This one hour art lesson I designed that was inspired by Patty Palmer of Deepspacesparkle.com, well... it could get a bit out of control and I was opting to avoid it this year. But one of my students, Rex was looking forward to this lesson all year long. He'd pop up and ask me every month or so..."When do we get to do Jackson Pollock....?"
Last year there was paint and soggy paper everywhere.... it was a mess but we had so much fun! I didn't have the heart to deny him. I figured there were others among my 123, first graders who felt similar....
So, I thought hard, mulled it over, the light bulb went on and I made some modifications to help students practice "knowing" when to stop splashing the paint around. (after all my classes are always limited to one hour). I white glued 130 papers together for extra support for the paint (just in case) and it allowed an opportunity to frame the work very nicely. Then I readied all the paint (it should be thick not watery), yarn with clothes pins, oil pastel,pencils and paper towels, etc...
So the Last month of school ended with my first graders and Jackson Pollock. We learned how to design block/bubble letters and then add the Pollock paint style to our letters just enough to practice BALANCE in our graphic design.
There is a picture book about Pollock's abstract action painting process called "Action Jackson" that I use to get them into the mood for this art process. The language in the book is really advanced for 1st grade so I improvised/shortened the story a bit. There is a Jackson pollock piece at the end so we can talk about abstract art. "Abstract art may not look like anything we see in the world but it might remind of something or make us feel something."
I truly felt the lesson was very successful and my students responded to the first letter of their names and began to truly think about how and when their next ORGANIC mark would play out on the GEOMETRIC shape of their letter. They knew when to stop adding paint. Of course, some expressions were extreme while others were more reserve. But most were well balanced and felt pretty sophisticated. I also realized that rather than gluing papers together I used a 80lb paper.
Hanging the work to dry against the wall also allows my student to see all the imagery they created as a group and I enjoy when they ask each other questions about the solutions and discoveries they made.
Enjoy and have a beautiful creative summer!
Check out Patty's wonderful art education site: www.deepspacesparkle.com
