One Day GROUP Project: Winter Assemblage (Louise Nevelson)

This was a 1-day getting-to-know-you project I did with the fourth grade students at a school I am temporarily teaching at. I probably should have done an easier "box" as our base--I chose an origami version that we did as a class, step-by-step. Most of the classes were able to follow along, but one class struggled a bit with the creation of the boxes. The original post I saw for this project online, describes an easier "box." I may do that NEXT time.

This piece is about 3 feet wide and 4 feet tall--impressive!
I'm so proud of you, fourth graders!!

We looked at Louise Nevelson's work: "Sky Cathedral," from 1958, and then created our own relief assemblage inspired by winter.

VOCAB: origami, sculpture, relief, assemblage, sculptor, horizontal, vertical, space, form

CROSS-CURRICULAR CONNECTION: Science (seasons, winter), Language Arts (poetry)--if you have the students write a poem about the finished piece. Try this poem, here.

MATERIALS: One 9x12" piece of construction paper (for the box), multiple 1"x12" strips of construction paper (about 6 per child), little squares of white paper for snowflakes (optional), scissors, hole punch, glue sticks; for the teacher's use: hot glue gun and glue sticks, stapler

Tommy McHugh - The Empty Chair - Revisited

While I was reading the newest book for my next grad course, "Your  Creative Brain, " by Shelley Carson, Ph. D., I learned about an English artist--Tommy McHugh. He came about being an artist a little later in life--after he suffered a couple of strokes. Before his strokes, he was a builder and it is said that he didn't have any artistic tendencies. After his strokes, however, he became a prolific writer, painter, and sculptor.

I enjoy more abstract pieces, so I really enjoy his work--it has a dreamlike quality that reminds me of the swirling thoughts that go on in our brains--or, at least in my brain. McHugh explained that this creative work helped him process the waves of thoughts and images that started to come into his brain as he was recovering.

McHugh was as passionate about encouraging people to be creative as he was about creating his art. He said, "We all have it--we just don't believe we can do it." He explained in this video that we can direct our paths both in life and in our minds. We can unlock the cells in our brains and do more. He encouraged people to break through whatever is keeping them from trying new paths: self-doubt, money, fear of judgement…and just do it. He explained that once you start accessing those cells in your brain and creating new pathways, more creativity will come.

Imagine if you were given a gift such as this…what would you do with it? You have been. Ready, set,  GO!