Today’s lesson was all about printmaking and it was super hectic.
First I gave a quick overview of Printmaking. Printmaking is when you create an image on one surface and transfer it to another. It is useful because it can be a cheap and fast way to create multiple copies of one image.
I illustrated this with an art movement called Japonisme (which is a particular interest of mine). The long story is this: For a long time, Japan didn’t allow legal trade with anyone, outside of a few close connections, because they were afraid of western influences on their culture. But in 1854, America decided they wanted to trade with Japan anyways, so they forced trade lanes open. From there Japanese art flooded the world. Japanese woodcut prints allowed Japanese aesthetics and design to spread faster and farther than other art would have permitted. This art when on to have a profound and lasting impact on artists such as Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh. I have examples in the slide show.
When I taught the lesson I focused on how the prints allowed art and culture to travel quickly, and on how artists combined old styles with new ideas.
Rather than being worried about creating a complicated image, I wanted to give the kids a chance to experiment. They drew their image on a piece of paper, and then tranced the image onto a styrofoam sheet. Then they went over to where we set up ink and rollers to roll on ink and make a print.
Next time, I would try to give myself more time, so that I could make sure that the kids understood and could follow the directions. I would also have it set up so that all of the rollers were in one place, with one teacher making sure that the kids were following directions. Once they have rolled the ink on, they could move to another station to get a piece of paper and make the print. However, all the students had managed to make an print by the end of class, and there wasn’t a huge mess at the end, so I count it it as a success.
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