Thursday, May 17, 2012

Who Am I?

Isabel’s Artist Statement


It makes me remember about the studio I went to when I was five years old. My dad was there and he had a friend’s daughter and she had art there that had splatter on it. This is how I did this beautiful picture.

My mom teaches how to write art and tell stories about art. She taught me how to make the paint look artistic. Every color that I mix starts with same color that was in the other colors that I made. There are three colors that I would start with dark and light blue and dark green.

I feel most satisfied about the hair. There are many lines in the hair. The splatters are most of the design but the splatters are the main characters.






We watch as the children enter the K classroom at the beginning of the year. Some are wide awake to the world around them and others are sleepy. It seems to be part of their journey at this age to notice the world and wonder about their place in it. 


How am I similar to others and how am I different? 


The questioning often begins at a surface level.  


What do I look like? 


Later it  shifts to questions that are sometimes harder to answer. 


What experiences or things are easier for me to accomplish than my friends? What are greater challenges for me? 


The children begin to distinguish themselves and also find ways to strengthen the binds that tie them to others.
"I can run faster and farther than you"
"We are twins. We both have short hair."


All of this work prompts many emotions in children. It is both
reaffirming and  yet a sometimes isolating experience.... seeing oneself as a part of the bigger world. 


We have been representing this experience all year. 


Who Am I? 


The representation began at the beginning of the year as we drew our portraits. Leaving detail behind we explored abstraction. How do we define ourselves through color, movement, and shape? This led us to the more personal reflections. 


The children sat and soaked in the art of   Kehinde Wiley at the VMFA They were intrigued by the size of the canvas, the ordinariness of the portrait and  the contrasting background and sword. 

When they returned to school they wanted to represent themselves on a big canvas. Many of them wanted to concentrate on the background.








Kaiya’s Artist Statement

I kind of got inspired to do the full body because of the picture of the man with the sword because there were so many details. Because he did a full body he was able to do a background and that is why I was able to do all of these details.


I wanted myself to be really pretty. I made my body long so I can have a long dress that goes over my feet. I put pretty patterns on my dress, too. I put a lot of my favorite colors in my dress, too. I made a lot of twisty designs in my background and something that looks like a P. I put purple freckles on my face because Isabel said she thought I was growing in purple freckles.  Mary helped me make my skin color. Everyone else had peach color and I have brown skin. W used watercolor crayons for my skin. It was very hard to make my skin color. I also like doing black on my hair because I did not want to mix colors.

I noticed that someone was holding a sword in his hands (in a portrait at  the VMFA) to show that he was important and brave and strong. In one portrait the girl was really fancy and so I wanted to look really fancy in my portrait. I am not really copying that portrait though because that portrait had white skin.

I made a lot of pretty designs in my background. I put my favorite colors like light and dark purple, turquoise, green and gold.  My favorite artist is Frida Kahlo and so I try to paint like that. We studied her when Christine was here.



 Poppy’s Artist Statement

 When you were showing all those pictures of the portraits and their background. There was a little girl in a garden and I wanted to make my background a garden. I don’t think I have ever done so much detail on my face but usually I draw a circle for my head, two circle eyes and a mouth. This time I started with a circle head, oval eyes with points. I added my pupil, my eyelashes and eyebrows. I put some freckles on me and my mouth is open to show my teeth.
 I made my legs and then I made the paint on it. I started with this color paint for my legs and then added white for the socks but then I thought it looked like leggings with my legs sticking .So whatever you think it looks like that is what it is.

Owen’s artist statement

I like to draw and paint. I wanted to make a self-portrait of my head.  I tried to capture the details of my mouth. There is lots of red.  I remember working on my hair. I used pastels. I had lots of stuff in mind My hair is not just straight right here It is kind of bumpy. Pieces of hair stick out here. I worked on my skin with lots of watercolor pencils. I used water to go over the different colors, like brown, red and yellow.

I used the whole paper because I did not want any white space. My background looks like a stormy sky because I like storms It is fun to hear the thunder.

Lots of things that I did elsewhere inspired me. I do lots of drawing at home and that is what inspires me.


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