'Improbable Combinations' Make for Intriguing Artworks at SOIT

In Ms. Simon's art class at SOIT, students recently created unusual artworks combining aspects of two art genres: still life using interesting objects from nature and landscape art.   

Triada Samaras, Art PIR, interviewed this STEAM art teacher about this project:

Mrs. Simon said "I decided to do an 'improbable combination' so I asked STEAM students to compare and contrast still life and landscape art, and then put them together into an 'improbable combination' artwork.  There is an art historical movement that set a precedent for this type of art project called Surrealism."

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality". [See  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism.]

Mrs. Simon continued, "What I wanted to do was to have my students realize that natural objects are organic shapes.  These shapes, which they can use in a still life, could be successfully integrated into a landscape.  This is a nature-based activity which segues to content they will learn in their biology classrooms." 

"I wanted students to really perceive the shapes, colors and textures of the natural objects and to theorize where these objects came from, and what might be their function in nature. Perceiving is more than seeing.  Perceiving is seeing with more acute concentration and detail, as a scientist would do in a laboratory or in the field." 

Art PIR Triada Samaras also interviewed Dycquan Dookie, an art  student in Ms. Simon's class.  Dycquan is also an athlete at SOIT, and plays soccer and football on the school teams.

Ms. Samaras:  "How did the world you created in your art work come about?"
Dycquan:  "The dinosaur, an extinct species, first came to my mind and I decided to use it.  Dinosaurs had to look for food a lot, and that is what this one is doing.  As for the shell, it is in the hill because it is in hills that you could find things like that. The cheetah is in the grass hunting. And I drew a tree and put the tree-like object looking as though it belonged there.
Ms. Samaras: "What did you learn about yourself while creating your art?"
Dycquan:  "As I created my artwork, I learned that I have a good imagination, and that I could choose whatever object I wanted to include in my drawings."