Prep Visual Art: Collecting Objects from Nature and Making Stick Characters
Prep
Last week students embarked on a treasure hunt! Artists are curious about the world they live in. They find and collect things and sometimes just keep them until they find a use for them. Artists love to play around with the materials they find. Finding and collecting objects to use in an artwork is a very important part of making an art work for some artists. An artists’ connection to the materials they use is an important part of making and creating. Sculptors love to collect things from nature and use the shapes to give them ideas for their art. They often spend a lot of time hunting around for special objects to use in their work. Last week, our task was to be a collector. The Prep’s waited for a whole week to find out what to do with their collections! In a little box or basket they collected sticks, rubber bands, string, wool, old scraps of fabric and ribbons. One special skill they were asked to learn this week was to tie a knot using one of the sticks and some string! Students were very curious about what they were going to do with this unusual collection of objects!
The wait is over! Students finally found out what they would be exploring and making with all of the materials they had collected last week. This week, they made 3D sculptures of people or creatures from their collection of objects. They used the sticks as the body of the people or creatures. The rubber bands were used to join sticks together. Then the ribbon or string, was wound around the sticks to create a body and legs and arms. After students wrapped the body of their person or creature with wool or string, then they added fabric onto their figure and any other treasures form nature that they might have collected. The results were amazing!
