What darkness and light look like in the art studio

My big take-away lesson this week, (this month), has to be, that in order to depict light, you need darkness. And to convince a viewer about darkness you need to place it against a light shape. As an aside- I wish I could transfer this to a life philosophy!

My students worked with the Japanese concept of Notans using cut paper, and then moved on to  constructing an actual still life and playing with light and shadow, as if the lights and darks were shapes that could be played with.

Each student photographed at least five arrangements. Of those, they picked three to sketch out the relationship and patterns of shapes in the dark and light. Of those, they picked one to... (stay tuned for more teacher joy coming soon!)