Editor’s Letter: Environment

Have you noticed changes in your natural environment over time? When I was a child, we lived in the middle of the woods in Louisiana, and my siblings and I spent most of our time outdoors there. I was very interested in birds (I wanted to be an ornithologist) and observed and drew them from life whenever I could. Looking back, I remember robins, cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, wrens, titmice, nuthatches, chickadees, kingfishers, ducks, red-winged blackbirds, and many more birds I hardly ever see now.

Upcycled Robots

My kindergarten students went on a field trip to a recycling center to learn that tin and aluminum cans should not go in the regular trash and end up in landfills. They also learned that new products such as airplane and bicycle parts can be made out of the recycled aluminum. In the art room, I was able to build on students’ knowledge of recycling and introduce them to the concept of upcycling.

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Sharing Environmental Stories

As an art educator, I wanted my students to explore the negative effects of plastic on our environment. My purpose was to help them understand not only what is happening to our environment, but also why our water resources are so important and what they can do collectively and individually to help keep our environment thriving and free of plastic.

Sustainability through Art

This art challenge encouraged students to explore their home environments and personalize the context and theme for their creative expressions. The material requirements were open-ended, giving students additional creative freedom and igniting a sense of discovery as they foraged around their homes for supplies.

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COVID Cartoons

From an early age, we make sense of and lighten our outlook on difficult situations with the help of cartoons. As schools across the world closed to control the COVID-19 pandemic, our art class started cartooning to record how their lives were changing. I asked my students to bravely explore lifestyle changes, new perspectives, and difficult emotions.

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All in Pieces

Passing by my art room, students and teachers couldn’t help but peer through the windows or peek inside the door. They were drawn by the sounds of electric jigsaws gnawing through plywood, the buzzing of electric sanders scraping the edges of prickly wood, and the breaking of glass against metal nibblers. It was all part of the mosaic art-making process and students loved it!

Charcoal Cardboard Self-Portraits

These portraits are scaled so the subject is not a figure in negative space; instead, it’s a person—an in-your-face expression of personality jutting out at us. Students are asked to fill the picture plane with themselves, leaving the viewer nowhere to escape to, no place to rest their eyes. We talk a bit about “the gaze” of the viewer and how filling the frame gives agency to the viewed, to the portrait, to the self.

Voice, Vision, and the Art of Creating

Although drawing skills are important and tend to be the main focus for sketchbooks, I decided several years ago to diversify my students’ sketchbook portfolios. I opened up prompts to allow students to use their sketchbooks as a way to research while finding their own aesthetic. I focused on four main categories for sketchbook assignments: Research, Observation, Design, and Voice.

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Supporting Creativity at Home

I noticed that many art educators were attempting to develop resources and support for adults at home. The following is a compilation of what I found during my research in terms of help, support, and understanding to better empower adults at home who are facilitating learning with their children.

Calligraphic Hope

French-Tunisian artist eL Seed explores the aesthetic and philosophical impact of Arabic calligraphy in murals, paintings, installations, and sculptures. His distinctive interpretation of calligraphy spreads messages of peace, unity, and commonalities among cultures. Before starting a mural, eL Seed researches the social and political history of the community where it will be placed. He introduces himself to the residents and invites them to collaborate with him.

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