Figure Sculpture and Drawing at School 7

Under the direction of Art Teacher Ibrahem, students at School 7 have created artworks that use as their basis the work of significant artists, but that express the students’ own creativity and imagination.

Ms. Ibrahem 's fifth grade students studied the work of George Segal, whose work uses sculptures that employ the use of plaster bandages as a medium.  The students created statues of themselves by using rolled newspaper to form shapes that were then fastened together with masking tape.  They then applied plaster bandage.

Once the plaster was set, they painted the figures.  To get the correct proportions, they had to apply their science knowledge of the human body.

At the same time the sixth grade students incorporated into their work the study of kinetic energy, activity, gestures and body language by studying the work of Keith Haring.  Each student created a figure making a gesture representing who they are.  They then added emojis to complete the figures, and to further reflect their personalities.  All the figures were then placed upon the letters A R T. 

The completed work, which gives a sense of movement, vitality, and excitement, is on display at the All Paterson StudentArt Exhibition at the Paterson Museum.  

Ms. Ibrahem’s seventh grade students created self-portraits using the grid technique developed by artist Chuck Close.  This technique incorporates math concepts of ratio and proportion, and allows student to generate large artworks from small photographs, while still maintaining important small details.

The creative artworks described above are thus an exciting combination of art history, science, math, and imagination.