Art Matters

Strategies, Ideas, and Activities to Strengthen Learning Across the Curriculum

Eileen S. Prince

• Publisher: Zephyr Press
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN: 9781569761298
• eBook ISBN: 9781613746318
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Arts & Humanities

This collection of ideas and lesson plans will help classroom and homeschool teachers integrate art into their general curriculum. These inventive and effective methods use the visual arts to inspire creative writing and drama; explore math, music, science, and history; and cultivate critical thinking skills. Art instructors will learn strategies for incorporating other areas of study into the art classroom. Ranging from thought-provoking suggestions to concrete, hands-on lesson plans, these activities include an extensive resource list for classroom teachers without an art background.

Part One

Concept-Based Integration

“Art is idea. It is not enough to be able to draw, paint and sculpt. An artist should be able to think. ”

—Gurdon Woods

There is a general misconception about the nature of visual art. Many believe that the process of making art is simply different in kind from human activities required by such disciplines as science or history or mathematics. I would not dispute that my field has elements that make it separate and unique—some concepts that can be expressed visually simply cannot be communicated verbally. But I would argue that each human pursuit has unique aspects that distinguish it from every other. Mathematicians think in symbols unique to mathematics, musicians “march to the beat of a different drum,” if you will excuse the pun. Art education certainly offers alternative approaches to interpreting the world and to self-expression as well. What many people fail to understand is that there are just as many similarities as differences among the arts and sciences. You will find that focusing upon these similarities will help you integrate art far more easily into your curriculum; and by focusing upon them, you can help your students gain more respect for, and understanding of, the nature of art.

There are several ways to incorporate art into other academic disciplines. One approach is to focus upon concepts that are common to a wide variety of disciplines. Understanding that visual artists share many of the same concerns and problems as scientists, musicians, writers, and actors helps demystify the subject and promotes respect and understanding. I recently experienced a wonderful example of this kind of mutual reinforcement, although it happened accidentally.

Each week, I give my eighth graders a quotation, comment, or question to write about. A recent selection was “Form ever follows function,” a pronouncement by the architect Louis Sullivan. “You’re kidding!” my students responded. “We’ve been hearing that all year in science!” Sure enough, the science teacher later informed me of her delight when her pupils had come to her with the information that I had given them that quotation. She had been stressing this concept in relation to organs and organisms all year.

In this section, I will discuss a few of many such concepts that you can use to link the disciplines. I will be addressing teachers of a wide variety of ages and subjects, so please forgive me if I sometimes seem to state the obvious. What is common practice for you may be a new and interesting procedure to one of your colleagues.

dp n="29" folio="17" ?

CHAPTER 1

Concepts and Terminology

“If everything is art, nothing is art. ”

—Unknown

In order to present meaningful art lessons to students, it is helpful to familiarize yourself with basic concepts and terminology of art, and to present them to your pupils. Many of these concepts also have related meanings or applications across the curriculum. For example, in art composition refers to the way the elements of a piece are arranged. In chemistry students may analyze compounds into the elements that comprise them. Similarly, criticism is an important feature of literature, music, and so on, while the analytical, critical thinking and interpretation inherent in methods of criticism are applicable to almost any field.

Elements and Principles

Each subject has its own unique elements and principles, concepts that are basic to the understanding and mastery of that particular discipline. The elements I explore and the definitions I use in art class are as follows:

Color: For our purposes, the way light is reflected, absorbed, or refracted by pigmentation. (Even first graders can comprehend this definition if it is presented properly. See “The Physics of Light” lesson on page 116.) Color has three properties:

• Hue: The name of the color
• Value: The lightness or darkness of the color
• Intensity: The brightness or dullness of the color

Form: A three-dimensional, closed figure.

Line: The path of a moving point.

Shape: A two-dimensional, or flat, closed figure.

Space: Some artists add space to this list, defining it as the real or implied three-dimensional area between forms or shapes; that is, illusionary depth.

Texture: The way something feels or the way it appears to feel; its surface quality.

Value: The way the artist uses light or dark in a work of art. Value can be studied as a property of color. Some colors are lighter or darker by nature, or the value of a color can be changed by adding black or white. Black, white, and shades of gray are pure values without color.

Principles: Refer to ways elements are arranged in an artwork. The principles we cover are balance, emphasis, repetition, similarity or relatedness, contrast, overlap, unity, movement, rhythm, distortion, pattern, and gradation.

