Creating Masterpieces at Clarendon 1993
Who said kids can't paint master pieces in grammar school?
Not art instructor Douglas DePice who divides his time teaching kids in both
Clarendon school and the high school. For him, its almost as easy as teaching
them their ABCs. But the letters he uses are Vs, Us, Ts, and Ss, in a unique
approach to teaching art.
What started out as a celebration of the painter the
turn-of-the-century painter Matisse, wound up a tribute to kids and their
abilities to create.
"Mr. DePice has done a super job with the kids,"
said Clarendon Principal Anthony D'Elia, who seemed a little awed by the
collection of thirty or more paintings on the walls of the art room. Classical
music by Vivaldi played from hidden speakers as inspiration. "The kids are
enriched by what he's been teaching here."
But art is only part of what DePice is teaching.
"I'm drawing things out of them," DePice said.
"That's what education means. Educere in latin means to draw out." He
said some teachers believe kids are empty containers that need to be filled
with facts. His view sees kids as having something inside them already that
needs to be touched and inspired.
Poetry and music are part of his art lesson. His has kids
writing poetry and listening to music, drawing connections between them in a
interdisciplinary approach.
"I've introduced the kids to the romantic poets like
Keats and Shelly," DePice said.
Part of his lesson plan is a chart that lists writers,
painters, composers and peace makers according to their time period.
"I try to show the relationship between ideas and
trends in a time period," DePice said. Not all of this is purely academic.
Kids learn to write poetry and do art work as means of expressing themselves.
"It's part of the process of self growth," he said.
Diana Casey, one his students, never believed she could
paint and actually question DePice about failing art.
"Fail Art? That's like failing to breathe," DePice
said. "I told them there's no right and wrong in this, just open
doors." DePice said he believe in the self-adjusting principal. "Kids
find their own balance with trust, support and understanding. This is the soil
out of which they grow."
@lift=The ABCs of art
To DePice, Matisse represents some of the heights in 20th
Century art.
"Matisse reduced his themes to basic shapes, but he did
so with great intelligence," DePice said. "The idea was to take the
influence of Matisse and bring a sense of color, shape and pattern to the
kids."
Matisse had three central themes to his work: Domestic
interiors, the human figure and music.
"The easiest things to do was to approach the kids with
something they can understand, "DePice said. "I told them that if
they could draw a couple of letters they could create master pieces or at
least, a domestic interior." The letters he showed them were Y,U,V and S.
"Draw a "V" sideways, drop a line and you
have a table," he said, demonstrating the process on a small black board.
"Draw a U on the other side, put an S down from its edge and you have
another table with a curved leg."
A huge upside down Y makes for the corner and the walls of a
room. A "T" with a line down from each wing to the base makes for a
shapely vase. Heart shapes can look like exaggerated flowers. More
"Ys" out from the vase look like branches or stems.
"Shape first, then pattern, then you fill in the
spaces," DePice said.
When showing the kids, he gave four different examples then
let them do it on their own. While many of the paintings are similar, they all
bear special touches unique to the child artists.
At first, he had them do smaller sketches, and later
expanded to the larger works. Some of these are a yard high and wide.
Some of the smaller works, DePice has sent off to Minnesota
where they will be presented with paintings from all around the country in the
Francis Hook Scholarship Exhibit.
"This place likes creative personal expression,"
DePice said.
Unfortunately for many of the young artists, there was a
size limit and only the smaller works could go. Out of this class, eight
paintings went along with four others from one of DePice's high school classes.
@lift=What the kids have to say
Although DePice has been teaching for 19 years in the school
system, this is first year in the grammar school, and he's already won the
approval of his students.
Gathered around in the class room, the mostly 4th graders
commented on what they learned and liked about the class.
Valeri Kowaleski, whose large vibrant Matisse-style painting
showed significant talent, was shy to speak, eventually said she found the
class exciting and was pleased to be working with Mr. DePice.
Being with Mr. DePice seemed to a popular sentiment among
many of the students like Greg Letini, Carla Baldwin, Jimmy Martin, Michael
Sheridan and others who said they liked to spend time in Mr. DePice class and
liked painting.
"Art is fun," said Tricia Cambria, who gave DePice
an impressionistic painting as gift. "I learned a lot."
Jennifer Sarmiento also thought art was fun. "But you
can learn a lot about other people's feelings," she said.
"If you didn't feel good about your art," said
Candace Dressler. "Mr.DePice helped you and told you it was good."
Jeanette Schiano took two or three weeks to do her very
large paintings. The other kids giggled and said she kept changing it. But she
found art fun to do and liked to spend time doing it.
Some of the paintings were hidden behind others as they
dominated the room, and moving them was a treasure hunt in which new variations
of color and patterns leaped out.
Christina Cocucci used a combination of paint and cut out
paper, filling in some of the spaces with her own painted hand print. Nick
Binetti played with dimension with a view through connecting doors in his. Hae
Mi Jung gave three versions of the same painting, the two black & white
sketches outlining her large and brightly colored master work.
Danielle Pappalardo and Nattely Segro were the sparks that
started the class going, said DePice. "When the others saw the quality of
her work, they started in," he said.
But the kids had one last word for their teacher:
"Thank you. We love you Mr. DePice.”
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