Modular Unit Repetition

Modular Unit Repetition

Objective: Use toothpicks to create a modular sculpture. Create a series of modular units and combine 20 together to make a free-standing, 3-dimensional form. 

Key Vocabulary: 

Modular: employing or involving a module or modules as the basis of design or construction.

Modular Sculpture: created by joining together standardized units (modules) to form larger, more complex compositions. In some works the units can be subsequently moved, removed and added to – that is, modulated – to create a new work of art, different from the original or ensuing configurations.

Repetition: The Art principle of repetition simply means the reusing of the same or similar elements throughout your design. Repetition of certain art elements in design will bring a clear sense of unity, consistency, and cohesiveness.

Unity: refers to a set of compositional strategies used by an artist to make the parts of the artwork work together as a whole through visual relatedness. Unity always expresses a shared commonality within a painting or sculpture or textile. 

Non-objective art is not meant to look like anything (so don’t turn your toothpicks into a flower or cat!) but it also shouldn’t look like a random hot mess, either! •

ARTIST: Bean Finneran (1947-     ) 

American artist who was born in Cleveland, OH
Their work has featured in numerous exhibitions at key galleries and museums, including the Crocker Any Museum. 

Attended Goucher College, Baltimore, MD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, Museum School, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MA, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA

The constructions are abstract rings, lines, cones, circles but often evoke real things: sea anemones, coral reefs, haystacks or wind-blown grasses.   

“I work with a simple elemental form, a curve made from the most basic natural material, clay. I make and build with hundreds or thousands of these forms. The clay curve connects me to time, the earth, the elements, and human culture.” —Bean Finneran

The sculptures cannot be moved without taking them apart and reconstructing them. 

sculptures are built curve-by-curve and disassembled one by one. 

This process of continual and possible change and transformation connects me to the natural world along with the ordered chaos that comes from organizing thousands upon thousands of individual elements into a form. 

CA Art Standards: 

1.5 Analyze the material used by a given artist and describe how its use influences the meaning of the work.

2.1 Solve a visual arts problem that involves the effective use of the elements of art and the principles of design.

3.3 Identify and describe trends in the visual arts and discuss how the issues of time, place, and cultural influence are reflected in selected works of art.

4.4 Articulate the process and rationale for refining and reworking one of their own works of art.

5.0 Develop competencies and creative skills in problem-solving, communication, and management of time and resources that contribute to lifelong learning and career skills.

Project Requirements: 

Sketchbook: Complete observational sketches in your sketchbook. Revisit the work of by artist Sol Lewitt and research the artist Bean Finneran.

Final Project: You will construct 20 of the same modular unit BEFORE combining all 20 into one sculpture. View the modules from several angles as you build. Consider the space created in between the toothpicks. How do light and shadow affect your module?

Students will need a 100 (or more) toothpicks (flat or round) in plain wood. Wood glue ONLY. Hot glue is not allowed as it leaves blobs.  

Sculpture must be at least 4”x4”x4” and be free-standing. 

Can be attached to a base (such as wood, cardboard, or foam core) 

Can be painted one color 

Units should be glued on hard movable surface (book, sketchbook) covered with wax paper. 

Form and Shape Clay Houses with Maud Lewis

Two week Project to allow for a bisque fire in between lessons

DISCUSSION:  Clay: what is it? Where does it come from?

what can you make with it?

when you make things with clay are they flat like paper?

Mrs. Brown says you have been talking about houses

what does a house need to be a house from the outside?

windows: what shape: square, rectangle

door: rectangle

roof: triangle

ARTIST: Maud Lewis

Folk Artist 

1903-1970

Nova Scotia, Canada

Born in Ohio

She suffered from disabilities as a result of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

lived most of her life in poverty with her husband in Marshalltown. 

he began her artistic career by hand-drawing Christmas cards. 

These proved popular with her husband's customers as he sold fish door to door and encouraged her to begin painting. 

She used bright colors in her paintings and subjects were often of oxen teams, horses, or cats. 

All of her paintings are of outdoor scenes. 

Her house was one-room with a sleeping loft and is now located in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax.

Most of Maud Lewis' paintings are quite small - often no larger than eight by ten inches

She is known to have done at least three paintings 16 inches by 20 inches. 

Her technique consisted of first drawing an outline and then applying paint directly out of the tube. 

She never mixed colors.

She painted on everything in the home as she often did not have enough money to buy supplies

for additional information, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Lewis

PROJECT: create a clay house like Maud Lewis

Step1: Roll out the clay and warm it up

Step2: Flatten the clay and make a flat square

Step3: use your toothpick to draw in a triangle roof

MAKE SURE NOT TO POKE YOUR TOOTHPICK ALL THE WAY THROUGH, JUST DRAW ON THE SURFACE

Step4: draw in windows

Step5: draw in the door

Step6: add texture to the roof

Step7: Draw in some pictures on the house like maud lewis

MATERIALS:

                clay

toothpicks

Popsicle sticks

Second week: DISCUSSION: Ceramics: throwing on a wheel 

Hand building (we did hand building)

Kiln: Fire Clay so it become hard 

Shrinks in the kiln

First fire is a bisque fire

Glaze Paint like substance that turns to glass when heated

Glaze fire in the kiln to cause it to change to glass

Glaze WILL fuse to shelves of the kiln : 

DO NOT GLAZE THE BOTTOM

ARTIST: SALLY RUSSELL   (A California Ceramics leader)

Sally Russell was born in San Francisco 

Sally’s affinity for vivid colors, organic textures and playful patterns 

She credits her parents with cultivating her creative spirit 

Sally had a flourishing career in the competitive world of fine art. 

