Arts Explorer #6: Painting with Scissors

For this Arts Explorer we had to fill in the blank “_______ with Scissors”.  We had to choose an art word and then create an activity that would communicate “personal identity and understanding of the world”

For my activity I chose the word collaging.  Therefore, the title of this Blog should actually be Collaging with Scissors.  If I were to do this with children I would begin the discussion by introducing/reintroduce the concept of senses. Sight, smell, hear, taste and touch.  We would talk about what each of these senses do and why we think they are so important.  I would ask the children to choose the sense they valued most.  Do you like to taste things? Touch things? Hear things? Etc.  For this activity I would give the children stacks of magazines, newspapers, postcards, anything that had pictures of people and the children would be able to cut out whatever sense was most valued personally and create a collage.  Other than personal identity and artistic creation this activity also allows children to be exposed to the variety of different people and how physical characteristics are different on every individual.  When this activity is finished I could continue by talking about people who may not have the ability to see, hear, taste, etc.  We would talk about what this meant for these individuals and what services are available to assist them. 

This is what I created:

At a future date another concept we could get out of this activity is the artistic concept of line. 

ART WORD OF THE WEEK: The element of LⁱNE

Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) describe the dimensions of lines as “including size, direction, length, width and weight” (p.135).  With the children I could go over some of their artwork and discuss with them how they chose to use lines to create their pieces.  Did they make straight parallel lines (like I did) or did they choose to make many different types of lines going in my different directions.  Did they make small lines and cut directly around their objects or did they choose something else? 

There are always many learning outcomes for a single activity.

Honigman, J. J., & Bhavnagri, N. P. (1998). Painting with scissors: Art education beyond production.  Childhood Education, 74(4), 205-212.)

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar.