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Blending ART and GEOMETRY with PRECISION - Brief Article
Arts & Activities, Sept, 2001 by Berniece Patterson
As art teachers, one of our goals is to make students aware of their environment, so they can comprehend the structure of natural and manufactured objects and apply that understanding to the creative process. Knowing how to draw geometric forms and analyze how objects are composed of these forms helps students to create three-dimensional artwork.
Computer literacy is important for our students' future career opportunities, so I integrated computer technology with concepts in art and math. Since students are expected to identify geometric forms in math, I used the styles of Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler to provide a background lesson for my sixth-grade students, in which they would create a computerized drawing containing geometric forms.
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ARTISTS CHARLES DEMUTH AND CHARLES SHEELER Charles Demuth (1883-1935) and Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) were artists who painted the cities and forms of the Industrial Age. Grain elevators, factories, silos and machinery are commonly found in their paintings. They became known as "the Immaculates" and later as "the Precisionists," because they admired fine craftsmanship and clean-edged forms. Demuth and Sheeler integrated the geometric patterns of Cubism with the details of their industrial environment.
Demuth was born in Lancaster, Pa., and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He created illustrations of still lifes and architecture, organizing his compositions around simple geometric shapes. He drew very accurate lines, using a straight-edge and a sharp pencil.
Demuth's My Egypt is one of the first paintings to illustrate the monumental nature of American industrial architecture. The artist portrayed ordinary subject matter with great dignity.
Charles Sheeler was also born in Pennsylvania. Between 1927 and 1930, Sheeler created several paintings of industrial plants around Detroit. He viewed the ventilators and motors as fascinatingly beautiful and painted them with grandeur and precision. The importance of the large geometric forms is conveyed with the contrast of dark and light. The overlapping of the forms promotes organization and strength.
PROCEDURE Students viewed Demuth's My Egypt and Buildings Abstraction, Lancaster, and Sheeler's Upper Deck and Incantation. During our critique, students identified the geometric forms in these paintings, observing how common objects in our environment consist of these forms.
We used the Painting Document of ClarisWorks to create our computer paintings. Students were required to include the cube, cone, sphere, cylinder, rectangular prism and pyramid in their artwork, and I demonstrated how to use the pencil, line, oval and square tools to create these forms.
We discussed the importance of selecting a theme so that the geometric forms would display a meaningful relationship in content. Then, we brainstormed possible themes that could be used in our artwork.
COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING: DEVELOPMENT OF SKILLS Collaborative problem-solving took place on a regular basis in our computer lab. When one student did not know how to obtain a desired effect, another student would quickly volunteer a solution. Success and self-esteem were promoted as students served as tutors.
Students increased their awareness of the geometric forms in their environment and imaginatively illustrated them in a variety of themes on the computer. Art, computer and math skills were strengthened.
RESOURCE
Mendelowitz, Daniel M. A History of American Art. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1970.
Berniece Patterson teaches art at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in Denton, Texas.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Publishers' Development Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group
