Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Wood Working WPU Teachers 3/5/2012

Here we are in CIEE 365 class working with wood
sculpture at William Paterson Univeristy.
Professor Samaras






























Monday, October 26, 2009

Wood/Sculpture Workshop for Teachers 10/25/2009

1) What is a SCULPTURE?

"Research":

Every school hs a fingerprint. Find that with your students first.

Gather books sculpture and/or tree stories stories and make a sculpture in the classroom out of cardboard boxes! Make an interactive/performance piece with the boxes! Make a sculpture BLOG

2) What kinds of sculpture exist in the world?

Indoor sculptre
Outdoor Sculpture
Statues
Mobiles
Interactive Sculpture
"New Media" Sculpture



3) What are the names of some famous sculptors?

Louise Nevelson
Alexander Calder
Metropolitan Museum
Guggenheim Musesum
Whitney Museum

4) What are some of the materials sculptors use in their work?

What sculptors use wood in their work?

Metals (found metal electrical supplies)

Wood

Clay

Recycling materials e.g. sculptures made with cardboard boxes

Found materials e.g sculptures made with old electrical pieces, wire and paper


5) What can wood do?

(What can we do with wood?)

Scrap wood and where to get it


6) How we will talk to the children as we work in sculpture?

(See previous post below)


7) What can our closure for this project be?


c. Triada Samaras 2009

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Talking while You Draw! NJAEYC Conference 2009

A Workshop for the NJAEYC Conference to be held at the Atlantic City Convention Center: Fall 2009 by Triada Samaras

"Talking While You Draw"

Children's astonishing creativity is a given in art making. Their images and ideas defy adult logic and take us into worlds we can only imagine. Yet, so many of us adults are at a loss to communicate with children during these moments, as the language of arts education and arts communication are not as common as one might think.
For this reason it helps very much to have a teaching artist who is familiar with both young children and with art making to make the language more accessible to teachers. Part of my roles as a teaching artist has always been to educate the teacher in art making as well as the student. I am confident that all teachers will derive great pleasure in learning abut the "words" of the artist.

When teachers can be taught to slow down and put themselves in the shoes of a child artist and in the mindset of a child artist, they can begin to formulate the kinds of words and sentences that lead to a meaningful discussion about this art for both parties!


What kinds of word can teachers use with their young students when they draw?

I like to think about conversations over three time periods:

1) Conversations that happen during the DEMO time (circle)

2) Conversations that happen during the work period

3) Conversations that happen AFTER the art is completed!

Where shall we start? At the beginning of course!

ONE: First of all the circle time (or demo).

What are you presenting to the children and how can you best make use of your words in order to get the children to learn new art vocabulary; to articulate their imaginations in words; to ask the kind of critical thinking questions that you know make them better at "thinking" over all?

Think of using the following words, phrases, and or sentences with the children as you give your demo:

What do you see? What does this look like; feel like; smell like; sound like etc.?
Have you ever seen this thing before? Where?
What do you think I can do with this thing? what do you think will happen if I ......?
What would you do with this thing?

TWO: The work period with the materials.

Next comes the work period where you must find the kind of language that encourages the child to perhaps engage and persist with the materials beyond
his/her prior capacity.

Tell me what you are doing with _________. What gave you that idea? What made you think of that? Have you ever sen anything like this before? Where? Tell me about your work. What gave you the idea to work this way. Do you have some words that could tell me more about this? What do you think will happen if you try the material this way? (give an example). Can you think of another way to do this?
How about turning your art work around to gain another view?

THREE: It is essential to have art talks after the art work is "finished"!

When the art work is finished it is crucial to share it. What are the words we use with young children as they stand in front of you with their creations?

Tell me about this. I see (name an art element e.g. "line") your lines are running in a horizontal way across the page. Did you do that on purpose? Why? What were your trying to do? Are you happy it looks like this? Would you do it another way next time?

FOUR: Looking at the art of others.

It is critical to expose the children to the rt work of others, be it their peers or a "master" artist. Looking at art can be a kind of game for the children to get them to test their observation and analytical skills.

