Art

#architecture #flowers #installation #nature #plants #Rebecca Louise Law

“The Womb” (2019), Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. All images © Rebecca Louise Law, shared with permission. Photograph by Chuck Heiney

For millennia, dried flowers have been prepared for a vast array of uses ranging from decoration and fragrance to pigments and medicine. British artist Rebecca Louise Law taps into our perennial fascination with florals for her monumental, immersive installations. Exploring our relationship with the natural environment and the way blooms and botanicals have influenced cultures throughout history, her reinterpretations of existing architecture encourage the viewer to move around the space in a new way.

In Parma, she draws inspiration from the city’s culinary and medicinal history for “Florilegum,” and in Brittany, France, she was invited to reimagine the Château de la Roche-Jagu’s grand banquet hall. For “The Womb,” visitors walked inside a room delineated by delicate strands of flowers and approached a cocoon-like form in the center, suggesting a space that is simultaneously protective, potent, and fragile. By hand-sewing stems and fronds together and wrapping them carefully in thin wire, she constructs lengthy ribbons of foliage that can be draped from a framework to create long, curtain-like expanses or colorful volumes at various heights.

You can visit “Florilegium” at Chiesa di San Tiburzio in Parma, Italy, and “Awakening” at the Honolulu Museum of Art will be on view through September 10, 2023. Explore more of Law’s work on her website and follow updates on Instagram.

“Banquet” (2019), La Roche Jagu, France. Photograph by Julien Mota

“Florilegium” (2020), Chiesa di San Tiburzio, Parma, Italy

“Florilegium”

“Banquet” (2019), La Roche Jagu, France. Photograph by Julien Mota

“Awakening” (2022), Honolulu Museum of Art

Detail of “Awakening”

Details of “Awakening”

Detail of “Awakening”

Detail of “The Womb.” Photograph by Chuck Heiney

#architecture #flowers #installation #nature #plants #Rebecca Louise Law

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Photography Science

#biology #butterflies #Levon Biss #nature

All images © Levon Biss, shared with permission

A photographer known for using the macro to investigate the micro, Levon Biss (previously) continues his explorations into the vast world of entomology. His recent butterfly pupae series centers on “the diversity of design and form” through illuminating portraits of approximately 30 specimens as they undergo metamorphosis and complete the final, most vulnerable stage of the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Otherworldly and bordering on the bizarre, many of the chrysalises have evolved to be deceptive in appearance, acting as necessary camouflage from potential predators by impersonating nearby plants and surroundings: some mimic the natural, like those that imitate a rotting plantain or mossy hunk of bark, while others are more artful, like those spotted with Kusama-esque dots or cloaked in a mirrored gold coating. The photographs are “intended to be both entertaining and educational,” Biss shares, “allowing the viewer to appreciate the diversity in the subject whilst appreciating the intricate details that evolution has created.”

Pick up a print of the unearthly images, and find more from the collection on Biss’s site and Instagram. If you’re in New York, you can also see his Extinct and Endangered series at the American Museum of Natural History.

#biology #butterflies #Levon Biss #nature

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Art

#afrofuturism #Ekow Nimako #Lego #narrative #sculpture

All images © Ekow Nimako, shared with permission

Through vast environments constructed with hundreds of thousands of black LEGO, Ghanaian-Canadian artist Ekow Nimako envisions an Afrofuturistic landscape brimming with strength, power, and liberation. Sprawling metropolises nest small buildings, regal towers, and fantastical details like the unhinged jaw of an enormous snake in their midst, structuring the architectural realms around legacies of myth and optimism.

Nimako’s current project, Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2000 Ships, encapsulates this Afrofuturistic vision and invokes the mysterious story of Mansa Abu Bakr II, Mali’s ruler who’s said to have sailed from the coast of Africa in the 14th Century and never returned. The Atlantic voyage is one possible example of pre-Columbian contact and the founding narrative behind the artist’s latest sculptures.

