Costume Design and Art Education

It's great that many high school students have access to costume design classes. My high school didn't offer those classes, but as I am in my last semester of New Paltz classes I decided to give costume design I a try, treating it like an elective studio. In the class, we have to read and analyze the characters in plays, research a time period and concept for the play, learn about color theory and elements of design, make inspiration collages, learn about fabrics, and sketch designs for plays.

Designs from Little Shop of Horrors

Designs from Hamlet

Elements of Design collages

The class turned out to be a lot more intensive than I thought, but I keep noticing so many great learning opportunities that could take place in an art classroom. Can a costume design lesson be put into a color theory and texture unit? Can costume design happen outside the specific class? If students were asked to read a short play and then analyze it so they can design a few costume for the show, wouldn't that coincide really well with the common core literacy standards?

Destino

Salvador Dali and Walt Disney's Destino

During yesterday's fieldwork III presentations, Tanya and Jennifer mentioned that they used the surreal short film Destino as a visual reference for their students. This made me really excited that young people were experiencing this collaboration because I think it's an absolutely magical video. To be able to see Dali's paintings come to life is truly amazing. I would love to use this video as a reference in one of my lessons as well.

Kara Walker

Kara Walker is best known for exploring the raw intersection of race, gender, and sexuality through her iconic, silhouetted figures.

Untitled

You Do

A Work in Progress

Walker is a great artist to explore when considering the power of the silhouette; how much information can we express to the viewer by using scale, flat shapes, and outlines?

Transforming an Object- "Make it Strange"

Make it Strange is an art project I did in high school that has to do with transforming an object into different forms.

Simplify it- taking the object and representing it in simplified shapes.

Melt it- Representing the object melted (Salvador Dali reference)

Hybridize it- turning the object into a combination or part of different things (animal, another object, person)

Animate it- If your object could move, what would it do?

Size it and repurpose it- Taking the shape and scale and changing its context.

My artist example

This is another potential lesson I could use parts of or expand on for my transformation unit that I would like to explore further.

Exquisite Corpse- Transforming the Human Body

The surrealist exquisite corpse activity has come up a lot in my art ed classes, and I keep considering about writing a lesson plan for it. It's a great project for group work and collaboration, and the sketches could be a springboard to develop the project further, like in printmaking or sculpture. In terms of common core, the lesson could also incorporate ELA by showing examples of written exquisite corpse activities.

Examples of exquisite corpses (click the picture for the link)

Performance Art and Dance

I have been itching to see the film Pina (2011), and now it's on Netflix!

A tribute to the late German choreographer, Pina Bausch, as her dancers perform her most famous creations.

Check out the trailer:

Is it dance? Is it theatre? Or is it life?

Writing my Unit, Thinking about Pizza

In the process of writing my unit lessons and still thinking of ideas, when it came to me! This is the perfect opportunity use the 30 Minutes or Less; Flying Pizza Game from our grow-a-game assignment to help me brainstorm!
Sometimes a little chance really gets the ideas flowing.