Surrealism Collage

Something So Surreal...

This lesson is still one of my favorites.  The kids love it and it's a great way to reintroduce them to Surrealism.  My full lesson description can be found in an older post here if you want more details on what we do and how.  But for now, enjoy these few photos of a couple of collages my 5th graders made this year! I also have to apologize for the glare on all of the photos, my classroom's lighting isn't ideal for photographing shinier images and I didn't take the time to adjust my angle

Salvador Dali Portraits

The 'Stache is Back

I've blogged about my Salvador Dali's mustache lesson before (details here) but I have a few more photos to add to the amazingness that is this art project.  They make me smile so much!  As has been the theme this year, I didn't get many photos, but I still want to share what I did manage to snap.  So here we go:

Surrealism Collage

My Surrealism Collage Example

I love collages!  And most of all, I love hilarious collages!  So when I saw a post by one of the bloggers (Artolazzi) that I follow here about surrealism and collage, I was smitten.  What a fun lesson!  I pretty much followed the same lesson as Jenny Bartolazzi but in my own words and with examples of various artists.  The kids LOVED it!

After we discussed Surrealism and looked at some artwork, I showed them how the process would work.  I had previously cut out the pieces I planned on working with and it made the demonstration go smoothly and quickly.  I started with my chosen background (they could choose from 12 options, all cut from expired calenders--my mother in law donated a bunch of calenders from the bank she works for--thanks, Sue!).  I explained how I started just looking through magazines until I found something that gave me an idea or I thought was funny and/or interesting.  The first thing I came along was the superhero, so I cut him out and trimmed away all of his extra background.  When I stumbled upon a boy on his bicycle, I thought that he had the perfect facial expression for someone who needed saving, so I cut him out too.  But when I found the word bubble with "Help!  It's got my Graham-ma!" I changed my plan (I wanted them to keep in mind that plans can change and evolve as they search the magazines).  And then I searched for my villain which was assembled by a man's face and torso mixed with a basketball player's legs and I tucked "grandma" under his arm.  Grandma was found in a sports magazine and is actually a man dressed up as an elderly woman while wearing a pig nose (not sure why there's a pig nose, but I liked it).  I encouraged them to make a surreal scene and to have fun with it and be open to changing ideas as they come upon various images.  While some of them struggled with unifying their images or creating an overall scene, others were able to dive right in with ease.  And regardless if they made a unified scene or not, they had a blast and that experience and excited attitude are enough for me to consider the lesson a huge success!  Now, FINALLY, I will share some of their work with you!

Salvador Dali's Mustache

I Mustache You A Question...

Do you know Salvador Dali?  And more importantly, do you know about his 'stache?

Fourth graders started off the art year learning about the craziness that is Surrealism and the ever so eccentric, Salvador Dali.  We learned about him and some of his quirky behaviors (did you know he was terrified of grasshoppers?), the qualities of Surrealism and about his infamous mustache!  I introduced all of this to them with a PowerPoint (if you want a copy of it for your classroom, just ask, I can send it your way).

This lesson focuses on Art History with Salvador Dali and Surrealism but I also take it as an opportunity to teach about portraiture and facial proportions.  Since we focus on the silliness of Surrealism and the silliness of Salvador's mustache, I give the kids the option to wear fake mustaches while they work...this really adds a lot of fun to the lesson and a hilariously awesome work environment.

We discuss facial structure as a class and I have the students draw a nice and large portrait (it can be of Salvador Dali, themselves, or someone else--even a made up person).  We then discuss background and foreground overlapping and add a surreal background that is inspired by Dali.  The students used watercolor to paint their portrait and background and then came the fun part...the mustache!  When the students are done painting, they are given a pipe cleaner to bend into any strange mustache shape they would like.  And when their painting is dry,  I personally hot glue it onto their portrait for them.  Some kids still like to readjust their mustache after the hot glue dries, but for the most part, the kids are pleased with their creation!  This is, by far, one of my favorite lessons!  I just love the atmosphere of the kids wearing fake glasses and mustaches and then, when the artwork is finished and hung, having 75 silly mustachioed portraits greet me as I walk down the halls (pictured below)!

When/if students finish early, I like to offer a supplemental activity that is in theme or reiterates what we were learning.  So for the Surrealism aspect of this lesson, I asked students who finished early to make up their own animal and they had a blast with it!  There are some really creative minds out there and they didn't even just stop with their drawing, a lot of them came up with names for their animals (ever see a turtlope?)

We made a small list of what we remembered about Surrealism in our second class period together.  Then I showed them how to use their finished early time by inventing their own animal!

Take note that this student wrote "Made in 1982" at the bottom...must be a vintage animal

More 'staches from other years:

http://missartypants.blogspot.com/search?q=dali%27s+stache

http://missartypants.blogspot.com/2016/01/salvador-dali-portraits.html