Migrating birds.After completing an interdisciplinary unit in Studio Art I, students in grades nine through twelve at Ursuline Academy will not tell you that art is for the birds. They will say that art is about birds, or rather, migrating birds. Using birds, their habitats, and their migratory migratory /mi·gra·to·ry/ (mi´grah-tor?e) 1. roving or wandering. 2. of, pertaining to, or characterized by migration; undergoing periodic migration. migratory emanating from or pertaining to migration. patterns for subject matter, students reamed about the Elements and Principles of Design. Drawing on Nature Interdisciplinary projects provide meaningful experiences to enhance learning in the visual arts visual arts npl → artes fpl plásticas visual arts npl → arts mpl plastiques visual arts npl → . This year, students reamed about art basics and birds that migrate to or through Delaware. After a trip to an area nature center, each student selected a different species to track throughout the school year. We began with the study of the different qualities of line. Students made large contour line drawings of their birds. As we moved on they reamed about shape and form, realism and abstract art, and a variety of artists and their techniques. Under the direction of artist-in-residence Helen Mason Helen Mason Young (born 1938, Glasgow, Scotland - d. 1989, London, UK) was a journalist and children's author. She gave up a successful journalistic career with the Daily Express after she married the political journalist Hugo Young and decided to devote her life to her four , the girls created abstract interpretations of their birds for a soft sculpture soft sculpture n. A sculpture made of pliant materials, such as cloth or foam rubber. design. We explored color and pattern with markers, making a color reference for the sculpture. Using fiber reactive dyes, students created large scale three-dimensional sculptures that were displayed in the main hall of the academy. Art and the Environment Other aspects of study included charcoal drawings (Fine Arts) a drawing made with charcoal. See Charcoal, 2. Until within a few years this material has been used almost exclusively for preliminary outline, etc., but at present many finished drawings are made with it. See also: Charcoal of the species emphasizing value, colored pencil drawings pencil drawing Drawing executed with a pencil, an instrument made of graphite enclosed in a wood casing. Though graphite was mined in the 16th century, its use by artists is not known before the 17th century. of the bird drawn in its natural habitat, maps tracking migration routes, and life-size clay sculptures painted realistically with acrylics. Our work was supported by information and literature from the State Division of Fish and Wildlife. Students reamed introductory skills in visual art and gained an aesthetic appreciation of the patterns of flight. They also acquired an awareness of environmental factors that affect bird populations, more specifically in our own area. This project was made possible through funding from the Du Pont Du Pont (d  pŏnt), family notable in U.S. industrial history. The Du Pont family's importance began when Eleuthère Irénée Du Pont established a gunpowder mill on the Mini-Grant Program and a grant from the State of Delaware Division of
the Arts for Artist-in-Residence Helen Mason.
Meg Glover Fierro is the Director Of the Fine Arts Department at Ursuline Academy in Wilmington. Delaware. |
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