My pint-sized screenprinters

After 2 weeks of no class due to Memorial day and an art streetfair, we finally got back into the screenprinting studio with my 11-13 year olds this afternoon. I'll post what we worked on today in a separate post. Today I wanted to show the final results of their multi-layer collaborative prints, which were turned into individual collages.

 Students were encouraged to "Break the Rectangle". They were allowed to choose  whatever size base paper they wanted, so some are only about 10 inches across, and one is at least 2 ft across.

 They were reminded about geometric vs. organic shapes and encouraged to use arrangement of color as a way to organize composition and to consider the connection and movement of lines to direct the eyes around their image.

 We discussed abstraction and the difference between representational and non-representational imagery.

 The kids were a little unhappy with edges popping up due to insufficient gluing, so we coated their final images with gloss medium. It makes them very object-like I believe.

 We had fun naming what we "saw" in their abstract images. The one above reminds me of a mother and child, and the one below is boat-like with its red prow and stern and black sails.

 Through this project students learned all about the screenprinting process and various ways to block screens to create an image. We learned a LOT about the Elements and Principles of Design. Most importantly, students learned to collaborate in the process.

 But after all that collaboration I was very glad to give them a chance to make something all their own. We did not use printmaking so much for making multiples in this case, but for generating a wide range of source material for our collages by layering over different prints each time.

I love how varied their shapes are as a result of this printing and collage process. I think kids this age tend to rely on symbolic shapes like hearts and peace signs, but they really pushed themselves to make something new and all their own.

This semester concludes one whole year of teaching screenprinting to kids at Fleisher. I've evolved in the process, and it keeps getting better and better. It's truly been a great semester in the studio with my teenybopper screenprinters!