Project Description
In this residency, students will create a sculpture of a bioluminescent jellyfish that notes the silver lining of remote learning during the pandemic. The shape of their own hands will serve as a template for this work of art.
Today’s 5th grade students were kindergarteners when the pandemic hit and in-person school came to an abrupt halt. Today’s kindergarteners were born just before the pandemic started, learning to walk while the world was in lockdown. As heartbreaking as these conditions were, teaching artist Arianne (Air) Taylor believes this unconventional education will nurture some of the most incredible, compassionate, soul-centered leaders of tomorrow and that they deserve an artistic tribute.
Final Product
A freeform, light-catching, mixed media sculpture of a bioluminescent jellyfish that honors the resilience these students harvested during the pandemic.
Learning Outcomes
- Students will reflect upon a difficult life experience and create meaningful art from it.
- Students will learn to create a freeform mixed media sculpture.
- Students will experience how art and writing can go hand-in-hand to create a moving art experience for the one who creates it and the one who witnesses it.
Suggested Grades
- K-5th
Pricing Breakdown
- 4 visits at 45 minutes each
- Prep hours: 3 hour per classroom
- Materials: $2 per student
- Travel from Eugene
Meet the Artist
Why I teach art:
“To create good art and good lives, I believe we can start where we are with what we have. I look forward to helping teachers and students connect to their creative selves in an empowered way that delights them. For seven years prior to my emergence as a self-taught artist, creativity and compassion were the foundation from which I taught middle school language arts and US History. In 2007, I was honored with a student nominated Local Teacher of The Year award. From 2008-2023, I exhibited at length in the world class cities of Chicago, Eugene, and Sedona with my two full length, immersive art and writing experiences.
Before being donated to the clinic waiting room of HIV Alliance here in Eugene, my second collection which honors the resiliency of the human spirit, The Soul Success Medals for Humanity, was featured on the cover of Sedona’s Red Rock News. My first collection, Aorta Transformata: an artistic depiction of the heart through openness, love, death, rebirth and the ability to love again exhibited in Chicago from 2008-2011 where the then Mindful Metropolis, stated it “resonates on a universal plane”.
—Arianne (Air) Taylor
