In art classes, we have been drawing. How do you choose a subject for your art? Does it have to be something extraordinary? Or can it be ordinary? As we know, Cezanne brought our attention to apples. His beautiful paintings made the viewer sit up and take notice.

To celebrate making and to practice our drawing skills, 3rd and 4th graders chose a tool to draw from the art room woodworking table or the Maker Space. Tools have interesting shapes. Every tool has a specific job: one to cut, another to grab, another to twist….  We rely on our tools to carry out all of our creative ideas! Here are some of their many wonderful drawings done in white craypa and finished in watercolor:

The next week, they chose a cooking tool to draw with colored chalks:

We also looked at the work of one well known artist, Jim Dine, who chose to draw tools.

Why tools? Well, they do have interesting shapes. However, if you read more about this artist, you see that he had a special connection with tools. His grandfather, Morris Cohen, ran a hardware store, The Save Supply Company, in Cincinnati, Ohio. When he was growing up, Jim spent a lot of time with his grandfather at the family store surrounded by tools. These objects were important characters in his childhood story. Here are some of his drawings, which suggest he saw a real power in these ordinary objects:

Look around. What objects do you find interesting? What shapes would make them fun to draw? Does it have any special meaning to you?

Gev. Porat