Repetition and Representation

I have had the pleasure of watching G as she explores representing her mother through painting and drawing.  It probably is not finished, but the way that her representation changed this last week really struck me.

From the first days of preschool, she was painting a simple version of her mom.

She explored her mother one morning in watercolors, painting her over and over again.  Each of the scans above also has a painting on the back.

The representation shifted a week ago when we introduced book writing at morning meeting.  G got up from meeting and immediately went to the pre-made books and created this.

A few days later, I observed her as she drew at the whiteboard easel:

The representation has shifted, and different details are important to G.  The drawing in the book and on the whiteboard are similar, just as all of the previous paintings were.  How long will G work on this representation of her mother?  

In the incredibly wonderful Its Not a Bird Yet, Ursula Kolbe shares ideas about depicting people and animals:

"...early figure drawings show few details.  A circular shape can stand for a head, face, the hair, and at first a torso with arms as well.  Children's representations are pictorial equivalents of things - not attempts to make realistic copies.  They know far more than they convey in a drawing...children's drawings are not 'printouts' of what they know." (2005, p. 17).

G knows much more about her mother than she is sharing here.  But a combination of learning about materials and how to use them to represent her mother plays a role here.  For me, one of the most interesting moments in my observations of G's work representing her mother was when we were using clay, and she rolled out a snake shape and bent it in half.  "That reminds me of your mother's hair, in your drawings!" I said to her.  She looked at me very seriously and said, "No, this is a horseshoe."  That moment could have gone either way, with her beginning to make a representation of her mother out of clay, or choosing not to use that medium to explore the representation.  In my mind, making that proposal was going to set us off on an exploration of representing people with clay.  But, it was neither the time nor the place for that conversation or activity.

I'm interested to see what G creates on paper this week, and to see if she decides that another medium is worth exploring!

Drawing on Mirrors Again

This post needs few words: Mirrors, dry-erase markers, and some towels for erasing make for a very engaging morning.

(And, a bonus flashback to drawing on mirrors in 2010!)

Self Portraits in our Sketchbooks

I had made a note to myself to do self portraits with the children again at some point - we have not done them since August - but I always found a reason not to do them on a certain day, or to push it back.  In this setting, it is sometimes hard to find the time, and our days can be a little unexpected.

A lightbulb went off in my head, though, when I realized we could try them in our sketchbooks.  We have "free draw" at last twice a week, and on those days, the children can finish work they've done before or start something new.  I've realized that if I am trying to give a specific prompt, I need to have the children find a specific page in their books using a visual cue (like the circles last year).  So, to go along with the verbal prompt of "draw a picture of you", I had drawn a large black rectangle on a page in each child's book.  And everyone did draw a picture of themselves.  I suppose I had envisioned the rectangle acting as a frame, but (as always) the children put their own spin on it.

I could not stop smiling when I saw the ones that used the rectangle as the body.

I think that when I present the prompt of making a self portrait again, we will be able to use a separate piece of paper, but maybe we won't bother.  The sketchbooks are a way to see the progression of children's work; and it is their own creative space.  Perhaps we need larger sketchbooks - I have always made them this size, and I'm not sure why!

Regardless of where we make them, I see the value in this work year after year. 

Doodling

Mo Willems, who understands four-year-old humor like no one else on the planet, throws a fantastic dinner party.  He and his family have chalkboard walls in their dining room, and they cover the table with butcher paper during meals.  This way, the room is constantly transforming and reflecting the people in the space.

Enjoy words and images from Mo Willems on his blog, and see more dining room transformations here.

Collaborative Drawings

One pen, two people.

Pre-Framed

Using Wax-O-Glass Window Crayons, the children drew directly into picture frames, and also on a large piece of plexiglass supported in a wooden frame.  I was hoping to have a few to put on the piano and on the windowsills, but the novelty of wiping off and drawing again was exciting.

