Good Day My Most Amazing Artists! May 18th-May 22nd

This week's theme is Invention. We will be exploring why people invent and how we can be inventive in art. How do artists come up with new questions? How does asking questions lead to new ideas and new solutions? Artists can invent actual, helpful objects, like Leonardo da Vinci, our inspirational artist this week. Or, they can invent new styles of art, or new ways to use materials. The process of inventing involves asking a question and then trying to find an answer. If the answer you come up with doesn't work, fine! You have eliminated one non-working possibility, it is time to try another idea. Or you could ask "Why didn't it work?" Then try to change it to make it more successful. This is what all kinds of artists do every day during the creation of there work. They are constantly asking what works and what doesn't, scrapping some ideas and adapting others to make them better and better. Leonardo was very curious, always asking questions, what does a woodpecker's tongue look like? How could I breath underwater? How can a person fly? How do I cross this river? Asking questions like this led Leonardo to design bridges and scuba suits and helicopters and bicycles. Some of his inventions were built during his lifetime. Others were not built for centuries. What questions do you have that could lead to an invention or a new style, or a new idea? When you draw your idea on paper, you are taking the first step toward making your idea a reality! It may need new technologies or collaboration with other inventors, or decades to complete but you are beginning to breath life into a new possibility.

Click on the words under the three pictures below to find further information about our Artist, an Element of Art and a Principle of design for this week.

Here are some other fun Rube Goldberg resources to explore: