Second Grade Explores Dale Chihuly!

Although the BES Art has not been busy on the blog lately (I am sorry!), we sure have been busy in the art room!  I am so excited to finally debut a huge unit that second grade has been knee deep in for the past 2 months.  As some of you might know, the contemporary glass artist Dale Chihuly had a special large exhibit of his work at our very own Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  As a Beaverdam native myself, I know how far away Richmond City seems from our small little town... BUT we are so lucky to have such a wonderful resource less than an hour away where we can see art up close and personal.  This is why I thought it was so important to introduce students to the artist Dale Chihuly and his artwork and try to spark the student's interest in going to visit the VMFA.  I hope some of you were able to go!!  If not, the students sure did learn a lot anyways right here at BES!

We started the unit just like Chihuly starts his glass work... by creating a painting!  Chihuly explains that he does not think about his paintings while he is doing them and that is what makes them so special and interesting.  Students had a great time experimenting with this way of art making.  THe results were MAGNIFICENT!!!

 

The next Chihuly series of work we looked at was his Ikebanas.  Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement and you can see the corelation when you look at his glass Ikebana series.  Students created their own on a much smaller scale using clay and glazes.  The clay medium made them fragile like glass and the glaze made them smooth, shiny, and reflective like the surface of the glass medium.  Take a look!

 

 

In between the clay handbuilding and glazing of the Ikebanas, students explored Chihuly's Maccia glass series.  Students experimented with creating their own Maccia like form using washable markers on coffee filters and spraying them with liquid startch to make the colors run together.  The startch also helped them keep a cup shape by letting them dry while slumped over a cup.  The finished result was translucent and similar to Chihuly's Maccias.  We displayed them as a whole grade installation and people really oohhed and awwed over them!

 

 

 

The last series we studied had the biggest WOW factor... the chandelier series!!  Students were able to use plastic soda bottles to paint the inside and cut into different lines to create the second grade collaborative chandeleir that now hangs in the main office here at school.  It is amazing discovering kid safe materials that show a similar surface quality to glass.

 

 

Weaver T. Beaver is all sorts of excited with this new art addition to his habitat!

 

This unit was so much fun!  I want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated plastic bottles!  I also want to thank the VMFA for having this amazing exhibit and offering the teacher workshop that I went to to learn more about bringing Dale Chihuly into the elementary art room.  Please ask your second grader about their "Chihuly-Smarts" because I know they would be happy to share their knowledge. :)