Everybody's favorite: Cave art!!!

The Interactive Art History classes started the prehistoric art unit and so far they are L-O-V-I-N-G the cave art project I implemented last Spring.

It is the messiest of all of the projects and even when you are doing all of the steps correctly, it's pretty close to impossible to not get your hands dirty. For as much as the kids fuss about the messiness though? They always cite it as one of their favorite projects of the whole course.  I can't blame them for loving it. Plaster of Paris is SO cool to work with!!!

Mixing the plaster of paris and then pouring it onto trays to start the sculpting process.

Some of the students ended up breaking their cave chunks but that's OK! Nothing that gorilla super glue won't fix and(!) the cracks that result from a broken plaster piece end up making the pieces look that much more realistic overall.

Some of the students weren't loving the uniformity of the edges of their cave chunks so they chiseled down the edges of their pieces to give them a more realistic feel.

Painting has begun!!! I expect that it will take them somewhere around 3-4 days of layered sponge painting in order for them to achieve the effect painting results they ultimately are going for. After they get the visual texture and coloring right? It will be another 3 days or so to do the actual designs/forms to imitate the cave art we looked at.

So embarrassing but this is one of the sinks in the art room!!  This happens at least once a year and Friday of last week seemed to be the day. There is no standing water in this picture but if I try and flush the drain that's just what happens. At one point I was standing on the counter plunging the drain (I am so hardcore like that *wink*) and then I had to call in reinforcements in the form of our building and facilities management. I am good friends with those guys despite the fact that I create so many issues for them on any given day.

So, that's where we are so far with the cave art project. I am thinking that the students will turn out even higher quality/more creative pieces this year because 1) I have more experience doing this project having done it before in two different forms, 2) I had some really great examples of last year's student work to really show them what they should (and shouldn't) do with their work, and 3) I just plain have a really fantastic and enthusiastic bunch of student artists this go 'round (par for the course as it has been for most all of this year).