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Category Archives: contemporary artists

Collaborative Mural Inspired by Tula Pink

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I wanted to share our wonderful results of this collaborative mural project inspired by the artist Tula Pink‘s Tridazzler Quilt. This idea was created by Don Masse, of Shine Brite Zamorano. Check out his blog here to see the directions for this project. Here is the Tridazzler Quilt the project was inspired by. We precut squares and triangles for the kids. First, they glued the triangle to the square. Then they used a ruler to draw the lines and then … Read more… →

Art of the Brick: Nathan Sawaya Lego Exhibit

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Happy Spring! It is Spring Break for us and we took a little trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. We saw an awesome Lego exhibit at the museum by artist Nathan Sawaya. If you are in the area, I definitely recommend visiting the museum to see this exhibit. My favorite pieces were the ones in which he recreated famous works of art throughout art history. There were some impressive animal sculptures as well as a fantastic … Read more… →

Mr. Doodle Inspired Doodling Pictures

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My 4th/5th graders learned about the artist Mr. Doodle and watched several videos of him doodling. You can see his artwork on his Facebook page. We talked about emphasis and the focal point and how to make the main image the largest. All of the supporting doodles would be smaller and surrounding the image. Take a look at some of the doodle art my 4th/5th grade students made after being inspired by the work of Mr. Doodle.

Amy Sherald and Howard Gardner at NAEA ’19 Conference

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The National Art Education Association conference this year had some thought-provoking and inspiring speakers, as usual! In this post, I will tell you about Amy Sherald and Howard Gardner. Next, I will share about Peter Reynolds! Amy Sherald, portrait artist The first speaker I went to see was Amy Sherald, who is best known as the portrait artist for Michelle Obama’s presidential portrait. Here is a video of her talking about this portrait. Amy Sherald creates large scale figurative paintings … Read more… →

Pop Art Snowmen Project

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Pop Art Snowmen Project

I have a new art lesson plan to show you! I wrote this for a substitute lesson, but you can make it as simple or complex as you want to. My students were very interested in watching me design my snowman picture and they were amazed at how detailed the background was, but also they felt confident they could create a Pop Art snowman picture of their own. This lesson is available for purchase in my shop and includes Snowman … Read more… →

Bucky Badger Designs by Kids

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This past summer, there were painted Bucky Badger sculptures all over our city.  The Badger is the mascot of the University of Wisconsin.  I wrote all about it in a previous blog post which you can read here. I shared already the large collaborative Bucky Badger puzzle designs we made.  After we made the large group Buckys, each student made their own smaller Bucky design.  They had the opportunity to design it however they wanted.  Take a look at some … Read more… →

Yayoi Kusama Dotted Pumpkins for Kids

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I love the results of this dotted pumpkin project inspired by the dotted pumpkins of Yayoi Kusama.  I did this art lesson with 3rd/4th grade. (Amazon Affiliate links have been used, at no extra cost to you.) I based our project after the lesson taught on the blog Plastiquem.  First, I read the book Yayoi Kusama, From Here to Infinity, which is an inspirational book about her artwork and life.  This is on my list of top 10 favorite books … Read more… →