American pop artist Robert Indiana’s work explored
It’s been a trying 12 months as Cornwall Central School District students and staff continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, but middle school art teacher, Gina Dianis, has been trying to maintain positivity by using inspiring and motivational words in her students’ work.
Unable to use her art studio to teach students in fifth and sixth grade, Dianis had to come up with alternative mediums which were easier to clean up after class. One such idea was using bleeding tissue paper in lieu of paint. The process entails students placing colored tissue paper down on another sheet of paper and adding water to it. When the tissue paper dries, it’s removed and what’s left behind is the color.
In addition to learning this alternative method to painting with water colors, students also learned about 20th century pop artist Robert Indiana.
American Pop Art is an art movement that broke down the barriers between art and life. It was born in the New York and London art scenes during the late 1950’s into the 1960’s.
“Indiana created original bodies of work that explored American identity, personal history, and the power of language,” Dianis said. “He was a self proclaimed American painter of signs. His artwork always sent a message and I think that’s where I was inspired to put forth this project — where we’re trying to spread the message of being inspiring and motivational for each other.”
Dianis explained the young artists were inspired by Indiana’s Love Sculpture. After choosing a four-letter word that inspires and motivates, students learned how to make bubble letters and differentiate between positive and negative space.
The background color was created using a bleeding tissue technique and black or colored permanent markers were used to complete the design. The black marker, used to fill in the negative space, aimed in helping the colored letters pop off the page. Students also learned about fonts as they created their bubble letters.
Dianis provided a list of words students could choose from including: love, life, heal, hope, help, best, glad, grow, feel, know, wise, kind, duty, rise, calm, pure, wish, idea, glad, and nice.
“Through this art project, fifth grade art students created a positive visual message during a time of transition into a new and unique school year,” said Dianis.
Once their project was completed, the works of art were posted on the school district’s Facebook page. Some of the students’ work was chosen to be put into a special display in the boardroom at the district office. A letter of congratulations was sent, by Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Megan Argenio, to each chosen student.
