LIFE IN THE ARTS

"ARTISTS IN THE CLASSROOM" TELEVISED PROGRAMS

WEDNESDAY, April 14, 1999

10:30 - 11:30 AM

LONGTIMERS PRODUCTIONS IN ASSOCIATION WITH

THE MONTEREY COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION

PRESENT

Stencils

SANDRA STILL, DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION OF THE MONTEREY MUSEUM OF ART

THIS PROGRAM IS BEING PARTIALLY FUNDED BY THE CULTURAL COUNCIL FOR MONTEREY COUNTY.

Focus Questions:

1. If you have been to an art museum before:

What exhibit(s) did you like the best and why? How did they make you feel?

What exhibit(s) did you like least and why? How did they make you feel?

2. If you could design an exhibit for a museum, what would it be about? What art/artifacts would you include? What would you want the visitor to your exhibit to experience?

MATERIAL LISTS:

PRIMARY:

MANILA PAPER AND STENCIL PAPER THAT ARE THE SAME SIZE

CONSTRUCTION PAPER

PAINT: TEMPERA IS FINE

SCISSORS

PENCILS

PAPER CLIPS

MASKING TAPE

SMALL-PORED SPONGES (MAKE-UP SPONGES WORK REALLY WELL)

BACKGROUND ON STENCILS:

Stenciling- the painting of colored designs onto a surface through cutout shapes- has a long history. Stenciling began in China, then spread slowly to Europe where people decorated their homes and furniture with bright designs. European immigrants brought this folk art to North America.

In the early colonies, artists often traveled on horseback from town to town painting portraits, signs, or stenciling walls in trade for food of lodging for a bit of money. Stenciled walls and floors were very popular because they added bright color to the bleak farmhouses and were much less expensive than wall paper and carpeting. Many new immigrants stenciled flowers, hearts and fruits on their furniture as they had in their homeland. Some women stenciled tins with bright designs and others made "theorem" or still -life paintings with stencils. A Connecticut chair maker named Hitchcock employed artists to paint his chairs a deep black color and then decorated them with gold-stenciled flowers and fruit. These chairs are still made today.

Early American artists cut their stencils from heavy oiled paper. Charcoal, brick and clay dust from ground mineral colors were mixed with sour milk to make paint. The designs most often used were leaf and flower shapes, hearts, mermaids, unicorns and other folk motifs from Europe. Many designs were symbolic such as hearts and bells which stood for happiness, sheaves of wheat for friendship, and pineapple for hospitality, a willow tree for immortality, or a peacock for the eye of God. American patriotic symbols were also popular such as stars, eagles, flags and the word 'liberty".

Stenciling is an easy, inexpensive way to decorate large areas as with walls and floors as well as many items such as cards, pictures and cloth. Once the basic process is learned, almost anyone can stencil.

STUDENT PROJECT:

1. Show examples of stenciled papers, past and present. Discuss history

2. Use the manila paper to draw the designs. Primary students will fold the manila paper in half and draw a simple shape on the fold leaving a least a one-inch border on top and bottom. Intermediate students with access to stencil knives can make simple shapes on the whole manila paper, leaving a one-inch border on all sides.

3. Cut the desired pattern into the manila paper.

4. Use the paper clips to place the manila paper on the stencil paper. Draw the pattern in to the stencil paper. Cut.

5. Put the stencil over the front of the construction paper and lightly tape it down so that it does not move or shift.

6. Choose a color of paint. Dip a sponge into a small amount of the paint. Tamp the sponge up and down on the side of the plate to remove excess paint. It is better to have too little than too much paint on the sponge. Lightly stenciled areas can be touched up but excess paint might seep under the edges of the stencil paper.

7. Tamp the sponge in an up-and-down motion around the inside edge of the stencil. With large areas, begin stenciling at the outside of the design and work toward the center. Do not squeeze the paint onto the paper or drag the sponge across the paper.

8. Remove stencil carefully. Blot the stencil plate between the two pieces of newspaper. Set this stencil aside to dry.

Things to keep in mind:

* Paint light colors first, then dark colors.

* Let one color dry before starting on to the next.

* If the stencil rips or tears, place transparent tape over the tear and trim away the excess.

* Save your stencil when finished.

Instead of reading suggestions we have CD Roms:

The Louvre Museum:for kids

With Open Eyes:Images from the Art Institute of Chicago

Emile de Antonio's Painters on Painting

Career CORNER:

Exhibit Designer

Curator

Museum Registrar

Museum/Art Educator

Museum Director

PROGRAM GUESTS

SANDRA STILL, Director Of Education of The Monterey Museum of Art, formerly assistant director of Museum on Wheels. Sandra obtained a MA, in Anthropology and Museum Studies in 1990 from the University of Seattle. Sandra received honors in 1996 as Outstanding Museum Art Educator from the California Art Education Association.

Back to the Life In The Arts 1998-1999 Broadcast Season