One of the many incredible opportunities that my job as an education assistant at a local downtown gallery has provided is the chance to work face to face with artists to design lesson plans and activities based on their work. In January, we had the privilege to work with artist Samantha Parker Salazar on incorporating her installation and multimedia pieces in to our Art Explorations program for children ages 4-11. Her show, Malleable Matrices, explores the limits of printmaking in an explosion of paper cut forms and lines to create breathtaking installations and intricate layered works.
all images taken from Samantha Parker Salazar's website: SamanthaPSalazar.com
Samantha was as excited to work with the students as we were. She explained her inspirations and processes behind the two large installations, detailing descriptions of her sketchbook and showing students examples of first prints that would later become parts of large scale works. When opening the floor for questions, a parent asked Samantha what it was like, after countless hours of sketching, planning, printing, cutting and installing, to finally see the final product in its sunlit glory, rising from the ground and covering walls and ceilings with its meticulous and intricate details.
She said, as she explained to the parents and the kids, that it was like seeing something from your dream in real life, like an eerie, but delightful, "deja-vu moment".
We then led the art explorers in an activity where they were to create their own paper collages with a variety materials and tools. Before starting, we discussed the definitions of dimensionality, and how the artist uses flat materials such as paper to create forms that take up 3-dimensional areas of space. We also talked about the ideas of negative space, installation art and shape as they apply to the works surrounding them in the gallery.
By the end of the workshop, students chose either to take their final masterpieces home with them or leave them in the space to be put on display during the closing reception of the show that evening. Many explorers chose to hang their work, and then even came back to talk to their new fans at the reception!
A complete lesson plan for this workshop can be downloaded here
She said, as she explained to the parents and the kids, that it was like seeing something from your dream in real life, like an eerie, but delightful, "deja-vu moment".
We then led the art explorers in an activity where they were to create their own paper collages with a variety materials and tools. Before starting, we discussed the definitions of dimensionality, and how the artist uses flat materials such as paper to create forms that take up 3-dimensional areas of space. We also talked about the ideas of negative space, installation art and shape as they apply to the works surrounding them in the gallery.
By the end of the workshop, students chose either to take their final masterpieces home with them or leave them in the space to be put on display during the closing reception of the show that evening. Many explorers chose to hang their work, and then even came back to talk to their new fans at the reception!
A complete lesson plan for this workshop can be downloaded here
