Today I embarked on an art adventure in the classroom of one of
my children - I am volunteering as the 'art lady' for this group of
elementary school students this year.
This afternoon, I presented Maurice Sendak to the students after
having spent part of the morning reviewing notes and project ideas
left by parents who had come before me. Their teacher read them
"Where The Wild Things Are" earlier in the day and I came
into the classroom with a framed poster for the book.
The students looked through the fantastic book "The Art of
Maurice Sendak" by Selma Lanes while I talked about Sendak.
Born in 1928 as the third child to Polish immigrants, Sendak was a
sickly child who loved his father's storytelling and the music of
Mozart.
We listened to Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je,
Maman", a piano composition by Mozart which consists of twelve
variations on the French folk song Ah! vous dirai-je,
Maman. The French melody has been used for many children's
songs, for example Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Each student was given a partially finished 'wild thing' line
drawing on watercolor paper and asked to finish it as their own.
What sort of face, what sort of hair or horns, tail or feathers
would there be? What sort of face would a grumpy wild thing who
didn't want to wake up in the morning look like? I told the class
that our house had one of those in our midst this morning. Then, I
challenged them to use their pencils to create texture on the body.
Next, watercolor pencils were used to add color, then smoothed
across their creation with a bit of water on paintbrush.
The results were beyond
great.
I am intrigued by the clips of the upcoming film and hopeful, so
hopeful that this film will do justice to this classic story.