Today is Earth Day! Earth Day is a global celebration that has happened every April 22nd. since 1970. On Earth Day, we acknowledge issues that affect all of us as global citizens such as climate change, pollution, deforestation and plastic waste. Every year has a theme and this year, it is climate action. You can read more about Earth Day 2020 here.
I thought that it would be appropriate today to learn a little bit about Louise Nevelson. Louise was an artist who is primarily known for her abstract sculptures made from found objects. Her assemblage art, sometimes the size of rooms, were pieced together from boxes, broken fragments of furniture and pieces of wood that would otherwise be thrown away. Her assemblage art would be painted in one color so even though the bits and pieces of her sculptures might not have anything in common, the end result would be unified by a singular color.
To see examples of Louise's work and to learn a little bit more about her, visit here and here.
In honor of Earth Day, I would like for you to make a sculpture inspired by Louise Nevelson out of found objects (fancy words for junk) around your house. To begin, you will need something like a shoe box lid or other shallow box that you can put your objects in. Then, go around your house and collect your found objects. Things like paper towel tubes, plastic lids from bottles or other containers, broken toys, bits of yarn, one doll shoe that has lost its mate, buttons and the like. Does your house have a 'junk drawer'? That would be a perfect place to look. Of course, ask an adult before you take something because I'd hate for the extra garage door opener to end up in your art. Once you have collected all of your items, it's time to start the assemblage part. Take your shoebox lid and start arranging your items in the lid in a way that pleases your eye. If you have glue and the items don't need to be returned to their original places, glue them down to the lid. Take a picture of the finished product and post on it on our Google Classrooms page. Now, here's the part where we have to hope that we get to have in person art class again this year. Remember where Louise would paint her sculptures one unifying color? I'm not going to ask y'all to do that because 1. Most of you probably don't have enough paint of one color laying around the house 2. Your parents probably have enough stress already without the art teacher making you paint something 3. I'd LOVE to be able to put all your sculptures together and assemble them into ONE big sculpture at the end of the year (or even at the beginning of next year if it comes to that) so we will need them to be one color 4. I'm not afraid of a little bit of spray paint an it's my job to be messy. So, that means that after you make your sculpture, I'm gonna need you to save it and bring it in to art class when we get back to school. Okay?
