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Mrs.
Daniels
DanielsK@albany-academies.org
A IS FOR ART HISTORY
Join us as we look through the window of the Pre-K Art History class.
Written by Kim Daniels, M.S., Early Childhood Educator
IMAGINE...
You are a young girl and you have just heard a story about a dancer who once posed for an artist called Edgar Degas. The door opens. A graceful ballerina floats into the room and beckons you to join her. She teaches you how to stand in the fourth position just like the girl in the story. You try to stand still for a long time but it is difficult to do. You are then asked to sketch the dancer posing before you using artists’ chalk pastels and the same materials Degas used on his sculpture of the little dancer; silk hair ribbon and netting for the tu-tu. You learn that Degas had to sketch the little dancer before he could create the sculpture. There are no examples for you to copy. Before your eyes is the dancer, your blank paper, and the chalks. You take chalk in hand and begin.
IMAGINE...
You are a young girl and have just viewed Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring and you wonder about the girl. Who was she? What was she thinking? Where did the pearl earring come from? How did the artist feel when he painted the picture? How does it make you feel? Do you like it? Why or why not? You are then given a real canvas, acrylic paints on a palette, and a variety of brushes. Your canvas is on a table easel in front of you, not laying flat on the table. But, something is missing. The door opens. In walks a girl with a pearl earring dressed in 14th century costume there to model just for you.
The class is speechless. It is a self-imposed silence. Not a sound is uttered for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes. The class is silently focused, intent, gazing at the model, looking at their canvas, mixing their own colors and applying paint to canvas. They don’t even glance at each other’s work for validation. Intense in their own creation; they are serious artists engaging in their creative process. It takes the teacher all the control she possesses to say nothing; to let the process unfold.
IMAGINE...
You are a young girl and you have just heard a story about a man called “Action Jackson.” You like saying his name aloud. He was told by his art teachers that he wasn’t very good and should probably forget about an art career. But he didn’t forget. He kept working. You learn his real name was Jackson Pollock. He created his art by dripping and splattering paint while moving in and out of an enormous canvas lying down on a barn floor. You then go outside to a large canvas placed on the ground and are invited to do the same. Oh, to be able to move and paint at the same time! What joy! No one tells you to be careful, don’t make a mess, or stay in the lines. Instead you hear, try it, take a risk, see what you can create. In such an environment you become fearless and unpretentious. You can see it in the strokes of the paint. No hesitation. You go for it!
IMAGINE...
Well, you could continue to imagine, or you could visit Albany Academies’ Pre-K Art History Program. The scenarios depicted above were just some of the highlights presented at the Academies’ Lower School’s Afternoon of the Visual Arts. Other artists the Pre-K students learned about were Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, O’Keeffe, Munsch, and Matisse. In this program I try to expose the children to rich experiences that will help them make connections. I believe in providing them with a variety of artists’ tools so that they may explore the possibilities. I encourage them to think independently and take risks. A lot of people are intimidated by art; afraid to draw, to take a chance. In this venue, we have fearless children eager to try the techniques of the great masters. All you really need to do is hand them a brush, a Monet print and say, “Try it.” Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines art as “a making or doing of things that display form, beauty, and unusual perception.” Art abounds at Albany Academies.
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