Art Masterpiece How Artists' Tell Their Story

While I have many hobbies and interests, my passion is art and getting students to think about feelings and expressions in art, and how do we get students to look at art differently.

In Arizona most public schools offer the Art Masterpiece program, sponsored by the Phoenix Art Museum. It is designed to introduce significant works of art to children and build an appreciation for fine art.

Art Appreciation is important not only in art, but in the real world to understand that communication does not just occur via spoken or written language, but that people can understand each other using other things. It's the exposure to all kinds of art that encourages children to see that expressions are something that is carried throughout time and art forms.

The Rabbi and his Grandchild by Mark Gertler

Each works of art tells us a story -something about the people, their attitudes or the mood of the art. It will be important for students to understand that they need to make the bodies and gestures of their subjects match the tone and mood they are trying to create in their artwork.
 

Getting children excited about appreciating art can be very challenging. Far too often they're more excited about the project than learning about the artist or the artwork they produced. How do you get children to look at art differently? What would encourage children to look up, down, outside, inside, close up, and all around?

John Brown by John Stuart Curry

Depending on the age of students, ask questions that  help prompt the discussion about the artists' work:

 

• What draws your eye first? 
• Where does your eye go from there? 
• Is there a certain mood projected in the artwork? 
• Where has the artist placed you, the viewer, in relation to the subject? 
• Do you see clues that suggest time and place? 
• Is there a sense of motion? 
• What gives you that sense? 
• What indications, if any, are there of cultural and/or historical connections? 
• What questions do you have about the artwork?

Allow time for observation, let students get up close and walk around if necessary. Afterwards, students can write a story about the time they were sad, scared, happy, etc...They could practice different faces or postures that they associate with that feeling. It would be a fun activity to have them act these out as a class before they begin drawing. 

Another fun activity would be to have students work in groups of two, each one draws five faces and give every one a different expression. When they are finish they swap papers and try to guess what the expression means.

I would love to hear about your projects. Please share your comments below.