A.T. Influenced Art

Post by Lori DeMark, Art Teacher, Harmony Middle School, Loudoun County, VA

  

Thank you Karen and TTEC crew for a wonderful Spring Workshop that I was able to build on this summer. I left the spring workshop much like the summer one, excited and over flowing with information. But after the May workshop I was able to spring into motion and implement something immediately in my curriculum. As 7^th and 8^th grade art, I wanted my students to focus on an aspect of the A.T. that would bring about knowledge and history of the trail as well as be a tool to motivate my students to go hike it. I decided my 7^th grade students would focus on animals indigenous to the A.T. specifically in the Northern VA region. After looking at various sculpture processes, I decided we would use plaster to create 3D animals. However these would not be realistic based animals, but ones culturally infused with the Oaxacan Art Style. This was a diverse and interesting way to merge two very unlikely cultures together and the results were just fabulous.

In 8^th grade, I decided the focus would be on wildflowers of the A.T. again focusing on plants specific to our region of the trail. I gathered visual examples online, through books, and locally from nurseries and my yard. Students drew flowers in their sketchbook while exploring different watercolor techniques. After mastering various watercolor materials and methods students looked at the work of Georgia O’Keeffe and created an A.T. Wildflower Still Life. My students were captured by the beauty of the flowers especially how delicate some flowers were. I was happy to share my students paintings at the TTEC conference in July along with the 7^th Grade Animal Sculptures.

Thank you TTEC classmates for your kind words about my students’ artwork  this summer. I brainstormed with Rita the possibility of an Art Show at the A.T. Head Quarters. How cool would that be!!!! I can’t wait to implement these projects again this year, this time with 8^th grade looking at flowers in bloom during the fall season. I will bring samples to the TTEC October Workshop.