Week 9

The second MoMA trip was a wonderful experience.  The weather was beautiful and again the traffic was not a problem.

We looked at a number of sculptures and paintings by the artists Duchamp, Miro, Boccioni, and Brancusi and of course Picasso.  Miss Paula’s group was intrigued by the sculptures In Advance of a Broken Arm and Bicycle Wheel, both by the artist Marcel Duchamp.  They were both curious and amused with his “ready made art”.  Ms. K’s group was impressed with the painting, Self Portrait I,  by the artist Joan Miro.  The student critiques ranged from “cool and colorful” to “scary and creepy”.

Weeks 7 & 8

We started session 7 by looking at Woman I. 1950 – 1952 by Willem de Kooning.  Miss K talked about color, mood, brush strokes, proportion, and size.  We learned that a portrait is an artistic representation of a person.  The students assignment was to draw a self-portrait to represent their likeness, and mood of themselves while playing their instruments.  Session 8 was spent using paint color to further capture these moods.

Week 6

Session 3 of making our Picasso inspired instruments was exceptionally creative.  Students studied their instruments and took note of any strings, buttons, or knobs.  They then moved to a table full of collage materials; buttons, beads, sequins, fabric, sticks, strings, pipe cleaners, and much more.  They worked tirelessly to create the perfect instrument.  As you can see in the photos, the finished artwork is spectacular.