ACTIVITY 1: Collaging Color

Objectives:

• To understand the properties of color
• How collage can be a medium for painting
• How to create a collage

Estimated Time Needed for Activity:

Two 45-60 minute sessions

Notes:

• Color awareness is developed through experience and trial and error. A sense of color can be cultivated by observing and physically mixing colors. A very useful beginning project is making a color wheel. The wheel is a method of identifying color relationships at a glance. It can be simply composed of the 3 primaries, or the addition of the 3 secondaries or the addition of the 6 tertiaries.
• PRIMARY COLORS: red, yellow and blue. No mixtures yield these colors. All other colors are made form mixing these three.
• SECONDARY COLORS: Orange, violet and green. These are made by mixing two primaries together: R+Y=Orange; R+B= Violet; B+Y= Green.
• TERTIARY COLORS: These are colors made by mixing adjacent primary and secondary colors: Y+G=yellow green; B+G= blue green;Y+O= yellow orange; R+O= red orange; B+V=blue violet; and R+V= red violet.
• K-3 grades can make a basic primary color wheel: red, yellow and blue. Grades 3-MS can go further with mixing secondary colors of orange, violet and green. Grades MS-HS can go on to Tertiary colors, hue and value.
• Color has properties. HUE refers to the name of the color or kind of color such as red, blue violet, orange, etc. VALUE refers to the degree of darkness and lightness of color. This means adding white or black. When white is added, the resulting color is called light or tint (for example pink is called a tint but it is a light or high value of red). Black is added to create a dark or low value often called a shade. INTENSITY refers to the brightness or dullness of a color. Color cannot be made more brilliant by mixing but it can be dulled by adding its complement. This is the color directly across on the color wheel. When complements are mixed together a neutral grey or brown should result. Try mixing the complements red and green together. What is the result?

Addressing Cultural Diversity in the Learning Environment:

Colors have different meanings and evoke different responses in various cultures. Choose several colors and investigate their use and meanings in these various cultures. For example, the color white, in European and American cultures is used for weddings while in some Asian cultures it is a color for mourning.

Materials Needed for this Activity:

• Colored tissue papers, especially red, yellow and blue
• Glue (Sobo Craft Glue) or paste
• Small, stiff paint brushes
• Small containers for water and glue
• Scissors
• White drawing paper
• Compass, ruler and pencil

Additional Resources:

• http://members.cox.net/mrsparker2/index.htm
• www.artlex.com
• www.kid-at-art.com/
• www.kidsart.com
• www.MoMA.org
• www.nga.gov ( National Gallery of Art. Look for Romare Bearden)
• www.2evansville.edu/studiochalkboard/c-wheel.html
• Interaction of Color by Josef Albers
• Design and Form and The Art of Color by Johannes Itten
• The Art of Eric Carle (j741.642 C278a)
• The Animal That Drank Up Sound by William Stafford

Procedure:

1. View the video Sister Mary Bertoli, paying close attention to how she applies her papers to the surface.
2. Talk with students about color. What colors did Sister Mary use? What constitutes her personal palette (the colors she uses most of the time)?
3. Color evokes emotional responses, some personal likes and dislikes, some defined by culture. What is each student's favorite color? List these on the board.
   
4. Discuss what a color says to the students. What does RED say? What does BLUE say? What does PINK say, etc. List these on the board.
5. Mix colors for a color wheel by overlapping colored tissue papers.
• Start with the primary colors. Glue down a red tissue, a blue tissue and a yellow tissue. It doesn’t really matter where as the colors will be cut out when dry to fit into a wheel.
• Glue down three more sets of red, yellow and blue and let dry.
• Overlap one set with yellow tissue, even its same color.
• Overlap the next set with blue, even its same color.
• Overlap the remaining set with red, even its same color.
• Let all sets dry.
6. Next session compare colors. How does the red overlapping itself compare to the single layer red? Blue? Yellow? Is the color more intense?
7. Make a small circle with the compass on a piece of white drawing paper and divide into six equal segments.
8. Cut out the dried tissue colors into the pie-shaped segments and assemble into a wheel.
9. Make sure the secondary overlap “mixtures” go in the appropriate places between the primaries.
10. Glue down into place.
11. Make notes on the back as to thoughts and process.
12. Older grades can continue on to make tertiary colors.

