Friday, November 16, 2018

Sky Class Goes to the Nasher

Sky class has had an amazing time learning about portraiture in conjunction with our field trip to the Nasher!

Light is easy to love. (2017)
Light is easy to love, Amy Sherald, 2017
St. John the Baptist II, Kehinde Wiley, 2006
Before our visit students used visual thinking strategies to analyze portraits by Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley. Visual thinking strategies is a pedagogy that uses the questions, "What's going on in this picture?", "What do you see in the picture that makes you say that?" and "What more can you find?" to allow students to collaboratively construct meaning from a piece of art. Natasha then showed the students the portraits of Michelle Obama and Barack Obama and asked students to work in small groups to determine which artist painted each portrait. These two pieces are owned by the Nasher and we were able to see them in person on our tour.
Image result for michelle and barack obama portraits

Students also created their own portraits with some constraints. The first portrait was created using only one line, then students created a portrait using a U shape and finally by using an oval.

At the Nasher we saw a variety of portraits and discussed what a portrait can tell us about the subject. It was awesome to see some pieces we previously studied and to see some new artworks. The children also loved making their own artwork inspired by the Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald piece. Check out the video below to see what we did at the Nasher and to view some of our artwork.