Art for Haiti

After the earthquake in Haiti, one of the Kindergarten teachers organized a fundraiser for our Early Childhood Center.  Children were asked to make a piece of art in the Haitian Naïf style, and the pieces were displayed and then purchased by donation by families at the school.

We spent a week on the project, starting by talking about were Haiti is, what an earthquake is, and what happened.  I chose not to show them images - some parents did at home - but I did not do that in the classroom.  The children talked about things falling down, and their initial reaction was to send glue and tape to fix the houses and the schools.  A part of me wishes that I could have supported their exploration of help and charity, but we were getting ready for the February break, and the project that was organized was a great way for them to get involved right away.  Perhaps we will be able to explore service learning later.

We looked at many paintings and talked about the themes and the colors, and then the children glued small copies of the paintings that they liked into their sketchbooks.  We used our sketchbooks all week as our place to get ready, and late in the week, the children chose a painting that they had liked all week and drew with black pen.  The idea was to help keep them on theme and have the artwork nearby, so we could talk about colors and objects and what, perhaps, to draw.  Every child's piece came out original, and reflected their personal style, with inspiration from the Haitian artwork.  I'm grateful that we were able to help in some way, and that the children were able to have this experience.

 

  

  

  

 

Self Portraits

We did some self portraits during the first few weeks of school this year. It is interesting to see how the children see themselves and represent that, and then to see what they do when presented with a mirror. Some children do an exercise in observational drawing; others ignore the mirror.

Do you do self portaits? How?

It's not a bird yet

"Just as infants constantly practice making sounds, so young drawers fill sheets with shapes which may seem very similar. Yet when you compare markings of even only a few days apart, you will notice differences."

-ursula kolbe-

The information in It's Not a Bird Yet: The Drama of Drawing is nothing shocking or new. But Ursula Kolbe takes children's drawing experiences and slows them down, and looks at each time a child draws as a full experience.

After finishing the book, I made it a point to slow myself down a bit this week and watch and listen to drawing experiences in the classroom. At one point in the book, Kolbe talks about children as "pattern makers". That term makes me think of A-B-A-B patterns - lining up colored beads or animals. But to a child, a pattern is the label for something that repeats. So perhaps it is that A-B-A-B pattern that we have in mind, but it might be a sun with lines coming out everywhere, or vertical lines down a page over and over again. Two children were talking about patterns in the classroom on Tuesday - one was tracing flower petals onto a group mural and invited the other one: "Look at my pattern!" Her friend responded, "I love your pattern! Can I help with it?" They traced flower petals together, with a complete understanding of what the pattern was.

A second part that I felt I experienced this week was imaginative play and drawing as one. Kolbe says, "drawing...by many young children -- is about actions and events in time. It's not about making a picture of how things look." On Wednesday, one girl spent ten minutes drawing a curved shape, and then coloring it in with a crayon. While she was filling it in, she talked and sang about princesses, ghosts, parties, animals, sharks, and splashing water. Although her finished drawing was a simple shape, there was so much more to it.

I love reading a book like this. I spent a few evenings looking at the photos, reading the text, and going back to favorite sections. This is a nice book for an experienced teacher or a novice one. She comes from the point of view of an artist who loves to work with very young children, which is quite unique. Plus her work here is concentrated on one- to six-year-olds. In my school, I feel like a lot of attention is put on reading and writing for first and second graders in our center, so we don't get to talk about things like the drawings the children are making throughout the building. I'm talking about this book to the early childhood faculty on Monday, and I'm pretty sure I'll be lending my copy around for a while.

I think I'll be picking up a copy of Rapunzel's Supermarket: All about Young Children and Their Art now - that is Kolbe's first book. She really has a way of slowing down children's experiences and seeing each moment as important. And her work is really about children being children, and us watching and supporting as needed.

What are you reading right now?

Back Into It

We're back to work in the classroom. I'm thinking a lot about drawing because of a lovely book I just read -- more about that Thursday.

Happy Back to School, if I hadn't mentioned that already!