contemporary artists Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Art is Basic

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address

Rubber Ducky Public Sculptures in St. Joseph, Michigan

By Marcia Beckett | June 28, 2015 - 3:53 pm |July 5, 2024 all grades, animals, contemporary artists, sculpture

A rubber ducky dressed as a cowboy with a hat, red bandana, green checkered shirt, and blue overalls.

A couple of weeks ago we took a summer trip to my brother’s cabin in Michigan. We spent some time in the lovely city of St. Joseph, Michigan. It is right on Lake Michigan and we enjoyed playing in the sand, walking on the piers, eating ice cream, playing on the beach playground, splashing on the splash pad and tinkering around in the two children’s museums. As an art teacher, I was delighted to see large public art sculptures of … Read more… →

Contemporary Art in the Elementary Art Classroom: A Blog Round-up!

By Marcia Beckett | June 18, 2015 - 10:34 am |July 5, 2024 all grades, contemporary artists

5 Comments

A collage featuring various contemporary art pieces and the text "Contemporary Art in the Elementary Art Classroom.

This year my professional goal was to learn more about contemporary artists and to create art lessons inspired by these artists. I taught about William Wegman and Justin Vining. We looked at contemporary artists inspired by microscopic things and living artists that used Disney as inspiration. At the end of the year, my students learned about Shinique Smith, Nicolas Lampert and various artists that used stuffed animals as a theme in their art (blog posts to come soon about all … Read more… →

Easy End of Year Art Project: Collaborative Banners

By Marcia Beckett | June 6, 2015 - 11:00 am |July 5, 2024 all grades, bulletin board, collaborative artwork, contemporary artists

1 Comment

Are you looking for an easy end-of-year art project? On the last days of school, I had some students that needed to finish up art projects and others that really just wanted to be done with the school year. This was a fun and easy collaborative project that many students opted to participate in. I got the idea from Romero Britto’s word artworks, like this one and I think I may have seem *something similar* somewhere at some time.. but … Read more… →

Inspired by Artist Justin Vining: Abstract Whimsical Landscapes

By Marcia Beckett | March 21, 2015 - 5:24 pm |July 5, 2024 abstract, contemporary artists, drawing, fifth grade, fourth grade, mixed media, painting, watercolor

An Interview with Artist Justin Vining

By Marcia Beckett | March 3, 2015 - 8:39 pm |July 5, 2024 all grades, contemporary artists, interview, Uncategorized

6 Comments

A colorful abstract painting by Justin Vining depicts a house on a snowy hill under a starry sky with constellations.

Back in September, I posted a huge list of contemporary artists. One of the artists, Justin Vining, saw that I included his artwork in my post and left a comment on my blog. We exchanged a few emails and I decided to use him as a resource in my classroom. I was excited that one of the artists reached out to me through my blog and I thought it was especially cool that Justin used to be an elementary art … Read more… →

William Wegman: Photomontage Project for Kids

By Marcia Beckett | October 8, 2014 - 2:56 pm |July 5, 2024 animals, contemporary artists, third grade, Uncategorized

5 Comments

William Wegman: Photomontage Project for Kids

My third grade students learned about the photography, films, paintings and children’s books by contemporary artist William Wegman. I actually talked to Bill on the phone and had an interview with him, which you can read in this blog post. William Wegman is known for his anthropomorphic photos of dogs dressed in various costumes. Anthropomorphic means giving human characteristics to animals (or other non-human things.) We read his books, watched some of his short films and saw pictures of his … Read more… →