From Bones and Body to Structure and Form – by Melissa Pierce Murray
Artist Melissa Pierce Murray worked with teenagers from AccessArt’s Experimental Drawing Class on a series of workshops which physically explored drawing and sculptural responses to form, forces and anatomy.
This collection will inspire teachers and artist educators to be able to use creative approaches to understanding and responding to science topics; from developing a sculptural understanding of anatomy to developing curious and playful responses to the physical world.
These sessions lasted for an hour and a quarter and took place over a term at Cambridge ArtWorks.
Beginning with Bones
Teenagers make observational drawings of a 1/4 life size model of a skeleton to understand the structure of the human body and looked at work by Alberto Giacometti and Henri Matisse.
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Day of the Dead Skulls
This workshop combined students’ studies of the skull with ideas borrowed from the Mexican traditions for Dia de Muertos – The Day of the Dead.
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Dancing Bones
Inspired by real anatomical drawings of human, ape, cat, lion, horse and dog skeletons, teenagers build ‘life size’ and ‘oversize’ collages of ‘dancing skeletons.’
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Working with Ink
In this one hour session, led by artist Melissa Pierce Murray, students explore techniques and properties of Quink and Black India Inks, and how to build up a drawing using the medium.
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Magnets and Forces
Secondary school students are likely to study properties of magnets in their science classes, but in this workshop, artist Melissa Pierce Murray, encourages teenagers to explore playful and aesthetic responses to magnets, rather than analytic and quantifiable ones. Using artistic and scientific approaches together aid in developing curiosity and imagination.
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The Opposite of Light
Teenagers work on a range of explorations looking at light and contrasts. This workshop explores contemporary themes around placement, object and meaning.
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Two and Four Legged Creatures
Two and Four Legged Creatures with oil based clay over a simple wire armature to make delicate, extended structures.
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Snowflakes
Artist Melissa Pierce Murray leads teenagers in a festive workshop exploring snowflakes and decorating Christmas cookies with piping and egg tempura.
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