Part of the ongoing Building Black series, this new collection comprises upwards of 500,000 sleek, black LEGO built into speculative cityscapes and figures. Nimako, who is currently based in Toronto, collaborated with studio assistants Janeesa Lewis-Nimako, Karen Osagie, and Keisha Agyemang to construct the utopian works, which are on view now at Dunlop Art Gallery, a community center in North East Scarborough.

Requiring more than 600 hours of build time, each topography contains an Adinkra, a symbol that traditionally represents an aphoristic concept. Nimako shares that the emblems “are meant to connect the successive medieval empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai across the centuries to the present, while providing a proverbial and moral centre for each sculptural narrative.”

Visit Dunlop Art Gallery before January 10, 2023, to see the incredible detail of Journey of 2000 Ships up close, and find more from Nimako on Instagram.

#afrofuturism #Ekow Nimako #Lego #narrative #sculpture

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The benefits of teaching art history on a consistent basis include:

• Global Thinking
  Students see similarities and differences between people and cultures across the globe.
• Exposure
  Share distinct artists and iconic artwork to reveal a variety of cultures and geographic locations.
• Range of Perspectives
  Art often shares an artist’s thoughts and opinions. Introduce students to a broad range of thinking.
• Informed Artmaking
  Students can observe the possibilities of new mediums, processes, and styles before approaching an assignment.

Inserting art history into your classroom on a regular basis sets the norm. If you are looking to gain more confidence in your art history repertoire, enroll in the Integrating Art History graduate course to strengthen your knowledge. Learn strategies to appeal to student interests and foster an appreciation for art while maintaining the integrity and richness of art history. Connect with an admission counselor for more information.

Here are ten ways to add art history to your curriculum.

1. Choose one artist to showcase per unit.

Do your research to find the artist that will have the best alignment with your unit. Connections can be through the medium, subject matter, technique, or process.

Here are three artists and how you can apply them to a unit:

• Jen Stark: Drippy Lines
  Jen Stark is a great contemporary artist to study line and color. Stark uses a variety of line widths and directions. She also uses color palettes of black and white, cool colors, warm colors, and the rainbow gradient.
• Keith Haring: Action Figures
  Practicing drawing the human form can be complicated, especially for lower grades. Veering away from stick figures can be a tough challenge! Keith Haring simplifies the human form in cookie-cutter-like shapes with bold lines and color. Drawing in Haring’s style allows students to study the human form in a variety of uncomplicated action poses.
• Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Fruit Faces
  Think outside the box by combining portraiture with Surrealism. Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian painter who created portrait heads made entirely of produce and vegetation. The combination of learning facial proportions with imaginative new uses for produce will lend itself to an innovative lesson plan. Students may be shocked to see a 500-year-old portrait with fruit and vegetables for a face, but this invites them to focus on the foundational shapes and forms of produce.

2. Use books!

Aligning an artist to a unit gives students a cross-curricular lesson with a natural tie-in to history. Make a literacy connection by reading books about the artists. The World’s Greatest Artist is a collection of over forty books. They are great introductions for elementary students. For middle school and higher, Secret Lives of Great Artists has more risque stories and more thorough information on a handful of artists. Review all resources and preview all artists before sharing with your students.

3. Incorporate FLEX Artist Bios.

FLEX Curriculum is an adaptable curriculum aligned to all 50 states’ visual art standards, including NCAS. FLEX includes student-facing resources such as artist biographies. Each Artist Bio is written at an eighth-grade reading level but can be modified for lower and upper grades. They include a brief history, notable artworks, achievements, quotes, and more. Use them to help students connect to diverse historical, contemporary, and living artists. For more information on how to get these Artist Bios in your classroom, fill out this short contact form.

4. Watch a PRO Pack.

For more strategies on how to teach art history and how to get your students to interact in meaningful ways, watch a PRO Pack for self-paced professional development. These teacher-facing videos are where you can learn from facilitators who are art teachers just like you. The good news is many districts will provide this for you! To learn more, check out this article and fill out this form.

