As any artist will tell you, a good deal of developing one’s art skills is studying others. Last quarter, I was in the Lower School neighborhood and was struck by the creativity of this year’s youths. Ms. Elizabeth Reiley, a Lower School art teacher explains, “I feel like it’s really important from a young age for everyone to know they have their own ideas and their ideas are valid. So I like to maybe give some parameters with the materials. We do some learning, we practice with a new material, and then I try to introduce an open-ended assignment where they can use those materials to make what they want.” After getting my hands on some of their other works, I decided to spotlight some stellar stand-out pieces by our creative, captivating class of ’36 and ’37!
This year’s kindergarten students composed scenes upon construction paper with shapes and decorated them with patterns. In spite of the simple prompt, these creative kindergarteners cooked up these cool works!
This year’s first grade students practiced basic depth. They were to draw an indoor space and to place objects in front of the line between the floor and the walls. This simple prompt was interpreted in wildly different yet wonderful ways.
