Lessons Plans

Pop Culture Heads Inspired by Howard Finster

  • grade level: 3rd to 5th
  • duration: 2 sessions (about 40-60 minutes per session)
  • media type: Drawing
  • The student will learn about Folk Artist Howard Finster.
  • The student will use a variety of art materials to compose artwork.
  • The student will create artwork based on perception of a person prominent in popular culture OR on an imagining of themselves as a person prominent in popular culture.
  • The student will create artwork emphasizing pattern.
  • The student will discuss expressive qualities of Finster's artwork & give personal interpretation.

Self-Portraits Inspired by Howard Finster

  • grade level: 3rd to 5th
  • duration: 2 sessions (about 40-60 minutes per session)
  • media type: Drawing
  • The student will learn about Folk Artist Howard Finster.
  • The student will use a variety of art materials to compose artwork.
  • The student will create artwork based on the self-portraits of Howard Finster.
  • The student will create artwork emphasizing pattern.
  • The student will discuss expressive qualities of Finster's artwork & give personal interpretation.

Howard Finster's Portraits

  • grade level: 6th
  • duration: 3-4 class periods
  • The students will discover the life, work, and influences of Howard Finster using available technology.
  • The students will create a self-portrait containing images and text of personal relevance to their lives.
  • The students will critique their preparatory sketches as a whole group.
  • The students will reflect on whether their artwork conveys the intended meaning and revise accordingly.
  • The students will successfully communicate their ideas, emotions, and values in their artwork.
  • The students will write an artist statement explaining their self-portrait.

Mixed Media Cotton Field

  • grade level: 6th and higher
  • To show students how to use mixed media in a specific way to develop texture and mood.
  • Using a specific color palette of complementary colors, a wet on wet technique with oil pastels and acrylic and a deterioration technique to develop a complexity to the painting.
  • Students will understand how a culture and art style help to relay the message and mood of the artwork.

Mosaics

  • grade level: 7th
  • duration: 3-5 class periods
  • The students will discover the life, work, and influences of Howard Finster using available technology.
  • The students will explain how the method of display, the location, and the experience of an artwork influence how it is perceived and valued.
  • The students will analyze how response to art is influenced by understanding the time and place in which it was created, the available resources, and cultural uses.
  • The students will design and produce a mosaic that clearly communicates personal information or ideas.
  • The students will reflect on and explain important information about personal artwork in an artist statement.
  • The students will interpret one another's mosaics to identify ideas and mood conveyed.

Howard Finster's Coca-Cola Bottles

  • grade level: 8th
  • duration: 5-7 class periods
  • The students will discover the life, work, and influences of Howard Finster using available technology.
  • The students will collaboratively plan, revise, reflect, and prepare a chosen theme-based artwork relevant to all small group members.
  • The students will collaboratively select, organize, and design images and words that clearly convey their chosen theme.
  • The students will collaboratively transfer their plan onto a 20 ounce plastic soda bottle using pencil, paint, and permanent marker.
  • The students will collaboratively formulate a narrative of their artwork for the viewer.
  • The students will create an exhibition of their artworks using relevant criteria and narratives in a space appropriate for others to view.

Embedded Tiles

  • grade level: 9th-12th and college

Using the pathways of Paradise Garden as inspiration, we can make our own embedded tiles, and learn about one of the processes of making art that Howard Finster used.

Repurposed Objects Project

  • grade level: 9-12 and college

Howard Finster could make art out of almost anything. He sometimes made art from “other people’s junk” – art from the detritus and cast-offs of life. This project focuses on repurposing found or discarded objects and using them as the raw materials for making art.