In the second week of my Olympics-themed curriculum, boys practiced both two-dimensional collage and three-dimensional assemblage, inspired by the artists Romare Beaden and Louise Nevelson. For this project, we looked at Louise Nevelson's epic wooden assemblages made from found furniture pieces. Then, boys made their own assemblages inspired by the artwork, using wood pieces and wood glue. The boys are divided into three groups, Explorers (elementary school), Juniors (middle school) and Teens (high school), so each project is scaffolded accordingly. For this project, elementary school kids made assemblages of robots (which they LOVED), middle school kids made buildings, and high schoolers were free to make whatever they wanted. This was a SUPER fun project that I highly recommend to any art educator. It seems like this was the favorite project for all my students so far. My little guys kept saying things like "This is the best project ever," "This is so cool," and "I wish we did more stuff like this in art class [at school]." The older guys were really excited too.
You can read more about my summer curriculum for The Boys' Club here: https://www.cianamalchione.com/post/teaching-rubbings-inspired-by-do-ho-suh. Some of their awesome results are below!
This guy made two spinning tops. We tried covering the bottoms in oil pastel to see if they would draw as they spun, but the pastel was too dry. A wetter material would have worked.
This figurine, made by an elementary school boy, was affectionately named Buff Arms McSwol. Although his creator was rough, I am happy to report that after three successful surgeries (with hot glue), McSwol is alive and well.