Title: Thirst For Knowledge
For this studio, we had to find an everyday, mass produced item and make it into something new. I chose a BIC pen and tore it apart until I was left with it's shell. I thought about it and saw that it reminded me of a straw. Pens creates words and information that leads to knowledge so I filled my cup with words, letters, text, anything that creates meaning in our minds.
This studio related the "big idea" of stories because we all had to think really hard about the stories these objects already brought with them and the ones we wanted them to have. It's a lot harder to use an object that you already know the purpose of and then make it have a completely different one than it is to just crete something new. For mine, I still allowed a broad idea of a pen into my new story but in a whole new way that added my own perspective on it.
This would be a fun studio for students to do because I feel like they are doing this kind of thing all the time when they play, it is just us adults that may not have that imagination anymore. Some ideas they could use this for are in math to learn transformations and rotations of multiple objects like some of the ones done by the artist Jean Shin. You could also use this as a time for students to make a statement on something either politically, socially or some other thing they are passionate about.
For this studio, we had to find an everyday, mass produced item and make it into something new. I chose a BIC pen and tore it apart until I was left with it's shell. I thought about it and saw that it reminded me of a straw. Pens creates words and information that leads to knowledge so I filled my cup with words, letters, text, anything that creates meaning in our minds.
This studio related the "big idea" of stories because we all had to think really hard about the stories these objects already brought with them and the ones we wanted them to have. It's a lot harder to use an object that you already know the purpose of and then make it have a completely different one than it is to just crete something new. For mine, I still allowed a broad idea of a pen into my new story but in a whole new way that added my own perspective on it.
This would be a fun studio for students to do because I feel like they are doing this kind of thing all the time when they play, it is just us adults that may not have that imagination anymore. Some ideas they could use this for are in math to learn transformations and rotations of multiple objects like some of the ones done by the artist Jean Shin. You could also use this as a time for students to make a statement on something either politically, socially or some other thing they are passionate about.