Getting a kick out of drawing.

Crayons have been around for nearly a century now. So by fourth grade I usually don't expect students to get really excited about working with this commonplace medium. Not until I introduced them to the work of Nellie Mae Rowe, that is. I admit that my enthusiasm was still spilling over from a show that I had recently seen at the National Women's Museum of Art in Washington, DC. It was fun telling the class about this spirited African-American daughter of a former slave--a self-taught artist from Vinings, Georgia, who was always proud to let people know that she was born on July 4, 1900.

My young audience listened with interest as I provided some biographical background. After two marriages and decades of hard work as a domestic, Rowe increasingly occupied herself with varied forms of artistic expression in her later years. Using only the inexpensive "media" she could afford, Rowe became playfully creative with such everyday materials as:

* Paper fruit trays--painted as masks

* Chewing gum--chewed, molded into portrait sculpture, and refrigerated to harden

* Socks--sewn into doll forms, with embellishments of hair, clothes, beads, children's eyeglasses, etc.

* And above all, and most artistically, crayons. Crayon was the medium through which her large, personal compositions evolved, reflecting a mind richly blended with memory and fantasy.

While talking about the art, I flipped through color photos from my museum book, Ninety-Nine and a Half Won't Do, by Lee Kogan. Students howled when I showed pictures of fruit tray masks and chewing gum heads. In fact they got quite a kick out of this spunky lady in general. And they loved the success ending to her story. When Rowe was well into her sixties, an Atlanta art dealer discovered and recognized her talent, eventually bringing her work to national attention. Always charmingly self-effacing, she responded, "I never thought I'd come to be an artist. It's just surprisin' to me."

Finally, I focused on page after page of the colorful, fantastic crayon drawings. Their lively, dreamlike beauty inspired students. Then I invited them to create their own "personal designs," working from both memory and imagination, as Rowe had done. I shared my own example, explaining how some of my images were based on true life memories while others were made up, such as the cute little puppy my mother never let me own!

It was suggested that these drawings might include important people, animals, buildings, or cultural images in the students' lives, as well as fantasy. They began drawing with black fine-line marker and were encouraged to "make a bubble" around each of at least five images. Next they were to colorfully fill in the whole paper with crayon, patterning the empty spaces. Pressing heavily on the crayon could not be over emphasized. This was essential in order to achieve the rich painterly effects desired.

Rowe was noted for the challenge she made to the many children who visited her home: "I'll bet you can't write your name as pretty as I can." As an optional variation to the project, therefore, I offered the choice of basing the personal design on an artistic rendering of the student's name. I was not as impressed with the outcome of this more limited topic, however.

Although the Manila paper provided was only 9 x 12" (23 x 31 cm), most of the class barely finished within the seventy-five minute art period. The initial drawing in fine-line marker took longer than I had anticipated. Students really became personally involved with the content of their compositions.

In the end, they produced meaningful and imaginative works of art--crayoning at its twenty-first century best. If Nellie Mae Rowe were alive today, I would thank her for a valuable lesson learned: sometimes the lowliest of tools, respectfully used, can result in the highest form of expression.

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

Lil Cooney is an art teacher at Louise Archer Elementary School, Fairfax County Public Schools, Vienna, Virginia. [e-mail]