Assessment

• Use the Creation Scoring Guide to assess this activity.

Extensions and Adaptations

Tissue paper can be glued onto mylar for a more transparent effect. The dried tissue is easily peeled off and the wheel can be made to have the edge of the pie pieces overlapping just a bit to hold it all together. In other words, glue the pieces to each other, not to the white paper.

ACTIVITY 2: Found Object Collage

Objectives:

• View Sister Mary, listening to her comments about working and making art in poverty, with absolutely no money for art supplies or instruction.
• Discuss using found objects for art supplies. This is now called recycling.
• Invite students to consider what type of “found” objects would be good to glue down for a collage.
• Have students collect found objects around their school or home, with the idea of making a collage.
• Encourage students to make a small10x12 inch collage using found papers and objects.

Estimated Time Needed for Activity:

• One 45-minute session for video viewing and discussion surrounding the merits of found objects and material selctions. Students might want to trade.
• One 45-minute session for assembling the collage and getting the pieces glued down. A second 45-minute session might be valuable to continue and finish the collage.

Notes:

• Before going on to the second part of this activity have the students collect papers (magazines, wrapping paper, any type of printed or decorated papers) and objects such as coins, stamps, fabric swatches, wallpaper bits, string, yarn, buttons clips, even straws and plastic utensils. This might take a few days.
• Have students select bits that they feel would work in their collage. Encourage them to trade materials and what is left to put into a communal collection to draw materials from.
• Have students consider these collage materials as their “Paints” for their collage.
• Music is a large part of sister Mary’s life in Mississippi, as it is for the people she worked with. Play some different types of music to evoke images in the students' minds so they can create a collage of the people or places or stories of their lives.

Addressing Cultural Diversity in the Learning Environment:

Sister Mary speaks of the lives of the African American community she worked with in Mississippi, the music, the quilting, the story telling. The creative process is powerful in all cultures, the most human part of us all being the “creative juices.”

Materials Needed for this Activity:

• Found objects and materials, such as: colorful magazine pages, printed texts, wallpapers, greeting cards, buttons, coins, etc
• Sobo glue or paste
• Containers for water and mixing glue and water
• Small stiff paint brushes
• A stout surface such as mat board to glue materials onto, sized about 10x12 inches
  

Additional Resources:

• http://members.cox.net/mrsparker2/index.htm (collage)
  
• www.artlex.com/
  
• www.kinderart.com
  
• www.nga.gov (reference Romare Bearden, collage artist)
  
• www.eNASCO.com (for all basic art supplies)
  
• www.MoMA.org
• The Animal That Drank Up Sound by William Stafford and illustrated with collage by Debra Frasier
• Art History books and craft books referencing collage and assemblage.
  

Procedure:

1. View the video of Sister Mary Bertoli.
2. Discuss found objects that might be usable in a collage.
3. Gather materials. Each student might want to use their own collection of materials or they all can be pooled for a wider selection.
4. Play some music to encourage mental images of what the student might like to create.
5. Encourage each student to be selective about their materials. Think about what they are choosing for their collage of people or places or stories or memories.
6. Have each student arrange their bits onto the base of mat board. They will mentally process their design as they go along, discarding some original choices and possibly exchanging for others. Encourage them to take their time.
7. Encourage the student to cover as much of the mat board as possible although some background might be necessary to their design.
8. Carefully glue down the items recalling sister Mary’s method of gluing under and over the papers. Thicker objects will require a bit more glue. Make sure each bit is glued down securely.
9. Write a commentary about what the collage means to the artist.

Assessment

• Use the Creation Scoring Guide to assess this activity.

