Starry Starry Night

I have always been passionate about art. I took an Art History class as an elective my senior year of college; if it had been my freshman year, I might have seriously considered changing majors! I just loved it-learning about what the artists meant by what they painted or trying to make an interpretation myself. It's cliche, I know, but one of my favorite artists is Van Gogh. This is actually a counted-cross stitch I made years ago (when we had Hurricane Ike come through, this was one of the possessions in my car-it took me such a long time to complete it--I consider it a prized possession!). The miracle is, I still really like the painting! :)

Anyway, I love doing art projects with the kiddos. They will even say "I'm afraid I'll make a mistake" and I share with them Scott Adams' quote "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." They love the fact that there are no rules when it comes to art. They will say-can I mix these 2 colors together or can I paint my sky green?----my answer always is: You are the artist.

So we looked at the painting "Starry, Starry Night". The students painted their interpretation of that painting on half the paper and on the other half they painted what "Snowy, Snowy Night" would look like according to Van Gogh. The best thing happened at the end of the day yesterday. We had the paintings laying out to dry and I had a bunch of kids in my room after school for a Student Council meeting. One of the now 4th Graders that I had in Kindergarten said "oh wow, you guys painted Starry, Starry Night--I remember doing that in your class". And most of the time you think the lessons are not sinking in-that was 4 years ago and she still remembers! :)