Sources of Inspiration...

One day, during Art class, my students were working on Word Collages.  They were using a variety of media to color their designs.  One of the students stuck a piece of scrap paper under his collage so he wouldn't get marker on the table.  As students were cleaning up at the end of class, I saw his scratch paper and in idea for a work of art popped into my head.  I was inspired!  I asked the student if I could turn his marker marks into something and he said, "Sure!"

The next several days, while the students were working on their projects, I worked on my idea.  Students watched and when they arrived each day, they asked, "Are you finished with your drawing yet?"  When I was almost done, I asked, "Is there anything you think I should add?"  One of the students said, "We don't care what it looks like as long as there is a donut sign in the picture."  The sign had to include the words "Michael's Donuts".  Donuts have been a recurring topic of conversation with this group.

Over the weekend, I finished most of the work. When I brought the work to class, I had my students critique it.  After the critique, I told them what my thoughts were about the placement of the donut sign.  I said I was thinking of drawing the donut as a hockey puck by the stick.  I said I wasn't sure how to include the words in the design and they told me it was okay if I just drew the donut.  In the end, I wrote the word "Michael's" in the donut. 

We talked about who owns the work.  I shared that since the student started the work with his marks and I finished it, we were collaborating on the work of art.  I told him that we should BOTH sign it.  We also discussed what should be done with the work and the students decided it should hang in the room above the SMART Board.  I like that idea. 

This was a fun way to show students one way I get inspired to create works of art.  I wanted to show them the steps to creating the work and my thought process about the decisions I made.  Now, some students are handing me their scratch pieces of paper and asking me to turn it into something.  I can't wait to create my next masterpiece.