Extensions and Adaptations

• These collage paintings can be enhanced with colored pencil, tempera paints, pen and ink etc.
• Also students might like to create their own collage papers to work with by decorating white tissue papers with colored inks or natural dyes such as berries, coffee or tea.
• Students might like to make “paste papers” for their collage materials. These are decorated papers made by brushing paste colored with acrylic paints onto paper in even strokes then making patterns in the paint with fingers, brushes or stamps. It's rather like finger-painting. When the papers dry, iron flat and then cut or tear into the desired shapes. Investigate the collage illustrations of Debra Frasier and Eric Carle (of the “Hungry Caterpillar” fame).

ACTIVITY 3: Improvizational Found Objects Making Music or “Necessity is the Mother of Invention Found Object Made Instrument Orchestra.” Or Musical Collage.

Objectives:

• Necessity is the mother of invention. How can music be made without instruments?
• What kind of found objects could be used for making sounds?
• Assemble a collection of items that might even remotely make a sound.
• Create some “musical instruments” using found objects.

Estimated Time Needed for Activity:

Several 45-60 minute sessions for discussion, production and performing.

Notes:

• This will involve making instruments from found objects. But don’t discount the use of clapping hands, slapping thighs and stomping feet.
• Have students collect items from home such a combs, rubber bands, tin cans, glass bottles, spoons, wooden spoons, a washboard (maybe someone's grandma would have one), bells, etc.
• Have the students collectively invent instruments with their found objects, or break them up into groups to do this.
• With their newly made instruments have them either play a known and recognized melody or score something new just for their “orchestra.”  It doesn’t have to be long--maybe a minute or so.

Addressing Cultural Diversity in the Learning Environment:

• Every culture has music to enhance its existence. Discuss instruments other than the traditional orchestra set. For example, the didgeridoo made from a tree root, or playing the wood saw with a bow.
  
• Also students may like to hear music from the less traditional composers John Cage and Phillip Glass.

Materials Needed for this Activity:

• Found objects that make a sound.

Additional Resources:

• Research contemporary composers such as John Cage and Phillip Glass who use less traditional harmonics.
  
• Invite a musician to discuss music and to help with making instruments.
  
• Invite a classical musician to play.
  
• Walt Disney Video “Donald Duck in Mathmagicland” talks about music and where it came from.
  
• TAP DOGS a musical group from Australia using a wide variety of unusual sound making items, not least of all their dancing in Blundstone Boots.
  
• STOMP
  
• BODY VOX
  
  

Procedure:

1. View or recall Sister Mary Bertoli.
2. Discuss with students the idea that necessity is the mother of invention. Poverty in the area Sister Mary was working in Mississippi did not dampen the enthusiasm of the residents, especially the children. What was lacking in supplies was made up by found objects and inspiration.
3. Discuss with students what they think would work as a sound-making device. List these ideas on the board.
4. Have students bring objects from home or around school such as waxed paper and combs, rubber bands around a shoe box, bottles to fill with water at graduated levels, copper tubing at different lengths etc. See what they come up with.
5. Have students collectively create instruments form these materials or break them into smaller groups to do so.
6. Have students try out their instruments with known melodies. How well do they work? Have each instrument make four happy sounds or notes, four frightened sounds or notes, four confused sounds or notes and four angry sounds or notes. Experiment with emotional quality of these sounds.
7. Elect a conductor.
8. Compose an "orchestra" from these instruments. Those not playing an instrument may use their hands and feet for percussion.
9. Rehearse a known melody or score a short piece just for this ensemble.
10. Perform for other classes.

Assessment

• Use the following scoring guides to assess this activity:
• Group Discussion Scoring Guide
• Performing Scoring Guide
• Presentation Scoring Guide

Extensions and Adaptations

Instead of using found objects, encourage the students to use their bodies as percussion instruments. Clapping, humming, foot tapping, tongue clicking, scat (like Mel Torme or Ella Fitzgerald), whisperings, etc. can make every effective rhythms and music.