Celebrating 50 Years!

Does this make you as giddy as it made me?

For the 50th anniversary of the first time Andy Warhol used the Campbell’s Soup can in his paintings and screenprints the soup manufacturer has released a limited edition set of soup cans!

This is the opposite reaction the famous soup manufacturer once took to Warhol’s work: when the work first appeared the company considered taking legal action, before deciding to wait to see how they were perceived. I don't know why this fact makes me laugh but it does. Warhol's work has probably single handedly improved their business more than anything else!!!!

I could not let this auspicious occasion go by without doing a project to commemorate with my own students. Last year my 3rd graders got to go see many of the soup cans in person at our local museum. So they seemed like an obvious choice to keep the excitment alive!

One of our visual arts education standards here in Georgia is to use direct observation to draw. Fourth graders tend to shut down over this. What happens to them between 3rd and 4th grade that makes them so self conscious of their art work all of a sudden? We also used this project as a major color study unit. Here are some of our finished projects:

 There are many more but this is just a taste for now. I found this handout that helps students draw the can shape itself. We worked hard on the hand lettering and I think they did a great job. Although I did not share this with my students I think this is fun:

Frida and Diego

Like many I have always been fascinated by Frida Kahlo. Her life intrigues me. Her relationship with her husband is fascinating. (I often wish my husband and I could have separate houses separated by a bridge! Tee hee.) When I heard she was coming to the High Museum of Art I was thrilled! I have seen some of her work (and Diego's) when I was in Mexico but it has been too long. My excitement for the show and my joy of bringing that to my students made an obvious need for a Frida Kahlo/Diego Rivera lesson. The students really focused on symbols that represented themselves. I love them!

Here is a close-up!

Real art? Real artists?

My favorite part of the Woodruff Salutes Arts in Education event was the student art show I had as part of the event. My students often tell me "I am going to be an artist when I grow up!" My standard answer is that they are ALREADY artists and they don't have to wait until the grow up! Having a show of their work at the Woodruff Arts Center - which is a major visual and performing arts center located in Atlanta - is VERY exciting! I could not be more proud of their work and how very professional the show was! Is it real art? You bet and it was made by real artists!

Lots and lots of planning before hand. I thought I was going to have one small wall so we were working on a salon style hanging. The toes belong to The Lake Forest Louvre.

I had a lot of great help to make it a reality! Isn't the space pretty?

Fifth grader self-portraits in the style of Howard Finster. Their personal poems are as interesting as their art!

Where oh where??????????

Where oh where did The Crayon Lab go????? I could regale you with fun stories of how the school year started and all the changes in my personal life and professional life. I could wax poetic about what an incredible honor it was to be a finalist for the Woodruff Salutes. All this would take pages and pages and pages....I always have a lot to say! In the interest of time, however, I will just say that I have missed being here and I am back!