Here are two PRO Packs worth checking out:

5. Connect with your students’ diverse interests.

Our students have vast and diverse interests. Good thing art is also vast and diverse! There is an artist connection out there for each one of your students to fall in love with. Let’s take a look at some common artists and topics that intrigue students of all ages. And, as always, be sure to preview all artists before sharing with your students.

Here is a short list of artists and their stories your students may find fascinating:

• Students With an Injury
  Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits depict her many injuries. From a bus accident to being restricted to a bed, and finally dressing up as a man to be taken seriously, Kahlo paints us her biography. Students with broken bones in the art room can feel stuck, especially if their dominant hand or arm is in a cast. Share Frida’s self-portraits to inspire and encourage students to create art while physically challenged.
• Students Who Are Passionate About Social Issues
  As students get older and start forming their own hobbies, interests, thoughts, and opinions, they may gravitate toward social issues. Encourage this development with 5 Activist Artists You Might Know and 10 You Might Not Know… Yet!
• Students From Ghana and Nigeria
  If your school has a large population of students from Ghana or Nigeria, your students may find common ground with the sculptural artist El  Anatsui. He is a sculptor from Ghana who currently lives and works in Nigeria. He takes materials from the streets and ground and turns them into large-scale installations. His body of work is comprised of sculptural wall mosaics made out of liquor seals sewn together.
• Students Who Love Video Games
  Students who are into video games will be inspired by Invader’s artwork. This contemporary artist uses ceramic tiles with video-game-inspired characters such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Super Mario Brothers. This artist “invades” urban areas by installing tile mosaics over cities. If you are lucky enough to live in a city that has been “invaded,” have your students go on a scavenger hunt. Alternatively, brainstorm how you can install artwork throughout your classroom or school.

6. Try Art History Remix.

Give your students a chance to rework a famous artwork. Project a piece like Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. For younger students, show a simple line drawing of the painting. Sometimes a more simplified version can help students draw what they see. Students reinvent the portrait with a modern twist by changing or adding elements. This can include a new hairstyle, modern clothes, different backgrounds, or updated accessories. Ensure the main composition and a few traditional elements remain intact so the figure is still clearly recognizable. This is a substitute lesson favorite and can be adapted for any work of art. Include a FLEX Artist Bio (see above) to read along with this activity!

7. Study other cultures.

Art history is broad and stretches from the beginning of time to now. Teaching about entire cultures and time periods is another way to enhance your lessons with art history. Architecture units are excellent avenues to discuss different civilizations such as Greek, Roman, prehistoric, Egyptian, and beyond. Pair your lesson with diverse mythology stories from each culture to create higher student engagement.

8. Compare and contrast past and living artists.

Just like history, art history can have a sneaky and fun way of reappearing. Try comparing and contrasting historical masters with contemporary, living artists. This helps to make artwork and meaning relevant to students.

Here are two artist pairs your students can compare and contrast:

• Kehinde Wiley and Gerard ter Borch
  Kehinde Wiley is a contemporary artist who primarily depicts black people in photorealistic paintings inspired by the old masters. Jacob de Graeff by Wiley shows an artist asked to pose from the streets. It is modeled after a 17th-century Dutch portrait by Gerard ter Borch of Jacob de Graeff. Both paintings have great similarities yet stark differences.
• Claes Oldenburg and Tamara Kostianovsky
  Soft sculpture artists Claes Oldenburg (who passed away in July of 2022) and contemporary artist Tamara Kostianovsky have similar, yet diverse, three-dimensional forms. Oldenburg’s popular  cheeseburger sculpture can be discussed alongside Kostianovsky’s floral hanging meat sculptures.

