An integral part of artmaking is personal discovery and growth, and a lot of what I offer students in art class relates to stepping into newness with as much comfort as possible.
I can only ask them to consider this as I do this myself in personal art practice.
For many years, I’ve had an aversion to Fluro, despite Wham! telling me to ‘wake me up before you go go’ in the grooviest 80s ( fluro ) attire out!
Personally deciding to get friendly with fluro colours has opened up a whole new world of colour for the foundation to grade 2 students and I.
We chatted about ‘what is sculpture?’ and what sculptures we’ve seen in our travels. Then, we started constructing our own sculptures out of interesting shapes and textures, with lots of sticky stuff- double sided tape, foam tape, fluro and silver contact.
The results were amazingly diverse -from personal adornments to mothers’ day sculptures. Students asked for more fluro, so we added acrylic paint with a palette of grape, lime, fluorescent pink and fluorescent orange.
I made a makeup for grandma so she can put her makeup in it when she comes this week.
Voilà some finished products.
But wait there’s more! Why not keep painting… Let’s experiment with hands, let’s make patterns into the paint with sticks, fingernails, leaf imprints!
We’ve explored fluro in construction, painting, and zen oil pastel drawings. A student came into the classroom singing:
– Fun in fluro, fun in fluro!
Whilst he may be a convertee, or possibly loved fluro already, I’ve cured this teacher of her fluro aversion and in the process she’s found a whole new enchanting palette with which to work.
And whilst you may or may not be a fluro supporter, next time the opportunity arises, have some… fun in fluro.
Yours in ARTmaking discovery,
Cate x
Moyhu art van
nemacc 