What's in a Gord?

Every Fall, we see colorful, curvy gords piled up in bushels outside the local supermarket.  For many people gords are used to decorate a table or a doorway signifying that Autumn is here.  I watch people rummage through the bushels to find just the right ones.  How does one choose?  

I brought in a selection of gords for students visiting Main Line Art Center from  the Elwyn School to experience.  Participants were asked to choose a gord and describe the colors and shapes they saw, either verbally or in sign language. What does the gord feel like when rolled around in your hand or on the table?   Everyone was asked to sketch and then paint the colors, shapes and textures within their gord by enlarging it (Georgia O'keeffe style).  We talked about creating a background using colors that would make their gord "pop".  Do you want your gord to be grounded? Is it on a platform? What color(s) should be surrounding the gord?

What Is Art?

I worked  with students in two Philadelphia Schools, through the Violette de Mazia Foundation's  Look and See Program.   The discussion focused on the experience of visual art.  We looked at paintings through the artist's use of Light (value), Line, Color and Space to discover the artist's picture idea.

Students used their senses to examine their experience with gourds.  Upon seeing their chosen gourd,  they began to draw and paint the shapes, colors, weight and textures.   Each child relayed  their experience in his/her own way, based on their sense relationship with the object.

Beyond the subject of gourds, students painted  colorful ovals with bumpy lines and circles set against a cool background..

Expressive Faces

We have been immersed in sculpture at the Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Chester, PA.  Participants were asked to create self portraits in ceramic clay to reflect an emotion.  Raku clay was glazed with iron oxide to reveal great detail for people who see with their hands.  

Sense Awareness

Students at Elwyn School created expressive hand vessels.   Sense Awareness is our theme this year.  Students explored their sense of touch,  tracing their hands in ceramic clay, and then cutting out their 3 tracings and draping  each hand upside down around a thick tube.

Neighborhood

Finished a third collaborative quilt with children from Elwyn School for children with special needs, age 4-12.  Trees are styrofoam prints. Houses were drawn by children age 4-5.

A Busy New Year!

Students from the Davidson School have been busy creating ceramic dream home tiles and  fabric work for colorful collaborative quilts.  There are three quilts  in all, to be exhibited from March 17th  through April 4th at the Main Line Art Center.  " A Celebration of Voices"  will include 3 galleries showing the work of students at the Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Davidson School and work from the Exceptional Art  program at Main Line Art Center.  The work of other local special artist  community venues will also be exhibited.  Some adult work will be for sale.
Here is some work in process:

Students were asked questions about themselves to make up a poem.  Each rectangle is comprised of oil pastel resist painting.  This one is only partially complete.  One poem reads:

I am Dante
I hear winds blowing
I touch my mothers hands
I see myself in Africa

Special thanks to quilt artist  Lisa Hart for her donation of fabric and consultation.

Finished Quilt

Work in process Spring Flowers quilt

Colorful beginnings of floral designs

Students were asked a word to describe the concept of "Home"
Their words are written on their ceramic tile home fronts. 

Talk With Our Hands..

This week students visiting from the Davidson School completed their  figurative, mixed media, fiber sculptures at Main Line Art Center.  Pipe cleaner fingers and expressive clay faces say more than words that can't be spoken.

Matthew