9. Compose a poem or rap.

Write a poem or rap about a famous work of art. This is a great way to tie in ELA standards while observing artwork. As an extension activity, students can perform their poems and raps for the class. Don’t Miss This One-Day Lesson That Connects Poetry and Art Analysis. It also makes a great substitute plan!

10. Integrate music.

Add another of the five senses to the art classroom to help students retain information: listening to music. Play the most popular song from the year the artwork was created. Students compare and contrast the characteristics of the music with the artwork. This also helps them orient a historical timeline better than just seeing the artwork. Listen to all songs and preview all lyrics before sharing them with your students to ensure they are appropriate. (Now, if only we knew what the artists were eating while they were creating their pieces!)

For example, I Want To Hold Your Hand by the Beatles was one of the most popular songs when Rene Magritte’s The Son Of Man was painted. Before sharing the origin date of the painting, students form a hypothesis about when the Beatles were popular and when Magritte’s painting was created.

Integrating art history into your curriculum can spark student interest and help you make strong cross-curricular connections. Bring more of the senses into the art room with music to help reinforce the characteristics of the artwork and set the context. Poll your students to find out what their interests are and find artists who share the same hobbies. Grab your scope and sequence, do your research, and figure out what artist, time period, or culture would best align with the units you are teaching.

Make art history come to life this year by bringing in pieces of the past, one powerful step at a time.

What is your favorite art history lesson or activity?

What other benefits can art history bring to your students?

Art

#books #Cara Barer #paper #sculpture

All images © Cara Barer, shared with permission

Artist Cara Barer curls and rolls the pages of books into sculptures that add colorful dimension to bound tomes. She dyes, shreds, and submerges vintage encyclopedias or instruction manuals in water to distort the typically compact publications. With cracked spins and crinkled pages, the manipulated objects reference the relationship between the natural and human-made as they evoke flowers at peak bloom. For more of Barer’s contorted works, visit her site and Instagram.

#books #Cara Barer #paper #sculpture

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Photography

#black and white #contests #landscapes #nature #United Kingdom

“The Sacred Garden,” Gray Eaton. All images @ the artists, courtesy of the Landscape Photographer of the Year, shared with permission

From hazy lochs and grand mountainous vistas to water-side pedestrian paths, the 2022 Landscape Photographer of the Year contest highlights the vast splendor of Britain’s environments. Winners of this year’s competition encompass both the natural and human-made, showcasing a steam-engulfed train roaring across the Fellowman Crosses Ribblehead viaduct or a glimmering celestial sky above the limestone arch of Durdle Door.

The contest joins Network Rail for a traveling exhibition that will migrate across the U.K., starting with Paddington Station on October 31. Peruse the winning images on the competition’s site and by picking up a copy of this year’s book.

“The Fellsman Crosses Ribblehead Viaduct,” Matthew James Turner

“Durdle Door Night Lights,” Callum White

“Brecon in Winter,” Will Davies, overall winner

“Rough and Tumble,” Lloyd Lane

“Dirgelwch Penmon / Myster,” Llion Griffiths

“Regency Wharf,” Damien Walmsley

“Wild Elgol,” Fiona Campbell

“Ascension,” Demi Oral

“Gannets Overhead,” Thomas Easterbrook

#black and white #contests #landscapes #nature #United Kingdom

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Take a look at these five eerie artists and their unnerving artworks!

Note: Peruse the links below to determine if they’re appropriate to share with your students.

1. Ivan Albright

Magic Realism is an art movement that combines realistic techniques with subjects of a surreal nature. Ivan Albright is a key artist known as the “master of the macabre.” His style is unlike any other with his use of chiaroscuro, or intense shadows and highlights. He also has a subdued color palette and highly detailed textures. These elements create chaos and put a haze or glow on the work, which makes it feel supernatural. Paintings such as The Picture of Dorian Gray, That Which I Should Have Done and Did Not Do, and Poor Room embody this quite well. If you are looking for someone with an indescribable style, rich detail, and interesting subject matter, Albright will fit that profile!

