Visual Arts during the Stay-at-Home order

Through all the challenges of remote schooling Discovery Charter has sought to continue to hold the arts as an important component of teaching the whole child. In difficult times art often offers a way to process complicated feelings or offer a healing respite from an overwhelming world. Several visual arts projects have aimed to fulfill these needs. Teaching art remotely presents its own challenges regarding art supplies and the impossibility of hands-on interaction, but our students have risen to the challenge.

 

Stay-at-home Still Lifes:

Artists across centuries have used the still life to practice skills and sometimes symbolize larger ideas. In this project students were instructed to create still lifes at home from items they found either interesting to look at or personally important. They then set aside time from online work and entertainments to take the time to create a quality drawing.

Healing and Protective Deities:

Healing and protective deities are abound in the folklore and mythology of many cultures through-out history. Artists in Japan have been updating these figures to address the Covid crisis. After looking at several examples students created their own deities, some with symbolic props and backstories. Some provide protection, others healing, but all come from an impulse to offer hope in this difficult time.

 

Virus Art:

As part of a week long mini-unit on vaccines the students created work in an arts integration lesson on virus structure. Looking at both scientific illustration and fine art examples, students were introduced to cylindrical, spherical, polyhedral, and complex virus design. Then they created their own virus inspired art.

 

Hair Art:

For the "Hair Love" mini-unit students looked and responded to artists who use their hair as a medium of expression. Instagram sensation Laetitia KY of Ivory Coast was the hands down favorite. Students then sketched ideas for their own outlandish hair art ideas.

 

If You Were A Superhero:

In conjunction with the "Building My Vision" unit students took a superhero personality test to determine which famous superhero’s personality most closely matched their own. They then took that information to help them design their own superheroes.

    

 

Illustrated Travel Journals:

Building off the mini-unit "Wanderlust," the students looked at examples of elaborately illustrated travel journals. They then explored a travel destination virtually, recording the experience in sketched travel journal pages, as if they were really there.

 

Engage or Escape: After class discussion on the dual functions of art in times of crisis and anxiety students created drawings inspired by the discussion.

 

The Wall of Respect:

Students were introduced to the "Wall of Respect" mural done in 1967 by the Africobra art group of Chicago. They then looked at and discussed mural responses to the George Floyd murder around the world. The were then assigned  the task of creating their own mural designs addressing the current struggle for racial justice.