The Balance of Light and Dark

In fourth grade we just finished talking about Notan, the Japanese concept of balancing light and dark. We looked at several works of art first in color, then in black and white. It was clear that the artists thought a lot about their use of light and dark because it was still quite easy to understand the paintings, even in black and white.

We then created interesting designs using the cut and paste method explained here. I feel that this project was really successful. Everyone felt good about their projects, in fact many students were surprised at how well they turned out. I think this kind of success at the beginning of the year can build students' confidence, and prepare them for tackling our more challenging projects.

This project also taught the 4th graders skills that we'll be using later in the year. They learned about positive and negative shapes, which will help them as we start our observational drawing unit. They also experimented with interesting shapes and careful cutting and gluing, which will help them when we make Matisse-style paper collages.

Plus all the students and teachers say how cool they are as they walk past them hanging in the hallway. That's always nice.