Last Spring I was contacted by an author's agent about designing and illustrating a timeline for an Historical Fiction Book Series called Widow Walk by author Gar LaSalle. The book begins in the Pacific Northwest during the mid 1800's where the American settlers are vying for territory along with the indigenous peoples and the British, then follows a strong young woman caught up in the conflicts of the times.  
 
The  illustrations I did reflect the historical events that took place at the same time of the book character's many adventures. The series gives a unique and vivid perspective of American history.  (See the book blurbs below from Goodreads.com.)

It was a privilege to have have met (through conference calls) Dr. LaSalle and his agent Scott James. They were awesome to work with! 

Check out the series!  Widow Walk at http://gerardlasalle.com/

Today I'm sharing a fun and easy art project with the focus on the Element of Art: Shape. I introduce two main types of shape; Geometric and Organic.

Geometric shapes are shapes also learned in math class, circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, ovals, octagons, etc.

To do:  Make a Geometric Shape Collage
Read the book When a Line Bends...A Shape Begins.   It has beautiful illustrations and clever rhymes about shapes. 

Draw geometric shapes and print them off on colored paper for the students to cut out. Or give the students stencils and rulers to draw out their own geometric shapes.

List the Geometric shapes they must use at least one;  circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, ovals, octagons. They can use more of any one they like.

Students can make a pattern design, people, robots, rockets, cars, city, plants, creatures, etc. They must have at least one of each shape on the list.  I loved the variety and creativity of each student's pictures

To do:  Make an Organic Shape Collage

Read the book Henri's Scissors. It's a good introduction to Henri Matisse. In the book he cuts out shapes from nature like leaves, fruit and birds.  

Give the students colored paper to cut out their own shapes from nature and then arrange and glue the shapes on their black paper. 

A historical  connection to Matisse is made on the Art History Timeline Staircase to  Matisse's 8 1/2 foot tall The Dance. 

Who doesn't love a good Norman Rockwell picture?  As I grew up and studied art, it seemed that Rockwell and other Illustrators were not  as well respected as other fine artists.  But I love the Illustrators because I love a good story. Some of the best Illustrators are the best visual storytellers; Howard Pyle,  N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, and, of course, Norman Rockwell.   

When I designed my Art History Timeline, I spend months researching what most scholars agree are some of the greatest masterpieces and game changers in the world of art.  I sifted and sifted.  Of course you can only fit so much on a piece of poster paper 5 ft by 2 ft, but Rockwell kept coming up as a major player in influential art in the 1900's.  Rockwell got his well earned spot on The Art History Timeline next to Homer, Whistler, Warhol, Matisse and Dali.  
CLICK HERE to see The ART HISTORY  TIMELINE

So I was delighted to hear that two great storytellers in movies are also big Rockwell fans.  George Lucas owns over 50 of Rockwell's original works and Speilberg owns 7.   They loaned 57 of their Rockwell originals for a show at The Smithsonian American Art Museum. It was called 'Telling Stories.'

George Lucas' and Steven Spielberg's Norman Rockwell paintings go on show at Smithsonian American Art Museum
The filmmakers discuss the painter's influence in 'Telling Stories.'
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|By Jori Finkel, Los Angeles Times
The Smithsonian American Art Museum 'Telling Stories. show's curator, Virginia Mecklenburg explained. "They (George Lucas and Steven Spielberg) are both drawn to Rockwell's stories — the way an entire narrative unfolds because of how he crafts a single frame. "Interviewed separately for this article, both Spielberg and Lucas said they grew up looking at Rockwell's work in the form of his hugely popular Saturday Evening Post covers. But neither one started collecting his work until they had some cash on hand from their first blockbuster movies of the 1970s.
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That painting is a good example, he believes, of how Rockwell remains relevant today. Even if the teacher's hairstyle or students' clothes have gone out of style several times since, the warmth of a good teacher-student relationship has not. And the boy sitting in the back of the class balancing a chalkboard eraser on his head could, Spielberg suggests, exist today.
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For Spielberg, who owns fewer works by Rockwell and has slightly fewer in the show, the artist has largely been a departure from the other types of art he collects, such as Impressionist painting. He says part of the impetus for the show, in fact, was seeing over the years how friends of his children (he has seven) gravitated to a Rockwell painting, "Happy Birthday Miss Jones," more than any other artwork in his home.

The March 17, 1956, cover of the Saturday Evening Post, this painting shows a prim schoolteacher caught off guard in front of her class after they've written "surprise" and "happy birthday" on her chalkboard. (While Spielberg owns the oil, Lucas owns the large-scale pencil version of this painting, and the Smithsonian show brings both together.)
"When my kids were younger, they would bring friends over to play, and they would be stopped in their tracks by that painting," Spielberg says. "Nobody was stopped by the Monet, but that's the one that arrests everyone's attention."

That painting is a good example, he believes, of how Rockwell remains relevant today. Even if the teacher's hairstyle or students' clothes have gone out of style several times since, the warmth of a good teacher-student relationship has not. And the boy sitting in the back of the class balancing a chalkboard eraser on his head could, Spielberg suggests, exist today.

"I certainly thought a lot about Rockwell when I was making 'E.T.,'" he says.
"'E.T.' I think comes closest to Rockwell's America, because it's centered on a family in need of repairs, and there's such a hopefulness there. But that's where it stops — I don't think Rockwell has a single alien in his repertoire."

So would someone who knew both filmmakers walking through the Smithsonian galleries be able to guess which pictures belong to Lucas and which to Spielberg?
"Maybe not," says Spielberg. "George and I have been best friends since the '60s, and we're so similar in so many ways."

Lucas agreed, for the most part. "We have the same tastes, the same feelings, the same sensibilities. Looking at one artist, we tend toward the same thing," he says. "That's why we were so compatible making movies together."
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There's only one real difference when it comes to Rockwell, Lucas offers. "If it's a more expensive, important painting, it's probably Steven's."
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/27/entertainment/la-ca-lucasspielbergrockwell-20100627

 www.timelinestaircase.com has been named in Homeschool.com as one of the Top 100 Educational Websites this year! We are in the HISTORY, ART, and MUSIC category. Happy that folks are finding the Timelines useful! 
Along with the Free Look and Find Activity downloads on this website, I'll be posting soon about the Art History Activity Book and Coloring Book that will go along with the Art History Timeline.

"Whistler, and his painting Whistler's Mother, had a profound effect on Claude Debussy, a contemporary French composer. In 1894, Debussy wrote to violinist Eugène Ysaÿe describing his Nocturnes as "an experiment in the different combinations that can be obtained from one color – what a study in grey would be in painting." Whether Debussy was using the term color to refer to orchestration or harmony, critics have observed "shades" of a particular sound quality in his music." Weintraub, Stanley. 2001. Whistler: A Biography (New York: Da Capo Press).
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2. I found three groups of people who loved The Art History Timeline; 1. Classical Educators, 2. people who have some background in Art, and, of course, 3. History Buffs.  Guess that didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

As for people who love hiking and climbing they usually have three similar qualities; 1. someone who is energized by being outdoors 2. since a lot of mountaineering challenges are mental, someone who thinks they can do it, can and 3. someone who loves a bit of adventure.

3.  At the conference, a bowl of mini chocolate bars on the table has amazing magnetic qualities.

Sharing a mini Snickers on the summit with other climbers makes them your instant friends.  
 
4. I felt honored that someone would want to have my Art History Timeline, something I worked on for over 1000 hours, in their home, studio, or classroom.  And they'd find it useful and beautiful.

“Art flourishes where there is a sense of adventure.” 
~ Alfred North Whitehead


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