2. Lee Krasner

No stranger to the Abstract Expressionism scene, Lee Krasner is best known for her large-scale, gestural works and for being the wife of famed splatter painter Jackson Pollock. Seemingly lesser-known to the world is Krasner’s series of works painted after the death of Pollock and her mother, known simply as the Umber Paintings. Painted between 1959 and 1962, Krasner worked out her inner struggles on canvas, restricting herself to browns, ochres, whites, creams, and blacks. In Polar Stampede, Krasner hits the canvas with wads of paint resembling animal tracks trampled through a snowy landscape. Charged with the same emotion and approached in a similar cadence is another work in this series called Moontide. This painting uses thicker, broader marks that convey a strong, rhythmic but lurking tone. The non-representational quality of these works makes them exceptional examples of paintings that can affect the viewer psychologically without using any “typical” imagery.

Providing students with information about artists can be a lot of research and legwork. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Take advantage of the hundreds of student-facing artist bios found in FLEX Curriculum! Each artist bio is written at an eighth-grade reading level and includes short blurbs about the artist’s history, work, and achievements. Each artist bio also includes at-a-glance facts and APA citations, and many have reflection questions. For more information on how to get these amazing artist bios for your students, fill out this quick contact form. And to explore all of the artist bios FLEX has to offer, click here.

3. Albert Pinkham Ryder

An artist that often slips through the cracks, Albert Pinkham Ryder is best known for his moody, allegorical works and eccentric personality. What he lacks in technique and notoriety, he makes up for in symbolism. In Sailing by  Moonlight, we observe mostly flat planes of blacks and greens. But as we look closer, one can start to make out a sailboat coasting on a high wave amidst a bright, orbed moon. His approach is less than traditional. However, his works have a charming quality that is refreshing.

In 1888, a friend of Ryder’s ended his life after betting and losing in a horse race. The artist manifested this personal loss in a painting known as The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse). We see a rider on a horse with a sickle. The colors are very dark, and a snake is in the bottom portion of the painting. The horse and rider are going the wrong way on the track, symbolizing his friend’s foreboding future choice. The snake is a form of evil or the devil, which again alludes to a lurking, sinister decision.

4. Alfred Kubin

With a penchant for the ghoulish and fantastical, Alfred Kubin is a master of things beyond reality. An illustrator, printmaker, and writer, Kubin’s craving for the creepier side of life started with a tragic childhood. It has been rumored that he witnessed corpses being pulled from the river.

Nonetheless, he channeled his creative energy to create works like The Horror, Into the Unknown, and Death as a Horsemen. In these examples, we can see Kubin’s belief that there is a force greater than humanity. This evokes a sublime feeling in the viewer. He also plays with expressionistic brushwork in his paintings and shadowy tones in his prints, adding to the mysterious mood. Kubin even wrote a book called The Other Side, where the reader embarks on a nightmarish journey to an unknown land beyond human exploration. One thing is certain, Kubin’s work is not for the faint of heart. It compels the onlooker to ponder realms that cannot be seen!

5. Käthe Kollwitz

Most certainly a force to be reckoned with, Käthe Kollwitz replicates strong human emotions in drawings, prints, and sculptures. She married a doctor and witnessed many oppressive events in her lifetime. Because of her experiences, she portrayed tragedy or social injustice in many of her works. In March of the Weavers, she depicted an uprising of Silesian workers during a time of famine in 1844. Most of the figures look angry, sad, or disgruntled as they walk to an unclear destination.

Living through multiple wars and losing her son and husband certainly took a toll on Kollwitz. She personifies death in various ways in her work, either through people or skeletal or ghoulish forms. In Luta Com Morte, death is a skeleton wrapped around a presumed mother whose child is vying for her comfort. These subjects are not easy to depict or view. Kollwitz does it unflinchingly and in a manner where we are forced to confront our own fragility.

