West Oakland Middle School students continued their native plant textile unit this month with Lead Teaching Artist Etty Alberto by visiting our very own ArtEsteem Gallery. This is their second field trip in a series to deepen their understanding of product design.
Class started with an opening circle around a radial mandala mural Etty completed last year. She explained, “I made this, and it’s my job. You can do art as a career!” In this unit, students are developing skills to support their future entry into the visual arts workforce. Whether it’s murals, apparel, or home goods, students saw how art is found everywhere, and there is an artist behind each piece of work.
In a previous lesson, students used watercolors to demonstrate their understanding of color palettes. Students were then able to build on this project at the gallery in a screen printing demonstration with Teaching Artist Angel Perez. Angel guided the students through the chemical process of silk screen printing. Another guiding presence, volunteer Julia Gamble, was present to teach the students. Julia brings years of experience in product design and development to the class, and is helping to inform the trajectory of their textile unit projects. She designed the geometric screen print design that would go over their watercolor pieces, and emphasized how the negative and positive space of the geometric print highlights the watercolors’ composition.
One particular student, Robert, seized the opportunity to print the geometric design on his own sweatshirt. When it was complete, Julia told him, “No one in the world has this piece of art, except you. It is a one-of-a-kind sweatshirt.”
For the second part of gallery activities, Etty led students on a scavenger hunt around the space. Students observed the artwork and made deductions from the artist statements. By seeing past ArtEsteem students’ work, as well as understanding what inspired them, WOMS students can reflect on how they want to design their final project.
This unit will culminate in a field trip to IKEA, in which students will be able to take their knowledge in surface pattern designs and explore how it can be applied to home good collections and showrooms.