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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Pencil Extension

For this project, students chose a black and white image and then cut out a portion of it.  The technical challenge is to fill in the empty space using graphite pencils of different hardnesses to recreate the original image as accurately as possible.  The focus is on the art elements of value and texture.

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Compact Creatures

Inspired by Japanese netsuke (sculptural objects that functioned as toggles during the 18th & 19th centuries but are still an art form today), as well as contemporary ceramic artists who create whimsical creatures, students were assigned the task of creating a series of 3 small related sculptures using air dry clay. Not all students were able to complete the series in the limited time we had, but the work created with this challenging material was impressive.

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Self Portraits

Roy Lichtenstein was a Pop artist who made his cartoon-like art look like it was “hot” off the printing press. He used the benday dot system which is a process using stencils, a brush and paint to imitate the look of pixels.. 8th grade students traced a photo of themselves and filled it in in the style of Lichenstein using mixed media.

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Doodles, Drawings and Watercolor Abstractions

Rather than focus on a single 2 dimensional project, 8th graders explore a variety of approaches to drawing (from observation and imagination) and watercolor painting (with an emphasis on color mixing using complementary colors and experimenting with the medium as a visual improvisation rather than representational imagery).  The students’ own artist statements describe the various prompts and inspirations in their own words.

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Reference Material:  The Studio Habits of Mind

In their artist statements, the students were asked to reflect on which of the 8 Studio Habits of Mind they engaged in while creating their work. Here they are:

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