Masks inspired by Lois Mailou Jones

This is one of my favorite projects.  We were transitioning from Black History to Women in History and I thought this study on African American artist Lois Mailou Jones was the perfect way to celebrate both.  Jones was well known for her textile art.  

Students were allowed to use a variety of mediums and had to incorporate a minimum of four patterns to represent textiles.

Primary and Secondary Colors at Christmas!

As teachers, we have to find creative ways to incorporate holidays and themes into the curriculum.  I had just started color theory and didn't want to stop in the middle of it to do holiday themed art because it breaks momentum.  In order to do both, we had some holiday fun with primary and secondary colors.  2nd and 3rd graders created Christmas lights or winter birds for the primary colors and then mugs and mittens for secondary colors.  4th and 5th graders did Mondrian style Christmas for primary colors and had free reign on the secondary colors.   

Molas

I love the way this project turned out.  In our Hispanic Heritage month, 3rd - 5th graders explored the vibrant patterns and the methods in making molas.  Then students were off to create one of their own.  This project spanned over three class times.  Student artists were allowed to pick their own color scheme. I had half sheets of heavyweight paper (I use TruRay) and students chose 3-4 sheets in different colors.   I had packets on each table with various sea creatures, birds, etc. and some students did trace, however I encouraged them all to try to freehand.  They used colored pencils on the object/animal and then cut paper pieces in variety of ways to create these beautiful paper molas.