Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)

One of the most significant artists of the 20th century, Georgia O’Keeffe was devoted to creating imagery that expressed what she called “the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it.” She was a leading member of the Stieglitz Circle artists, headed by Alfred Stieglitz, America’s first advocate of modern art in America.  These avant-garde artists flourished in New York in the first half of the 20^th Century. O’Keeffe’s images—instantly recognizable as her own —include abstractions, large-scale depictions of flowers, leaves, rocks, shells, bones, and other natural forms, New York cityscapes, and paintings of the unusual shapes and colors of architectural and landscape forms of northern New Mexico. For the art project, the children will use watercolor paint to create their own abstract image of an object taken from the natural world.

(Volunteer Presentation Meeting Fri. November 6, 2009)

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)

Beloved by many, criticized by some, Norman Rockwell was best known for his charming cover illustrations of the Saturday Evening Post. Born in New York City, Rockwell worked steadily as a commercial artist, creating advertisements for such products as Jell-O and Orange Crush, and providing illustrations to such magazines as Boy’s Life, the official publication for the Boy Scouts of America. Rockwell had a remarkable talent for capturing “middle America” in everyday situations and was wildly popular with the public. We will explore why Rockwell’s paintings were so popular, why he had such an effect on the American psyche, and take an in-depth look at some of Rockwell’s most well known paintings, including “the four freedoms,” which he painted following FDR’s speech to Congress in 1941. The classroom project will challenge the kids to come up with a product they want to sell or an everyday event or issue that they want to depict, and create their own colored-pencil illustration for “publication.”

(Volunteer presentation Meeting, Friday, February 5, 2010).