Tell me what you see. Are there shapes? Lines? Colors? What kind of colors? Is anything moving? Or does it look like it is moving? Do things look balanced? Topsy- turvy? Are there more lines on the top or the bottom of the page? Is the red only used in a tiny section or...? Why do you think the artist did it that way? What do you think the artist was trying to say?

c. Triada Samaras 10/23/2009

A very long list of feeling words http://eqi.org/fw.htm

A list of art words in English and in Spanish


English Image
1 movimiento movement
2 armonia harmony
3 drama drama
4 tensión tension
5 contraste contrast
6 ritmo rhythm
7 interrogativo questioning
8 etéreo ethereal
9 luminoso light, luminous
10 mistico mystical
11 milagroso miraculous
12 inspirando inspiring

Recommended Reading:

The Colors of Learning by Althouse, Johnson, and Mitchell

A Head Start on Picturing America (Resource Guide Produced in educational partnership with the National Endowment on Humanities)

Creative Thinking and Arts Based Learning by Isenberg and Jalongo

The Art Book for Children (Phaidon)

Supporting Young Artists by Epstein and Trimis


Tuesday, June 30, 2009

NEW ART CLASSES in Carroll Gardens
“All’ Aperto”! “En Pleine Air”! “OUTDOORS”!

http://www.elancolibrary.org/elanco/lib/elanco/images/images/monet-irises-monets-garden.jpg
Claude Monet Irises

NEW: ART CLASSES forming in the Transit Garden in Carroll Gardens
Adults, Children and Families!

Where: The lovely Transit Garden at the Corner of Smith Streets and Second Place in Carroll Gardens.

Who: For Would Be Artists of All Ages and taught by Triada Samaras*

Classes:

Adults: Drawing and Pastels Classes using the flowers, shrubs and trees in the garden as our inspiration. $25.00 per 90 min class. Sign-up for a minimum of four. (Art supplies to be purchased by you). Parents: You may bring your child to class to draw with you for the reduced rate of $10.00 per child!

Children ART/SCIENCE class (Ages 3-5) and (Ages 6-9): $20.00 per 45 min. class. Siblings 12.00. Sign up for a minimum of four. ($15.00 materials fee). This is a drop class. Parents or another adult MUST attend with a three year olds however.

Times:
Adults: 90 min. classes will be offered twice a week beginning June 21, 2009. Sundays 10:15 -11:45 and Thursdays 6:30-8:00.

Children (ages 3-5) 45 min. classes will be offered Sundays at 12:00 and at 1:00 and will begin on June 21, 2009. Children (ages 6-9) TBA.

Why: Because making art in the open Brooklyn air will feed your heart and soul!

*Bio: Triada Samaras is a visual artist and poet who lives in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn for the past 15 years. She holds a Diploma and “Fifth Year Certificate” in Studio Art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA, and her Masters Degree in Art and Art Education from Teachers College/Columbia University. Triada has taught students of all ages for the past 17 years in and around the Metro NYC area. She has published an article** on wood sculpture for young children in the NAEYC Journal/ National Association for the Education of Young Children. Her work with young children in the arts has also been cited*** in Creative Thinking and Arts-based Learning. Triada homeschooled her two sons for 11 years and through high school.


She is currently an Adjunct Professor of Art at Kean University, Union, NJ, and an Adjunct Professor of Art and Art Education at William Paterson, Wayne, NJ. Triada recently exhibited her art work at the Kentler International Drawing Space in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and at the Nancy Dryfoos Gallery at Kean University. For more info, contact her at: triadasamaras@gmail.com or cell 917-558-6157


**”Young Children Try, Try Again Using Wood, Glue and Words to Enhance Learning” in Spotlight on Young Children in the Creative Arts, NAEYC, 2005.

*** Creative Thinking and Arts-based Learning/ Preschool Through Fourth Grade by J.P. Isenberg and M.R. Jalongo, Pearson, 2006.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Bookmaking ideas!

Here is an early childhood website for a very specific bookmaking activity (a book about eggs for grdes1/2) with complete instructions. What I like about it this site that it gives any early childhood teacher many skills that he/she can transfer for use in a later book of one's own design for any age child. I am not a huge fan of all the teacher-made illustrations however!
"Curriculum Laboratory"
"Teaching Ideas Showcase: Toy and Movable (Pop-Up) Books...Two Cross Curricular Crafts (Egg Pop-Up Book and Small Crawling and Flying Animals Pop-Up Cards)"
Here is a pdf with extensive instruction for each page of the book. There are 24 pages in total.
And here is a simple, on-line book cover making site that your students can use themselves to make a cover for their books that teachrs print-out in black and white.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

For many more ideas relating to the Torn Paper Collage lesson for young children,

this wonderful website has numerous collage examples as well as info

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/c/collage.html

From there, I found a White on White Exhibition which relates so much to the torn white paper collage lesson! See:

http://collagemuseum.com/white-on-white/index.html


for the beauty and subtlety of WHITE.


...
collageart.org DEDICATED TO THE ART OF COLLAGE http://www.collageart.org/

"...the principle of collage is the central principle of all art in the twentieth century." --
Donald Barthelme (1931-1989)
''l'art pour l'art.'' -- Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque (1767–1830) also attributed to Théophile Gautier (1811–1872)