Tag: probability

Art is Messy – action painting with yarn

Happy Earth Day!

Today’s art project video can be viewed at Art Out of Anything on FB and @artoutofanything on Instagram.

 With this project we continue to offer art activities that you can do at home or in the classroom with much of what you already have on hand so you can work with what you have!
Action painting is exactly what it sounds like, painting with movement. 
Jackson Pollock was a painter know for his action paintings. You can see him painting and hear him talking about his artistic process in this video – SFMOMA – Paintings have a life of their own.
You can also visit his house on the east end of Long Island in NY or virtually at  Pollock-Krasner House. His wife, Lee Krasner was also an amazing artist.
Pollock’s paintings are not only colorful and lively, they also contain fractals, which is another example of how math can be found everywhere in art.
Today we will make our own action painting using yarn and paint.
Project Steps –  the steps for this project work best being viewed but I will give you the abridged version here.
  • gather your materials – I used acrylic paint, pieces of yarn and embroidery thread, clothespins, cups, paper and paint.
  • cover you work space with an old sheet or tablecloth or even a garbage bag.
  • pour paint into cups, add a splash of water if paint is too thick
  • clothespins are used to pick up yarn pieces and dip them into the paint cups. Make sure to coat the yarn as much as possible with the paint.
  • once your yarn is ready, lift it out of the cup with the clothespin and drop it onto the paper that is your canvas. You can also drag the yarn on the paper or shake it so it create splatters.
  • I would suggest leaving the yarn on the paper until you have completed your piece so that the paint has time to soak into the paper. This also creates a more cohesive finished piece.
  • once you feel your piece is done, remove the yarn using the clothespins or your fingers. You can even use chopsticks or tweezers!

You can lay your finished masterpiece flat to dry or hang it. If you have runny paint on your piece, your painting will change as the paint drips while it is hanging. Just be sure to place some newspaper or another garbage bag under the hanging painting to catch the drips.

I mentioned the word fractals earlier. A fractal is a never ending pattern. They can be found in math equations and in the world all around us from tree branches to snowflakes. Scientists who have analyzed Pollock’s seemingly random placement of paint, have discovered these never ending patterns in his work. Can you think of how that would happen when he was dripping and dropping paint and lots of other objects into his paintings without any obvious intentional placement? I have my own theory but you have to watch the project video for that!

Here are some links to really interesting articles about their theories and what they found –

Discover Magazine

A Scholarly Blog

Here are some interactive sites where you can see how fractals work and create your own –

Experimenting with Fractals, Math Fairy, Kids  , Interactive Fractal Machine

Here are some links to online drawing tools to create your own, not so messy action painting –

Scratch MIT , Nick jr. Drawing

I hope you enjoy getting messy and exploring the wonderful world of fractals and art.

Follow us on FB and Instagram @artoutofanything for weekly videos and activities. You can also contact us at eljaiekart@gmail.com or direct message us at FB and Instagram if you are interested in remote professional development workshops or homeschooling workshops.

Thanks for visiting and keep creating!

Patty

 

 

 

Collage of Chance

 

small collage

Hello everyone!

Today we will be exploring art and math by creating a collage made entirely by chance. Or was it?

This project is geared toward early childhood classes and young kiddos. It allows them to experiment and explore mathematical theories like probability. Although your little one may be too young to question whether randomness exists, we can certainly introduce them to the idea of making predictions and observing results using glue, yarn and paper!

 

Supplies –

  • paper, card stock, cardboard or any other surface you will use to be your canvas.
  • glue – liquid glue works best.
  • collage materials – I used different lengths and thicknesses of yarn, thread, rope and tape. You can also use different types of paper. You can even use dental floss!

supplies collage

Steps – 

  • art is messy – make sure you spread newspaper or a plastic garbage bag on your work surface
  • lay your canvas down and cover with glue. I don’t paint the glue on because I’ve found that the collage materials need a thicker line of glue to adhere to the canvas.
  • the application of the glue can also be “random” by squeezing the glue bottle and moving your hand around the canvas or squeezing and letting the glue drip where it will .
  • once your canvas is covered to your liking, start by dropping your collage materials, one by one onto the canvas.
  • try dropping the yarn or paper close to the canvas, from farther away or even stand on a chair and drop them onto the canvas placed on the floor!
large collage
I used yarn, ribbon, paper strips and even duct tape to make my collage.

The idea is that the collage materials will land where gravity takes them and so the result will be a collage that is determined by chance and not by the purposeful placing of the materials.

Once your collage is dry, you can preserve it by covering it with clear plastic wrap or paint on a coat of watered down white glue.

2 finished collage
I covered my collage with Press ‘N Seal. You can cover the finished piece before the glue dries. Little hands love to pick off the materials before they are dry. Cut a piece a little bigger than the collage overlap and tape edges to the back.

 

Project Extensions – 

  • can you predict where a piece of yarn or paper will land?
  • does the placement depend on how thick or thin the material is?
  • do you see any pattern in how the pieces landed or where they landed on the canvas?
  • if you use yarn and thread, once dry your collage makes for a great sensory experience too. The glue and yarn make interesting textures!

Art History – Jean (Hans) Arp was an artist that was part of the DADA movement. One of his most famous artworks is; Untitled (Collage with Squares Arranged according to the Laws of Chance). 

Jean-Arp.-Collage-with-Squares-279x395

You can learn more about Hans Arp and his technique here – MOMA Learning

I hope you are enjoying the projects and getting a chance to watch the videos at https://www.facebook.com/artoutofanything/

See you next week, on Tuesday, when we will be learning about Jackson Pollock!

Thanks for visiting and keep creating!

Patty