 |
| Artist Alexander Calder with two of his wire sculptures |
To help with this I gave each child a rock to place at the top of the yoga mat. I explained that I wanted the students to try to keep their eyes focused on the rock for one minute. Of course they could blink as many times as they needed to, but the gaze should remain on the rock! This helps them concentrate on one object, which also helps with keeping the mind focused. If their eyes wandered somewhere else, I asked them to gently bring their gaze back to the rock. They did a great job developing focus and attention!
Next, we talked about different animals that have really good eyesight. I asked them to name a few, and the children mentioned eagles, lions, and owls. Then we pretended that we had an animal's eyes! The students could either stay on their yoga mat or walk slowly through the art room taking in as much visual information as possible, trying to notice small things they might have never seen before using their new animal eyes. I think they enjoyed imagining to have the eyes of a tiger or a hawk while seeing the art room with a different perspective!
I asked them if they noticed anything new, and everyone raised a hand. One girl observed the specific way the lights attached to the ceiling with wires. A boy saw a yellow box that he never knew was there. I asked if they would like to have animal eyesight all the time, and most of the children were excited about this idea. Though one girl said she thought it would be tiring to see, take in, and notice things that intensely all the time.
After moving our bodies with a few yoga postures, I introduced the students to the artist Alexander Calder, specifically his sculptural work with wire. You can find out more about "Sandy" Calder here. I explained that they would be creating a relief sculpture assemblage using many, many different materials. We started constructing a self-portrait based on the detailed drawings that we created last class. During this class we only outlined the shape of the face, neck, and shoulders but these works will continue to develop and change as more objects are added!
Here are a few more inspirational sculptural wire works by Alexander Calder:
