Students studied the work of Brice Marden before
starting a multi-week-long project inspired by his art. Marden is known for his
serpentine, calligraphic drawings with layered networks of lines. Marden's work
is often inspired by Chinese (hanzi) and Japanese (kanji) characters, and at
times uses sticks as extender tools to draw with. Students were introduced to hanzi
and kanji characters and were challenged to make both small and large
calligraphic patterns on various papers, inspired by Asian letter characters
and Brice Marden's work. During the first stage of the project, students worked
at tables and made drawings using twigs as drawing tools by dipping the sticks
into ink and then working to make calligraphic markings with an unconventional
tool. In a related exercise, students were instructed to smudge charcoal over
their pages before using sticks and ink, and later, after the ink had dried,
they worked with erasers to reveal original paper color in various "negative
shapes" which they discovered between their markings. For the second part
of this project, students were given larger tools that forced additional
challenges. Students were given yard-long sticks and ink and tempera in bowls
and palettes on the classroom floor, and while standing above their paper, they
made wonderfully unpredictable calligraphic drawings with increased accidental
markings. For these preliminary exercises, students were challenged to think
about "varied line, and shapes," and to "consider the space
displaced by these markings," and to "value using multiples layers"
by understanding "why certain materials and mediums came first when layering
their markings." These first experimentations prepared the students for
their final project, in which they used acrylic on canvas boards and painted networks
of layered lines, forming crisscross shapes with brushes and various colors. In
their final Marden-inspired project, students were asked to think about what
they learned from making their preliminary drawings and were challenged to
transfer their understanding into their final paintings. They were encouraged
to consider color as a way to "activate the illusion of space." They were
challenged to "pay attention to which colors appear to come forward in
space, and, which colors appear to push back into space." The results of
these projects are quite sophisticated for these young artists in grades 2-5.
