A Visual Arts Instructional Resource for Teachers Artists’ Connection 6: Artist as Environmentalist The Artists’ Connection 6: Artist as Environmentalist has been made possible through generous funding from… Edith H. Turner Fund 2 Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 4 DVSA Artists at a Glance - Environmental Topics ........................................................................... 6 DVSA Artists at a Glance: Subject Matter, Interests and Primary Medium .................................. 7 The Artists In Their Own Words Lester Coloma ................................................................................................................................. 9 Michelle Guitard ........................................................................................................................... 10 Sandra Henry ................................................................................................................................. 11 Janice Kovar .................................................................................................................................. 12 Patricia Kozowyk ........................................................................................................................... 13 Lena Montecalvo........................................................................................................................... 15 Clarence A. Porter ......................................................................................................................... 16 Marina Randazzo .......................................................................................................................... 17 R. Ward Shipman .......................................................................................................................... 18 Rosemary Vanderbreggen ............................................................................................................ 19 Heather Vollans ............................................................................................................................. 20 Nikola Wojewoda ......................................................................................................................... 21 Looking at Art: Activities in the Classroom ...................................................................... 22 The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1 -8 .................................................................................................................................... 23 Grades 9-12 ................................................................................................................................... 28 List of Activities ............................................................................................................... 33 White Line Printmaking with Watercolours ................................................................................. 34 Biodegradable and non-toxic Shibori Dyeing ............................................................................... 36 Recycled Papier Maché Shoe ........................................................................................................ 39 Biodegradable Ojo de Dios Weaving ............................................................................................ 42 Bark and Leaf Rubbings Class Collage ........................................................................................... 44 The “Artivist” Sketchbook ............................................................................................................. 46 Hamilton Reinterpreted: Recycled Cardboard City ...................................................................... 48 T-Shirt Market Bag, With or Without Block Printing .................................................................... 51 The Staycation Field Trip ............................................................................................................... 54 Recycled Paper Mosaic Landscapes .............................................................................................. 55 Appendices ..................................................................................................................... 57 APPENDIX I: Additional Resources for Environmentally Themed Art Projects APPENDIX II: Elements of Design APPENDIX III: Art Criticism APPENDIX IV: Questions to Assist Your Critical Analysis Process – Elementary Grades 1-8 APPENDIX V: Questions to Assist Your Critical Analysis Process – Secondary Grades 9-12 APPENDIX VI: Questions to Assist Your Creative Process – Elementary Grades 1-8 APPENDIX VII: Questions to Assist Your Creative Process – Secondary Grades 9-12 Credits ............................................................................................................................ 66 3 The Artists’ Connection 6: Environmental Perspectives A Visual Arts Instructional Resource for Teachers Introduction This guide book offers teachers different ways to engage with the original art works in the series Artists’ Connection 6: Environmental Perspectives. The activities focus on helping students to better appreciate and understand the artworks. This is achieved by applying ideas and concepts through differentiated learning activities. At DVSA, we hope the artworks in Environmental Perspectives will provide you and your students with a springboard for the conversations, activities and assignments that are a part of meeting the Ministry’s expectations around this curriculum. We also hope to support your valuable use of preparatory time as a teacher by providing you with quick, specific and self-contained activities and materials for future reference and extended discussion. In order to facilitate simple and time-sensitive lesson planning, we have created two Artists at a Glance lists. The first one encapsulates the environmental topics that are featured in the artist’s work that is included in this guide. The second one focuses on typical subject matter and types of medium that form the basis of the artist’s overall body of work. Instead of having to read through all of the artists’ biographies and statements (which we hope you will do eventually!), you can quickly navigate to find an artist whose work and interests will fit into your environmental education lesson plans and existing curriculum. We understand the challenges of the Ministry’s curriculum requirements, so again with the goal of simplifying your lesson planning, we have condensed the environmental education strands into the visual art requirements. This is organized by grade for your quick reference. At DVSA, we also understand that many teachers operate on a very limited budget for art supplies in their classrooms and so we have focused our attention on including art projects in this booklet which use RECYCLED materials in place of traditional art supplies. Recycled materials can be obtained at little or no cost with a little advance planning. Most teachers already compile parent email lists and could utilize this group communication to request that students collect and bring recycled materials such as cardboard or white polystyrene (styrofoam) meat trays. This is a useful exercise anyway, as it creates buzz and anticipation around the upcoming art activity, in addition to promoting looking at recycled materials as a valuable resource that can be up-cycled into artworks. To help encourage this as a regular classroom habit, we have compiled a list of useful recycled materials for you to start to “stash”. 4 We have also anticipated that environmental education can frequently focus on the negative, as there are certainly many upsetting “bad news” stories out there that can overwhelm the discussion and make the creation of meaningful activities in the classroom seem daunting. Students and teachers alike bring these emotions and visual experiences to the classroom when confronting the discussion of environmental issues. While not intending to minimize the seriousness of the issues, in the creation of this handbook, we have opted to take a more positive approach by focusing on “doable” environmental goals such as using recycled materials to manage the delivery of this curriculum. This attitude has also driven our selection for the list of additional resources available on the internet, which extend the discussion created around these activities and provide inspiration, new directions and renewed commitment to the value of art activities which promote environmental education. We hope you will enjoy using the Artists’ Connection 6 booklet, and that you will take advantage of our artists’ work that is available for use in your school. Our best wishes for an exciting and successful school year and we hope that this booklet will help you to fulfill the Ministry’s requirements for these environmental education strands in your classroom. Elizabeth Sharp B.A. (Hons) University of Toronto, B.Ed. University of Toronto, OCT 5 DVSA Artists at a Glance - Environmental Topics Looking for a particular environmental topic to drive the art activity in your classroom? Here are our featured artists’ special environmental interests that are featured in their work. LESTER COLOMA the devastating effects of oil spills and water pollution on wildlife, particularly birds MICHELLE GUITARD destruction of habitat for animals industrial emissions disruption of food chains and natural cycles of