The power of art is that it can convey different meanings and emotions to the onlooker. In the case of these artists and their art, they chose to explore the more unnerving side of humanity. Some of the subject matter can be hard to discuss in words or a conversation. These works can be a bitter pill to swallow or hit close to home for those dealing with death, violence, or inner struggles. It is with great care and sensitivity that we should introduce and discuss these works with anyone, including our student artists. Know your class, and know what they can endure or handle. If the darker side of art is what they seek and is appropriate for their level, these five artists may be what your students need to see.

Need more artists that delve into the shadows? Henry Fuseli and Francisco De Goya explore nightmares, spirits, and more!

How would you use these artists in your classroom?

Share another artist who explores the darker side of art.

Art Food

#Genesis Belanger #installation #sculpture #stoneware #surreal

Installation views of ‘Blow Out’ (2022). All images by Pauline Shapiro, courtesy of Perrotin, shared with permission

Described as fostering “a sense of lobotomized capitalist productivity,” artist Genesis Belanger coaxes tension from the mundane. Her stoneware sculptures are at once disconcerting and commonplace, depicting the uncanny remnants of a dinner party, medical furniture draped with lanky, limp limbs, and a discount shop hawking carved oranges, a half-eaten cookie, and apples chewed to their cores.

More elaborate than her previous works, Belanger’s newest tableaus are similarly dramatic in subject matter while soft and subtle in visual tone—rather than glazing the ceramic sculptures, she blends powdered pigments into the material itself with a kitchen mixer, a practice that allows her to achieve her signature muted effect. A trio of the artist’s surrealist installations is now on view at Perrotin as part of Blow Out, a solo show that delights in strange theatrics and unobtrusive malice. Detached body parts reside on tables and store shelves in a manner that’s tinged with sexuality, while objects like picnic blankets and tipped bowls appear on the brink of movement. Suspense pervades the otherwise still scenes, exposing the anxiety and fantasy hidden in the banal.

If you’re in Paris, visit Perrotin before December 17 to see the disquieting works in person. Otherwise, find more from Belanger on Instagram.

#Genesis Belanger #installation #sculpture #stoneware #surreal

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Art Craft

#animals #kinetic #kinetic sculpture #miniature #nature #paper #Penny Thomson #toys

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A host of wild creatures inhabit the whimsical world of artist Penny Thomson (previously), who creates intricate, kinetic sculptures that fit in the palm of your hand. Joined in her Derbyshire studio by her daughter Briony, she works primarily with papier-mâché, which she began experimenting with when her children were still young. “Using pulp, laminated and household waste paper, and cardboard, I made a seven-foot giraffe and conducted a workshop in my son’s school, which involved all the pupils in making a 14-foot Diplodocus,” she says.

Since then, Thomson’s creations have scaled down quite a bit, but her interest in working with paper and recycled materials continues. After creating a diorama for illusionist Sam Drake’s House of Magic, she became fascinated with automata and combined skills she acquired over her career to develop the mechanical miniatures. Briony adds, “That is why we say that a batch of two or three kinetic sculptures usually take between one week and 40 years to make!” Each expressive, miniature figure incorporates a mechanism with a small handle that sets it in motion, giving life to hungry chicks, impatient zebras, and joyous penguins.

Thomson regularly releases small batches of sculptures in her Etsy shop. They sell quickly, so you can keep up-to-date about new work on Instagram, and see more on her website.

All images © Penny Thomson, shared with permission

#animals #kinetic #kinetic sculpture #miniature #nature #paper #Penny Thomson #toys

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The word “disability” may feel uncomfortable to use, let alone teach about, in the art room! What if I don’t say the right thing? What if I don’t know enough information about it? What if it singles students out and makes them uneasy? There can be many “what ifs,” and that’s okay! It’s good to ask questions because it signifies curiosity and can identify an area to grow in. Let’s stretch ourselves and our art curriculums and explore what it can look like to integrate artists with disabilities and why it matters.