Balance: Balance refers to the even distribution of visual or physical weight within a work of art. There are several types of balance. Formal balance is the placement of like things on either side of a center line, real or imaginary. Figure 3 below is formally balanced, as is American Gothic, the famous picture of the farmer and his wife by Grant Wood. (Actually, the picture portrays Wood’s dentist and his sister!) Symmetry is the most exact type of formal balance, and some artists use the terms interchangeably. A butterfly is symmetrical, as are all the projects produced in the Symmetry section of chapter 12 (see figures 29-figures 29-32, pages 137-44). Informal balance refers to the balance of unlike things on either side of a center line, as exemplified in the detail of a Huichol yarn painting (see figure 12, page 59). Radial balance is the even distribution of weight around a center point as opposed to a center line. A spiral is radially balanced, as are figures 4 and 10 (page 47).

Figure 3. Ashley Gange created this lovely mosaic in the Roman style, producing an illusion of transparent glass with lighter-value tesserae.

Contrast: Contrast simply means difference. Artists can contrast color, value, texture, line, shape, or form. Contrast is a great way to create emphasis, and it is also an important principle if the artist wants something to be easily seen. You will notice that in this book, the photographs with the greatest contrast of value are the easiest to decipher. The greater the contrast, the more you notice the contrasted element.

Distortion: Distortion occurs when a subject is altered from the way it is supposed to appear but is still recognizable (figure 5 shows distortion of proportion). Anyone who has ever stood in front of a wavy mirror at a carnival or looked at his or her reflection in a spoon has seen distortion of shape or form.

Emphasis: Artists use emphasis in a work of art to draw the viewer’s attention to a particular idea or visual point, analogous to the way a printed word is bolded or italicized. Emphasis can be achieved through repetition, placement, size, contrast, distortion, or by several other means. In third grade, students focus on emphasis by doing a project featured in School Arts magazine several years ago. They trace their hands and feet, then draw in the rest of their body on a much smaller scale. Unlike the rest of the body, the hands and feet are completed in very realistic detail. The distortion of proportion and contrast of styles draw attention to the hands and feet (see figure 5).

Figure 4. In third grade, we create radial designs that would be appropriate for an umbrella. Lauren Thompson created the design for this delightful umbrella as her solution to our radial balance project.

Figure 5. The distortion of proportion and contrast of styles in this work in progress, by Ashley Beuchel, draw attention to the hands and feet.

Gradation: When an artist shows change occurring gradually within an element, such change is called gradation. One example is shading a sphere using subtle changes in value from dark to light. On the other hand, placing black next to white is not gradation.

Movement: Movement is present in a work when the viewer’s eye is impelled to roam throughout it. Artists frequently use line to guide the eye in a particular path. The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci displays little or no movement, whereas the outstretched arms of God and Adam in Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling cause one’s eye literally to leap across the small gap between the fingers.

Overlap: Overlap simply means placing one shape partially over another. This overlap could be actual, as in a collage (see figure 6), or illusionary, in which shapes or forms appear to be layered. Such a device may help to achieve unity or depth.

Figure 6. Fifth grader Hannah Kennedy created rhythm through repeated and related shapes.

Pattern: Pattern is the regular or random repetition of an element of art with such frequency that the viewer can predict how it will continue. Both the stars and stripes on the American flag form patterns.

Repetition, similarity, and relatedness: Repetition occurs when an artist uses an element more than once within a work. This device may help unify a piece, create emphasis, or result in a pattern. The repetition in figure 8 (page 40) achieves all these goals. Sometimes the shapes or colors may be similar but not identical as, for example, if an artist were to use various sizes of circles and different ovals in a sculpture as a unifying factor.

Color, line, form, shape, unity, repetition, balance, contrast, similarity, rhythm, symmetry, and distortion are only a few of the terms that have meaning in a broad range of subjects.

Rhythm: Pattern frequently results in the creation of rhythm. The repeated columns on the Parthenon create a regular rhythm. The repeated and related shapes in figure 6 could almost be played like the beats of a drum. Sometimes the rhythm is more undulating, as in van Gogh’s brushwork.

Unity: Unity is very hard to define but incredibly important in a work of art. It is the quality of oneness within a work, combined with a sense...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Part One - Concept-Based Integration
• Part Two - A Disciplinary Approach
• References and Resources
• About the Author