The artists, as shown above, who explored this approach to painting, were pushing back against representational art and often striving to represent emotions and ideas simply through color, texture, shapes, and lines. 

The person I interviewed seemed to radiate positivity which I envisioned as yellow/orange colors with a background of gray and blue, much like the rainy weather we're having today.  The first image I made was intended to be this pure golden colors but other colors of oil pastel fell off the colors I was using.  I didn't expect this and worked these discordant colors back into the artwork.  In the end, this reminded me of our discussion of "letting go of control" which was their answer to the "What is one thing life is teaching you right now?" question.

For the next two iterations, I wanted a simple shape to help better represent the ideas from person I spoke with.  

Blending the colors using a light oil pastel, here are the other two iterations of this portrait project.

Sophie Taeuber-Arp  
​(1889 –1943) was a Swiss artist, painter, sculptor, textile designer, furniture and interior designer, architect, and dancer.  Despite being overlooked at the time of her death, she is now considered one of the most important artists of geometric abstraction of the 20th century. Critics have said that Taeuber's artworks are "joyous abstractions", created as part of the Dada movement and has been called "revolutionary for its influence challenging the established conventions of art by "playing with blocks and blobs of colour, moving them around randomly, letting patterns emerge by chance, in a kind of visual jazz."

Compare these math prompted from 2/22/22.   An effective way to increase engagement is to increase ownership. Which of these prompts feels teacher-centered and which feels student-centered?  How does the open-ended nature of the one on the right compare to the five closed tasks on the left?  Which do you feel more engaged with?  

Students in Ms. Stengl's class at Alice Birney are creating personal art based on memories and learning about abstract art.  They have been practicing abstracting images through simplifying, exaggerating and distorting the original image.   After their first iteration, students shared their work and got feedback from classmates:
​-you could take out some details to simplify the people
-maybe make the ball bigger to exaggerate something on the field
-add lots of colors to the background
-you can make the arms wiggly
-you could exaggerate the Golden Gate Bridge
-you filled in the space but make the background a different color than that guy or make that guy a different color
-add more fins to your shark
-less details, simplify it
-you could make his eyebrows bigger
-you might want some more shapes, it looks like all background
-it's okay if it doesn't look like a thing, that's not good or bad

When creating their final artwork, students have many considerations.  They can use the feedback from peers.  They might keep elements of their first iterations or change something about their work that didn't work well for them.  
It is exciting to see their creativity and the diversity in their work.

Step 2: Use the proportion of the viewfinder opening to create a similar sized canvas.  In my case, the viewfinder opening was 2cm x 3 cm or a 2:3 ratio.  I set up the canvas as 10 cm x 15 cm to preserve this 2:3 ratio.  This can be done by the teacher if the mathematics is outside the grade level of the student.  If the canvas is a different ratio, the final artwork will be distorted which can be interesting.  

Step 3: Set up a grid.  Since this image was so simple, I cut the space in half vertically and horizontally creating 4 quadrants.  If the image was more challenging (a portrait, for example), smaller sections might be needed. For example, 6 vertical divisions and 4 horizontal divisions.  As shown below, the original image has 4 quadrants and the larger canvas also has 4 corresponding quadrants. 

Step 4: Draw the image lightly on the canvas.  Here is where the grid can come in handy.  For example, the building had a dark line exactly on the horizontal division line, and the tree occupied the entire bottom right hand quadrant, the building is about 2/3 the way across the left-hand quadrants, etc.  

Step 4: Erase the quadrant division lines from the canvas and complete the image using the media of your choice.  In my case, I used oil pastels and then a wash of watercolor to fill the white spaces on the paper.  To emphasize the hard edges of the architecture, I used a cardstock 'blocker' to create the straight edges of the building and the curve of the archway.

Step 5: Add framing, poetry or reflection.  How artwork is displayed often determines how it is perceived.  The artwork is perceived as a thinking activity when writing, revisions, reflection and curriculum are part of the display. 

Fourth grade students in Mr. Magnuson's class studied the abstract art of Wassily Kandinsky.  They looked at examples of abstract art made by other fourth graders.  Here's what they had to say about abstract art:
-can't tell what it is
-it's fun because you can't recognize all the things
-emotional
-random
-exciting
-confusing
-a way to show your feelings
-hallucinating, like it's moving with shadows
-it can be beautiful
-can be an escape from stressful reality
-illusions and nauseous
-if you're going through something, you can get it out
-it can have images you can recognize but are distorted
-a gateway to freedom
-it has things that might remind you of something but reminds someone else of something else
-images you can recognize but they are distorted


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Here's what students in Ms. Holland's class had to say when looking at examples of student art:
I notice...
they have 3 colors
there are different textures on each one
the designs are different in them
some look smooth and some look not smooth
the lines look like they used tape
all the different shapes
some parts are so dark
I wonder...
how they stopped the color from spreading
did they use paint?
Are we going to do this?
how the paper didn't tear
who made those
how they mixed the colors
if they used a lot of water
how it's going to turn out and if we can do that
who is in my group for making this

(Open the audio tracks in a new window to download.)

And here are some of the 5th graders working on their stickers.  

Here are some of the stickers from the high school students in AAI.