What are the benefits of integrating artists with disabilities into your curriculum?

Before diving into this question, let’s establish what a disability is and some other baseline terms. This will allow us to move forward on the same page.

Understanding the principle of windows and mirrors can be helpful when considering the benefits of integrating artists with disabilities. Although this refers to stories, the same can be applied to artwork. After all, artworks are visual stories. People see the outside world through a window. If we use art as a window, we can use it to expose students to history, new perspectives, and experiences. Mirrors let us look at ourselves. Artwork can reflect our students’ complex identities. When it does, it can empower students and “build connection and a sense of belonging.”

Bringing artists with disabilities into lesson plans can be another window of human diversity to expose our students to new perspectives and experiences. This exposure can create deeper connections within an artwork or process. This larger awareness can also develop empathy and make our students more curious learners. It can also widen our own “understandings of human variation and differences.” Artists with disabilities can be a mirror for students who have a disability and remind them they belong in the art room.

Here are nine tips to keep in mind as you include artists with disabilities in your art room and curriculum.

Get in touch with an admissions counselor to learn more about Art and Diverse Learners, Choice-Based Art Education, and Instructional Strategies for Art Teachers. In these graduate courses, you will learn inclusive practices and how you can promote change in your classroom to help all students feel seen and succeed.

1. Add artists organically.

Include artists with disabilities if and when it fits within your existing lesson plans. There is no need to make a big deal out of it or draw special attention to the artist. Introduce them just like you would anyone else.

The tendency can be to admire artists with disabilities, framing it with, “Look what they overcame!” While this can be inspirational, it can also be detrimental. When “individual artists are admired for their ability to create work similar to other able-bodied artists… [it] affirms the perception of people with disabilities as limited in their activities, as well as the notion that artists with disabilities aspire to be like ‘normal’ artists.” Many people with disabilities and artists with disabilities “do not necessarily want to ‘emulate the norm…’ rather, they have full and rewarding lives they could not imagine living any other way.”

2. Display artwork on your walls.

Just like with any other artist, if you like an artist’s work, hang it on your wall! Seeing it on your wall every day may remind you to reference that artist more often. Making work easily accessible will also inspire your students as they make artistic choices daily. It is also a way to reflect broader ideas of what is “normal” and acceptable.

3. Consider the language you use.

Words have power and can shape how we see the world. Remove ableist language to better frame conversations. Ableist language assumes a person with a disability is of lesser value. For specific examples of how to eliminate ableist language, read this article.

4. Include a variety of artists.

Remember, disabilities come in all shapes and sizes. Some may be cognitive, and some may be physical. Some disabilities may be obvious, and some may be hidden. The most common artists with disabilities art teachers share are ones who “… mainly represent North American and European artists who produced work in the last one hundred and fifty years.” Broaden your scope and include artists from multiple time periods and countries. Reference a wide range of artists and disabilities when possible to show students how wonderfully diverse artists and people can be. Students will “… recognize disability for its commonality… rather than its exceptionality.”

5. Mention the disability.

All artists, disability or no disability, use their life and experiences to inform their artwork. Disability is a valuable part of life and experiences. Many students do not have the life experience or insight to make connections on their own. As teachers facilitating learning, we need to explicitly mention an artist’s disability so students can make clear connections.

Many teachers say they share an artist’s disability “when relevant.” This practice is problematic because, as stated above, “process and content are inextricably tied to how we inhabit the world.” It is always relevant! When we withhold this information from our students, it can limit their definition of artistic ideas and objects. It can also limit connections, exposure, and opportunities to grow and learn.

6. Use children’s books.

If you are nervous about discussing disability in front of your students, take a small step by reading a children’s book. This is a low-pressure way to introduce disabilities and what they can look like with fictional characters. This is also a “scripted way” to bring a topic you are unfamiliar with into your classroom.

