5th Grade Relief Sculptures

The fifth grade looked at the work of Frank Stella, a contemporary American artist.  His work developed from flat paintings to paintings that have pieces that stick out, to sculptures that hang on a wall (those are the relief sculptures), to independently standing sculptures.

Students began by experimenting with methods of making paper stand away from a background.  For the final sculpture, we worked in cardboard.  Students designed a color scheme from crayons, then learned to mix the paint to match the colors.  Students then cut and painted 7-10 pieces of cardboard to be the parts of their sculpture that stand out.  A background was also painted. 

As you can see, the range of ideas is quite broad: from totally abstract, to specific themes based on a word or idea.