Craft vs Art

The differences between art and craft are often blurred, and teaching art to children can very often manifest itself as copying craft. This list, from the website http://www.differencebetween.net offers food for thought:

Art is a form of work that expresses emotions and expressions. Craft is a form of work, which has a physical form just like in moulding and carving.
While Craft is quantified, Art seldom is.
One can create duplicate craft forms, which is not possible with art.
Art forms move people emotionally, whereas crafts attract people.
Unlike craft, art is known to come out of the heart and soul. Crafts are a product of the mind.
In art, it is the emotions that flow out whereas in craft no emotion is involved.
Art comes out from a person’s innate talents whereas craft is the result of experience.

This is also an interesting TedTalk by Laura Morelli about the historical and cultural use of the terms ‘Art’ and ‘Craft’

Remembrance Day Art – so much more than a red thumbprint!

There are some amazing art experiences to be had around this time of year, and it’s always inspiring to see work that incorporates some skills based learning.

This website link shows the work of some students in Year 3 &4 from a private school in Norfolk. They were looking at the poppy painting of Georgia O’Keefe:

http://hohs-blog.com/2014/11/22/years-3-and-4-study-poppies-by-the-artist-georgia-o-keefe-for-remembrance-day/

Poppies can also be an interesting way of discussing space (background, foreground, middle distance) How do the shapes and colours change to show that the poppies are far away, or close by?

Poppies can also be abstracted to become part of an extension of a focus on line.

Stone dots

As my class pursue their line project on ocean stones, I found this work by Elspeth McLean. She is from Australia, but is now based on Salt Spring Island B.C. The link to Australian aboriginal dot art is clear, but she has expanded the traditional colour palette and uses ocean stones as her canvas.

Van Gogh’s Life in Flowers

In Zundert, Holland there is an annual parade of amazing floats created with millions of dahlia flowers. This year the parade was inspired by the life of Vincent Van Gogh (look at the attached YouTube clip for how to pronounce that name!) He was born in Zundert 162 years ago. Some of the floats were articulated; you can see details of one where Van Gogh’s head opened into an array of sunflowers. Regardless of the fact that these floats are created with flowers, the designs are amazing.

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Pointillist Fast Food

The line between craft and art is sometimes blurred, especially when it comes to traditional crafts, but this textile work by Ed Bing Lee is undoubtedly ART. Starting as a commercial fabric designer in New York and Philadelphia, he works with coloured thread and thousands upon thousands of knots. Lee was inspired by the master pointillism George Seurat. Rather than emulating the great master, he has taken his work and reinvented it: “I continually return to art history for visual and conceptual stimulation. For me, it is the perfect jumping off point for work in a technique that knows no boundaries.”

Pointillism- is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of colour are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism.

Pen & Ink Inspiration

Staying on the theme of line, I came across the work of Filipino graphic designer Joseph Catimbang. His work is so finely detailed, yet it is unpretentiously displayed as a doodle in a moleskin notebook. His pen sketches show creatures and flowers and each has a great sense of movement.

Line Project

On Monday October 19th, we are aiming to display art from Kindergarten to Grade 12 that highlights the use of LINE! It is going to be fascinating to see how students’ appreciation of line develops through the grades and it’s a great opportunity to showcase students’ work from the whole school. Here are some images that might kick start some ideas and also some websites that I have found useful:

http://curkovicartunits.pbworks.com/w/page/11306896/%22Make%20You%20Mark%22%20-%20Line%20Drawings

http://thehelpfulartteacher.blogspot.ca/2012/02/elements-of-art-and-principles-of.html

http://www.studentartguide.com/articles/line-drawings

Silver Birch Trees

Students were asked to research silver birch trees and to experiment with impasto acrylic and a palette knife to create texture for the bark. Each student developed their own composition and studied the idiosyncrasies of this type of tree: small brown upward tilted branches, foliage very high on tree and small oval leaves with serrated edges.

Doll’s House Bliss

June 7th 2015 – visited the Doll’s House and Miniatures Fair in Burnaby with Jessica. What a treat for the eye! Two doll’s houses in particular were just spectacular. The creativity and attention to detail was breathtaking. I have a very sad and unloved doll’s house that I salvaged to renovate. I’ll track its transformation here.

Yulia Brodskaya – Paper Artist

After watching BBC 2’s ‘Making Art Work: First Idea to Final Piece’, I was blown away by the gorgeous paper quilling of the young Russian paper artist Yulia Brodskaya. Her work is so intricate and controlled yet it has a freedom and movement. Inspirational!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b044bt6h/clips