Take the time to preview books to ensure they represent disability in a positive light and do not reinforce stereotypes. “This includes the representation of people with disabilities as the object of pity, sinister and/or evil, a burden, incapable of fully participating in life, a supercrip, nonsexual, an object of violence, and laughable.”

7. Focus on specific disabilities not represented in your classroom.

In order to cultivate a classroom environment where all of your students feel safe, do not single anyone out. Focus on specific disabilities that are not represented in your classroom. Students with disabilities can still relate and see themselves reflected in the curriculum more anonymously.

8. Build background knowledge.

As mentioned earlier, students often do not have the life experience or insight to make connections on their own. Take the time to build background knowledge, just like you would for any other new topic. Distribute news stories or show movie clips to convey a range of perspectives about a specific disability.

9. Share personal stories.

Encourage students to share and participate in the discussion by forging the way. Go first and model how to share. If you have a personal relationship with a friend or family member who has a particular disability from your lesson, talk about it. It can make the disability more “real” for students. It can also open the door to student questions you may be able to answer.

Now that you have several tips in your repertoire, you may be wondering what artists to showcase. There are many artists with disabilities that are very likely already in your curriculum. According to a survey of Illinois teachers, Chuck Close is one of the most commonly referenced artists with a disability due to his paralyzation, followed by Frida Kahlo, who had polio and lifelong injuries from a bus accident.

Other artists already in your curriculum may include:

Get started with these seven artists with disabilities.

Note: Peruse the links below to determine if they’re appropriate to share with your students.

Below is a list of seven artists with disabilities, some of whom make Disability Art. This is a great list to get you started if you want to incorporate artists who are currently practicing and exhibiting.

1. John Behnke
   Behnke bases his fluorescent acrylic paintings on real places that are altered from his memory or dreams.
2. Laura Ferguson
   Ferguson’s subject matter is her scoliosis and curving spine. She combines drawings with x-rays and scans to merge the worlds of medicine and visual art.
3. Brooke Lanier
   Lanier has retinal detachment, but it doesn’t stop her from painting exquisite waterscapes.
4. Riva Lehrer
   Lehrer’s work is best known for her representations of people with physical disabilities who have been stigmatized.
5. Sandie Yi
   Yi is a sculptor and fiber artist who designs and constructs wearable art for her unique body morphology.
6. Stephen Wiltshire
   Wiltshire is a British architectural artist with autism and is mute. He draws incredibly detailed cityscapes from memory.
7. John Wos
   Wos has a congenital condition that weakens his bones. He depicts his heightened sensitivity to the world around him in his artwork.

Incorporating artists with disabilities is similar to how you would approach exposing your students to any other window of human diversity. It is worth the extra effort and temporary discomfort to ask questions and learn alongside your students. The payoff can be rewarding! Student engagement and curiosity levels can increase, and students will cultivate empathy and build connections. We hope the tips and artists above equip you to become a more reflective art educator and get started with a more inclusive art curriculum!

If you want to explore more, here are resources to find additional artists with disabilities:

Who is your favorite artist with a disability to share with your students?

What tips do you have for integrating artists with disabilities into the curriculum?

Art Food Photography

#Adam Hillman #flat lay #gradients #multiples

“Skeleton Keys.” All images © Adam Hillman, shared with permission

Everyday objects are puzzled into meticulously organized compositions in the work of Adam Hillman, who has a knack for arranging items like coins, fruits and vegetables, toothpicks, and keys into vibrant flat-lays. Inspired by textures, color, and gradients, the artist responds to the tactile qualities of each material to form intricately woven straws, stacked pennies, and breakfast cereal into geometric forms. You can find more of Hillman’s work on Instagram, and purchase prints at Society6.

“Straws-hatching”

“Brick Work”

“Pickwheeling”

“Cubism”

Details of “Straws-hatching” and “Skeleton Keys”

“Balanced Budget”

“Break-Fast”

#Adam Hillman #flat lay #gradients #multiples

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