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Thursday, January 15, 2015

Cardinals - Charley Harper Style


If you're reading this, you likely know that I don't do holiday art. It's not my style. Winter art works just fine, though. This is the second year I've done this project with my students. It is based off of a few topics and comes together very nicely. 

The project focuses on the state bird of Ohio, the cardinal. Cardinals are a type of bird that stays around in the winter, so they make for a good subject of a winter themed project. We also study Ohio artist Charley Harper. If you're not familiar with Harper, his career focused on graphic artwork about animals. If you haven't ever seen any of his work, you should definitely check it out. 
The coolest part of this entire project had to do with my Instagram feed. I try to post something every couple of days on my classroom Instagram account. It's a quick and easy way of sharing when I don't have time to sit down and write a whole blog post. I posted the picture above during the school day. When I got home that night, I realized that the official Charley Harper Art Studio had commented on the post! Huzzah! At their request, I wound up sending them several more examples that were then posted on their Facebook fan page. My students were amazed that their work was being recognized by the studio of a famous artist! 

7 comments:

Stacie said...

I wasn't able to download the lesson plan as a 404 error came up. This looks like a really cute project. We have cardinals that stay all year round in Wisconsin too. They love to sit outside our bird feeder.

Unknown said...

@< a href="#c2540354625224331072"> Zach Stoller

I have just tried downloading the lesson plan too, and it is the same 404 error. The lesson does look really great. I am not an art teacher (nor an artist), just a parent trying to do after-school art with my son, so I really appreciate your information and ideas!

Unknown said...

I'm also seeing an error when I click on the lesson plan link. I tried in Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

I LOVE Charlie Harper, this idea is wonderful! I will definitely be using this!

Ms. R said...

I wasn't able to download the lesson either!

Zach Stoller said...

Hopefully it's working now. I'm not getting the error message anymore. Let me know if it works for you!

Carrie Smith said...

What kinds of foam plates do you use?

Zach Stoller said...

I didn't use any foam for this project, Carrie. I do use Scratch-Art foam for some of my printmaking projects, though.