The art room had been turned into a mathematical formulaic problem to be solved while we worked so hard on our cityscapes all month, and these kids were exhausted! So, I decided to break up the rubrics and standards and give my overworked kiddos a nice relaxing taste of art therapy for our latest project. Pretty much an easy 'A', we worked together in groups after we studied Seattle based artist Dale Chihuly to create a colorful curtain of up-cycled water bottles!
After using rulers for straight angles, and formulas for creating precision perfect cityscapes in perspective, my students needed a break. We went polar opposite on this last one by literally getting into arts and crafts and using recycled water bottles and markers to mimic the work of Chihuly.
If you don't already know his work, GET ON IT! He is amazing!
The amazing artists here at JWJ got to express themselves through color, pattern, texture, design, relaxation, and good ol' fashioned crafting conversations :) And now, any time the wind blows outside the art room door, we get to watch our lovely organic chihuly curtain in action!
Dale Chihuly is a sculptor who works with glass and is based out of Seattle, Washington. His work is bright, colorful, organic, fun, mesmerizing, and HUGE! We looked at a lot of his large scale pieces and how their shapes are inspired by nature, and tried to recreate our own chihuly-esque masterpieces using recycled water bottles, scissors, markers, and imagination.
Plus, he is blind in one eye, so of course, the kids found him that much more fascinating!
Yay, ART!