Grade 7

Eyes - Expression,  Reflection, and Surrealism

Because of the masks we have all been wearing throughout the pandemic, we have had to rely more on recognizing and reading each other’s expressions by focusing on our eyes.  Louise Bourgeois’ giant Eyes sculpture, M.C, Escher’s Eye (with a skull reflected in the pupil) and Magritte’s The False Mirror (in which the iris is replaced with sky) were jumping off points for discussing symbolism and Surrealism. Students were encouraged to work from photographs they took of their own eyes expressing a specific emotion and to incorporate surreal elements into their drawings to reflect or reveal something about themselves or the world around them.

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Rhythm

Rhythm is the repetition of lines and marks that create visual movement. 7th graders created these “scape” drawings inspired from Vincent Van Gogh’s drawings and paintings.Van Gogh was an artist who used rhythm in his artwork by repeating his strokes to show movement.

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Sculpture: Tiny Doors and Architecture

Inspired by #tinydoorsatl artist Karen Anderson, whose CBS Sunday Morning video clip from 2018 starts our two day study of architecture, and by contemporary ceramic artists whose work focuses on miniature buildings, students used air dry clay to create these amazing portals to their own imaginary worlds.

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Landscape Paintings

Every landscape painting, no matter how large, is a miniature compared to an actual landscape, yet still creates a world.  Through the process of making their own landscape paintings, students have the exciting and empowering experience of creating the illusion of depth on a 2-dimensional surface. The students start by simplifying a photograph of their choosing into a few simple shapes (sky, background, middle ground and foreground) and then work back in with watercolor and watercolor crayons to create these scenes.

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One Point Perspective

7th grade students learned about drawing from a one point perspective.This assignment was a follow up to a letter sculpture project which allowed them to better understand all angles of a three dimensional object visually and physically. They chose a word/name and created and designed  it in colored pencil and marker.