Overview: I really wanted to teach students how to make a peyote stitch bracelet to show how much work Jennifer Maestre puts into her pencil sculptures, but I felt it would be too complicated and expensive. Instead I decided to focus her materials. This is an exercise to get students to think about materials in a different light. Why can't colored pencils be a sculpture?
Title: Jennifer Maestre Truth to Materials
Grade Level: Middle-High School
Length of Time: 40 minutes
Interrelated Discipline: Media, Consumerism
Description: A collaborative thinking project where students will come up with unique sculpture ideas using an unusual material.
Motivation: Students will look at examples of Jennifer Maestre's sculptures via Powerpoint or printouts
Grade Level: Middle-High School
Length of Time: 40 minutes
Interrelated Discipline: Media, Consumerism
Description: A collaborative thinking project where students will come up with unique sculpture ideas using an unusual material.
Motivation: Students will look at examples of Jennifer Maestre's sculptures via Powerpoint or printouts
Materials:
- Paper (for brainstorming)
- An assortment of different materials (found objects, pencils, sticks, play-do, cue-tips, cotton balls, paint, pipe-cleaners, legos, paintbrushes puzzle pieces, yarn, erasers, paperclips, wire, fabric, twine, burlap, paper, plastic bottles, toilet paper rolls, etc)
- Glue, tape, and hot glue
Preparation:
- Collect examples (not just Jennifer Maestre's) of artworks that show the material they are made out of.
- Write or draw out your own brainstorming example
Vocabulary:
- Truth to Materials: any material should be used where it is most appropriate and its nature should not be hidden. It is a celebration of the material's qualities
- Sculpture: An artwork made by modeling, carving, casting, or joining materials into a three-dimensional whole.
- Adaptability: the ability to adjust to new situations or uses
Objectives:
Procedure:
Assessment:
Extensions:
Resources:
- Students will effectively work as a team.
- Students will collectively brainstorm ideas and test their materials.
- Students will accurately create a detailed poster for their unusual object sculpture.
Procedure:
- Talk to students about Jennifer Maestre and her colored pencil and nail sculptures. Ask students what they think of her work.
- Introduce the project by talking about "truth to materials." Show your collected sculpture examples.
- Put students into groups of three to five and have each group draw a ticket out of a hat. Each ticket will have the name of a material written on it. That group must then create a sculpture using that material.
- Hand out the materials to the students - they can make scale models if they wish
- Tell the students to brainstorm ideas together.
- Assign a secretary to write everything down, a speaker (who was not the secretary) to share their ideas with the class, and a designer. The designer will create the layout for their poster. There can be more than one student working on each job
- At the end of class, ask each group to share their findings and ideas for their assigned material. Encourage class discussion to expand on ideas.
Assessment:
- Students effectively worked as a team.
- Students collectively brainstormed ideas and tested their materials.
- Students accurately created a detailed poster for their unusual object sculpture.
Extensions:
- If you have the time and materials, have the students create their sculptures after they present their posters. Follow up with another class discussion.
Resources:
- http://www.projectarticulate.org/glossary.php
- http://www.thecraftycrow.net/2009/09/junk-drawer-art.html