top of page
Writer's pictureSarah Jones

Marbleized Murakami Project

Beginning Art students at Irons Middle School created these in Spring of 2021.


I designed this multifaceted lesson to incorporate observation skills, reading and writing, and technology. First, students learned about Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and his famous flower icon. They also studied one of his artworks, "This World and the World Beyond" and wrote words to describe it on the Looking Worksheet. Each class came up with various adjectives, nouns, and phrases. I recorded them in the Sticky Notes app.



Next, students studied his works from the "Flowers & Skulls" exhibit from 2012-13. These artworks are notable for their layering of the same icon with various colors and marble patterns.



Students then learned how to marbleize paper using food coloring and shaving cream. The process was very messy, but they loved it!


After making the marbleized paper, students made their icons of 3 different sizes using AutoDraw.com. Below are the instructions on Google Classroom.


I then printed the icons for the students. They then used light boxes to trace their icons onto the marbleized and colored paper. Although tracing is usually frowned upon in art education, this lesson was for Beginning students. By tracing, they practiced their ability to draw precisely. To mimic Murakami's artworks, they were expected to overlap the icons and fill the entire paper. My project example is below.

Below are details of final projects by students.


6 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page