Traveling Exhibits Inspiration Avenue: Rivera Exhibit Inspires Creative Writing From 6th Graders At Chester Elementary in Chester, CT

Monday, June 29, 2009

Rivera Exhibit Inspires Creative Writing From 6th Graders At Chester Elementary in Chester, CT

Barbara Murray-Lane of the Chester Elementary School PTO coordinated an ExhibitShare program for Chester and neighboring school Essex Elementary this past 08-09 school year . The art teacher of Chester had collaborated with the other teachers and made the exhibits a school wide learning experience. Barbara's son is a 6th grader at Chester Elementary. He brought home a creative writing piece that he had done in English, after his Diego Rivera exhibit experience. Besides learning about Diego Rivera's life he was also taught the history behind the people featured in the mural Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park. Barbara was so awestruck by her son's writing she followed up with his teacher to see if she would mind sharing more of Rivera's inspired writings from his classmates to share on the Inspiration Avenue blog and she was happy to oblige. So, with that being said, here is one of the writings that Barbara has passed along for me to share with you.
I am the man on crutches. You may call me Commander Suarez. The medals on my shirt symbolize my bravery during a time of war. Those medals make me proud, but these crutches represent the pain and suffering that I went through to get them. My face explains what it felt like, to be severely wounded, to have one more brush with death. It's like it breaks you, puts you back together but misses a piece, every time, until it's unbearable.
Throughout the wars, I have gained medals, but I have lost friends. So many have perished. Their faces will forever stay in my mind, haunting my dreams and making the pain that much worse. Their cries of agony, they still echo in my ears. It will scar my face forever, a permanent sadness. Their passing makes each of these medals just another object. Those who died deserve an honorary medal that shows their courage and bravery, giving their lives to save another. They deserve to be rich beyond their wildest dreams. But they won't be. They have left us and are gone forever. They won't get the things they deserve.
They are not the only ones that I have lost. A criminal killed my family. After that, I have never been truly happy. I am a lonely old man who has no one to turn to in times of need or sickness. A sad expression is permanent on my face. It will never go away. It is what tells my story. The sad story of this old man's life.
Barbara, Thanks for sharing

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Things That Make You Go Hmmm.... Did You Know?

Did you know x-ray technology has shown that there are three different versions of the Mona Lisa under the visible one?

Did you know Leonardo da Vinci spent 12 years on Mona Lisa's lips?

Did you ever wonder where Mona Lisa's eyebrows are?

Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is 2'6" x 1'9"?

Did you know that when Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1912, six replicas were sold as the original, each at a huge price in the three years before the original was recovered?

Did you know Leonardo da Vinci invented high heels?

Did you know Leonardo da Vinci wrote all of his personal notes from right to left, forcing those who read them to use a mirror?

Did you know in all of Salvador Dali's paintings you can find a self-portrait?

Did you know Salvador Dali designed a chess set for the American Chess Federation? The pieces were modeled after his and his wife Gala's fingers using casts of his molars for crowns.

Did you know Henri Rousseau was a self taught artist? He never took an art class and began painting in his forties.

Did you know although Henri Rousseau was known as a charmingly naive "primitive" artist, his rap sheet included jail time for theft and bank fraud?

Did You know Vincent vanGogh was a missionary before he started painting?

Did you know that when you look at a bright color (like red) and then look at a piece of white paper: You briefly see its opposite (pale blue)? Try it, it works!

Did you know that Michelangelo was 26 when he started his statue of David? He finished it 17 months later.

Did you know that Frederic-August Bartholdi sculpted The Statue of Liberty?

Did you know that Pablo Picasso's career lasted seventy-eight years? From 1895 until his death in 1973.

Did you know that the only sculpture that Michelangelo signed was The Pieta, completed in 1500?

Did you know that Mary Cassatt was the only American to exhibit with the Impressionists?

Did you know that Vincent vanGogh completed over 800 paintings and 850 drawings in the decade before his death?

Did you know that Jackson Pollock studied with Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League in New York?

Did You Know? Picasso's Girl with a Ponytail Sylvette David is an artisit

Lydia Sylvette David began her artistic life not as a painter, but as a model for Pablo Picasso. When she was seventeen years old, she was living in the south of France with her English-born mother who was an artist, her brother, and her boyfriend, Toby Jellinek, a maker of avant-garde metal chairs. Picasso had set up a studio nearby and noticed Jellinek’s unusual pieces. He asked him to deliver a couple of the chairs to his studio, and with him went Sylvette David. Shortly after, Picasso presented a picture of her, drawn from memory, and convinced David to model for him.

A shy girl, David was tall and had striking looks. She wore her hair in a long, blond ponytail, a style like that which Brigitte Bardot would later adopt. It was her hair and face that captivated Picasso, but unlike many of his other models, their relationship was purely platonic. In the months she sat for him in 1954, Picasso produced over forty pieces based on her likeness. Photos of Picasso and his model also appeared in an issue of the widely read magazine Paris-Match.

David would relate that she began drawing to pass the time while she sat for Picasso, often posed in a rocking chair. She later married and moved to England with her husband, and not wanting to capitalize on her fame as a painter’s muse, signed her work with her married name, Lydia Corbett. Eventually, she added a second signature to her paintings and watercolors, that of Sylvette David. As her reputation as an artist grew, she exhibited her work in England and France, including several London exhibitions.

I was inspired to contact Lydia Sylvette after reading Laurence Anholt's book
"Picasso and the girl with the ponytail". She's a lovely woman. She sent me images of her artwork in hopes of developing curriculum and getting more recognition in the states. What do you think? Would you like to know more about Lydia Sylvette?

Diego Rivera helps celebrate Mexican art, music and language in Bannockburn, IL

Art Instructor Shawn Le Gloanec had this to say.... Hi Lisa! the murals were the connecting link for our cross-curricular study of mexican art, music and language. Our Spanish teacher ,music teacher and I each created lessons in our respective areas. The students listened to and performed music from mexico .The spanish classes identified many of the important Mexicans portrayed on the mural and researched their lives. In my art classes, we watched an excellent video about Rivera and other mexican mural artists such as orozco and siqueiros. We also designed and painted cloth tote bags using many of the colors and objects inspired by the mural. All of this culminated in a marvelous field trip to our Mexican Fine Arts Center in Chicago. We are looking forward to our next opportunity to bring a new mural to our school. Thank you for making yourself so available by phone,

Escher Visits Bartlesville, OK This Is What Their Daily Paper The Examiner-Enterprise had to say

Satin prints of the works of famed artist Maurits Cornelis Escher are on display this week in the library of the Bartlesville Mid-High School. Pictured along with some information about Escher are Mid-High art students (from left) Nicole Caster, Luke Libby, Blaize Kissell, Ashley Ryel and Matthew Reeder. The exhibit features some information about the artist himself, whose works have been well-received over the years by math scholars and scientists, who enjoy his use of geometric distortions. The Escher exhibit was made possible after a grant proposal by Mid-High art teacher Lea Burke was accepted by the Bartlesville Public School Foundation. The grant will result in four more exhibits being displayed in the Mid-High library during the second semester of the 2008-09 academic year.

Traveling Exhibits Meets Viktor Schreckengost