Page 16 - ArtforHealth

14 with line, color and space, students envision- final outline with black sharpie to accentuate
ed their sports figures connecting the concepts the design, the students’ artwork not only

radiated with the vivacity of the sport,
ChildArt | Art for Health discussions. but captured their passion as well.
and ideas that surfaced in previous art class
Each of them chose a color scheme, multi-
However, only one artwork from each school
ple patterns, while demonstrating depth with
can be chosen for the Arts Olympiad. It was
foreground, mid-ground, and background.
Putting the lacrosse players in the foreground, difficult to choose from the exciting array of
work. This was a teachable moment. Students
mid-ground, and background led one student to had the opportunity to be the art jurors in the
remark how their art- selection process. The
work looked more rea- Art Olympiad became
listic. They were start- For my art, I chose the sport our juried exhibition
ing to really grasp the tennis. My patterns are where the student art-

visual vocabulary of
geometric. My color scheme ists would present
an artist. their art to their class-
is only black and white,
Students then chal- mates as jurors.
which gives the patterns
lenged themselves to They learned how
create patterns and some ‘pop’. One of my to critique each other’s
designs for the sports characters just served the artwork based on
figures and their re- ball, and the other one is composition, origina-

spective environment.
about to hit it back. lity, theme, effort, and
Using their imagin- clarity. We also talked
ation and creativity about the larger con-
they came up with several patterns and designs cepts of subjectivity and objectivity and that
that best emulated the action in their artwork. jurors preference of what they like or dislike
One student created a pattern of a heartbeat to can come into play when selecting a work. The
signify the racing heart of a soccer player. students learned that it was important to value

Students were excited to apply color theory their own work and make a constructive argu-
to create an energetic environment for their art- ment on what makes their artwork special when
istic composition based on color families that developing the presentation. I asked the stu-
we explored in an earlier lesson. Some of the dents to offer a positive com-ment about each
choices were complementary colors for strong- other’s work and they replied twofold. Students
er contrast or “pop” to enliven their sports who already demonstrated confidence turned

figures and cool or warm colors to evoke emo- to encourage their classmates by highlighting
tions. One student chose a black-and-white their color choices, amazing designs, and in-
color scheme to make his tennis players “pop” tricate patterns!
while another felt her cool colors depicted the To break down the juror process, students
concentration needed to play softball. After a needed to think of an analogy to everyday