CURRICULUM:
Fallen Butterflies: Jewelry Curriculum for a Cause
Fly.TeachArt.org
Developed by Karissa Ferrell. Examples of student work from Los Alamitos High School, Fall 2013
The “Fallen Butterflies” Wearable Art Project focuses on raising awareness about children who are caught in the cycle of abuse and neglect. This “activist art” project shows students how creative expression and generosity can have a positive impact on the real world beyond the classroom. The Havenly Blue Foundation rallies on behalf of these minors who do not have a voice in the legal system. Students from Los Alamitos High School had a chance to meet Havenly Blue’s Founder, Priscilla Perez, and hear her touching and inspiring life story. They also looked at historical and contemporary examples of artists who concern themselves with making art for positive change as inspiration for this project. Each student re-interpred the “Fallen Butterflies” mark — which features a child’s face on a butterfly’s wings — as a starting point to create a piece of unique wearable art (earrings, necklace pendant, or bracelet). Student work was also selected for an online art auction to raise money for the foundation, the art department at Los Alamitos High School, and a portion went to the individual student. View the Art Auction page for more information
Printmaking: A Sensory Translation of Place
http://printmakingsenseofplace.weebly.com/
Developed by Karissa Ferrell, examples of student work from Los Alamitos High School, Fall 2011
This curriculum explores the interdisciplinary connections and translation of one’s sensory observations into visual expression using various printmaking techniques. Lessons will begin with preliminary exercises in observation (using each of the five senses) that lead students through experimental methods of non-objective recording. These records will become the basis of their finished works and will reveal the student’s subjective associations. For example, students will be asked to analyze the taste of black pepper to discover if it is sharp, full, permeable or spiky. With these associations in mind/memory students will translate the ephemeral sensations into an image on a plate using found textures, impressed or raised expressions of line and stencil shapes. Concerned with experimentation, collaboration and employing chance elements, these lessons will introduce students to playful and improvisational methods of Artmaking. Students will also encounter a variety of contemporary and historical examples that show how artists use their sensory perceptions in Artmaking.
Breaking Social Boundries: http://ufare6641collabkferrelldbrock.weebly.com/
Collaborative project between students in Southern California and Southern Florida.
Developed by Karissa Ferrell and Deborah Brock
This unit explores the big idea of “Breaking Social Barriers.” Through this unit students will discuss and identify how they can take action to break barriers that they have identified in their own worlds. Students will also discuss ways to build bridges from "what is" to "what could be" by reviewing the traditional techniques for communicating their ideas. This is a collaborative project between photography students in South Florida and printmaking students in Southern California. Students will be presented with examples of how other artists have expressed different social boundaries and expressed various points of view. Students will then create prints using alternative methods in both printmaking and photography. They will exchange their original images with a peer in the other state. At this high school level students are gaining a broader perspective on the world while maturing and acquiring the skills needed to deal with social boundaries. This unit will additionally suggest that artistic expression can be a healthy and constructive means for both raising awareness as well as creating a platform for the process of transformation and resolution; whether it is personal, political, local or global.
Interconnection: Art and Science http://interconnectionartandscience.weebly.com/
Developed by Karissa Ferrell
This unit explores the interdisciplinary connections between art and science, focusing specifically on systems, patterns, structures,and cycles. The lessons are organized around discovering, interpreting and then reinterpreting patterns and systems through artistic translation. Students may also choose to investigate the impact that humans have on certain natural cycles. The first lesson will playfully encourage students to use their senses to observe, explore, discover and record nature. Students will record their findings through sketch book assignments which will inform and prepare them for a final project. Subsequent lessons will introduce students to a variety of contemporary and historical examples that reveal how artists use systems and patterns in nature as the basis for their artistic expression. Finally, students will research a specific topic related to nature, set up their own experiments and artistically reinterpret their findings in a final project. Mixed media, both 2-D and 3-D approaches will be appropriate for this unit. Lessons exploring structures, measurements, and codification will be developed as an extension to this unit.
Contemporary Conflict & Resolution
http://are6148-art-ed.weebly.com
Developed by Karissa Ferell
This unit explores the big idea of “Conflict and Resolution”. Across cultures and throughout history artists have made visual records of conflict; political, religious, cultural, social, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. My goals for these lessons are to expose students to a variety of art historical, cross cultural and contemporary examples of how artists have expressed conflict, raised awareness, and inspired change or resolution. This unit will ask students to draw on their personal experiences of conflict (amongst friends and family) as well as conflict going on around them (at school, neighborhood, city, nation, and internationally). Students will also research contemporary examples of conflict that they don’t have personal experience with as a way to encourage empathy and raise their own awareness. At this high school level students are gaining a broader perspective on the world while maturing and acquiring the skills needed to deal with conflict. This unit will additionally suggest that artistic expression can be a healthy and constructive means for both raising awareness of conflict, as well as creating a platform for the process of transformation and resolution; whether it is personal, political, local or global.