Her larger-than-life size papier-mache sculptures and whimsical ceramic totems, some reaching 12 feet in height.

Creating and selling her line of ceramic dinnerware was initially a way for Sally to finance her fine art, but the thriving business has now become her focus. 

 "I've always played with irregular textures, colors and patterns, and bringing these elements to everyday objects seems to be a natural extension of what I am already doing with my fine art."

Sally studied fine arts and studio arts at both Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Sally Russell lives in Carmel Valley

for additional information; please visit: http://sallyrussellstudio.com/

PROJECT: Glaze your bisque fired pieces and place them on the cart to go to the kiln

PREPARATION: I have found the best way to have students glaze their artwork is to create a table for each color of glaze and the children walk from table to table to complete their piece.  Foe example: at the "red" table there would be a large cup of red glaze with 5 or 6 brushes. Under the cup would be a piece of red construction paper so that students will know what color they are using. 

MATERIALS: 

Bisque fired clay pieces, 

        Glaze in primary, secondary, black and white. 

        Brushes, 

        Water

        large plastic cups

additional student examples:

Textured Relief Sculpture with Van Gogh

    

Allow 15 minutes for several days/weeks of art class to complete this project

DISCUSSION:

Texture

What is texture?

Where do we find it in nature?

Where do we see it in life everyday?

How can it help us?

Where do we see it in art?

Relief Sculpture

       what is it?

       where do you see it?

       it usually tells a story

       what would you find on the back of relief sculpture?

Project: 11:30-1

Step1: look through the books on Van Gogh and choose your favorite piece

Step2: get a hunk of clay

Step3: using your hand, warm it up by just moving it through your fingers

Step4: begin the process of rolling it out with your hands

Step5: flatten the clay and create a square or rectangle

Step6: with a toothpick begin to draw out your van Gogh piece in the clay

Step7: draw it all in with line

Step8: now go back and look at the texture of the piece

Step9: using different tools recreate the texture in to your clay drawing

Day 2: (or week 2)

Your RELIEF sculpture is now leather hard

Leather hard means harder then yesterday but you can still make changes

Step1: using sculpture tools from yesterday, carve out additional details

Add more texture, make details deeper, etc.

Day 3 (week 3)

At this stage the clay will be completely hardened

Paint the clay with acrylic paints

Day 4 (week 4)

Finish the piece by adding a gloss coat over the paint. Modge Podge is a great option. 

Adaptations: 

If a kiln is available you would bisque fire after week two and glaze fire after the third week. 

MATERIALS:

1 pound of clay per child

assorted tools to add texture

  straws

  plastic forks and knives

  tooth picks

Acrylic paint

Modge Podge

  

Picasso Cubism Coasters

Preschool-First Grade

Discussion: Cubism/perspective/emotion
What does perspective mean?
How do things look from an airplane?
How does an airplane look from here?
How small are the trees in the park from here? Can they fit in your fingers?
And standing next to them how much could we fit in our fingers? One piece of bark??

PERSPECTIVE: how you see things from where you are
In this classroom: some of you are looking at this half of my face and some at this half
Cubism means to draw things from several perspectives in one space
PICASSO pioneered the idea he is the father of cubism
Picasso would draw one face but show it from profile and forward.

Emotion: how color, music, life make you feel
If you are in a bad mood do you think you would paint the same thing if you were in a good mood?
What about music? If you are listening to your favorite song/artist do you think you would paint the
Same thing as you would if you were listening to your Least favorite?
Picasso included emotion in his pieces deciding on colors and images based upon how he felt in that moment.

ARTIST: Pablo Picasso
(25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973)
He was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor.
He is one of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art.
He is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work. Picasso demonstrated uncanny artistic talent in his early years,
He painted in a realistic manner through his childhood and adolescence;
During the first decade of the twentieth century his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas.
Picasso’s creativity manifested itself in numerous mediums, including painting, sculpture, drawing, and architecture. His revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal renown and immense fortunes throughout his life, making him the best-known figure in twentieth century art.

PROJECT: create a clay coaster with a Picasso influenced face
Step1: roll your clay out like a snake
Step2: coil it up like a sleeping snake
Step3: begin to flatten it so that the top and bottom are smooth
Step4: once you have a smooth circle begin to add facial features with your toothpick
Step5: add eyes: one forward and one sideways
Step6: add a nose but maybe it is upside down or on the cheek
Step7: add a mouth but maybe it is on the forehead or sideways
Step8: don’t forget hair

MATERIALS:
Clay
toothpicks

Here are additional photos of Picasso coasters from preschoolers that have been glazed and fired