Light

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) was an American modernist artist known primarily for her abstract looped-wire sculptures inspired by natural and organic forms. As a member of the avant-garde artistic community at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, Asawa studied under the influential German-American Bauhaus painter and color theorist Josef Albers, as well as the American architect and designer Buckminster Fuller. After achieving professional success in the early 60s, she became the driving force behind the creation of the San Francisco School of the Arts, which was renamed the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts in 2010.

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887- 1986) was called the "Mother of American modernism." O'Keeffe gained international recognition for her paintings of natural forms, particularly flowers and desert-inspired landscapes, which were often drawn from and related to places and environments in which she lived.

Keith Allen Haring (1958-1990) was a New York City based artist whose popularity grew from his spontaneous drawings in New York City subways: chalk outlines of figures, dogs, and other stylized images on blank black advertising spaces. Known for his murals, he produced more than 50 public artworks between 1982 and 1989, many of them created voluntarily for hospitals, daycare centers, and schools. His later work often conveyed political and societal themes. 

Joan Miro (1893-1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramist from Spain. Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, but with a personal style. He was notable for his interest in the unconscious or the subconscious mind, reflected in his re-creation of the childlike.

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)  was a pioneer in the modern art movement. Regarded as one of the artists who best helped to define the revolutionary developments in the visual arts throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century, his mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing is displayed in a body of work spanning over half a century.

Alma Woodsey Thomas (1891-1978) was a Howard University graduate. For 35 years, she served as a middle school art teacher in Washington, D.C. Her first professional show was in 1966 at the age of 75. From this point on, Thomas' distinct abstract style made her become an important role model for women, African Americans, and older artists. She was the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, and she exhibited her paintings at the White House three times.

Build a light that celebrates the concept of stained glass. Choose from a variety of artist inspired themes or suggest one that your classroom would like to commemorate or honor. Decorate your light with artist inspired materials, designs, and patterns. Understand and demonstrate the difference between transparent, translucent, and opaque. How does light affect color and pattern? Designs that we have done in the past include:Chagall, Matisse, Alma Thomas, Joan Miro, Ruth Asawa, and Kieth Haring. We can create a light to suit your pedagogic and design curriculum.

Light reflects off of surfaces. As the reflected light enters our eyes, receptors send signals to our brain to make sense of what we are receiving. Similar to the human eye is a camera obscura. Construct a box that captures and focuses light. The camera obscura is a tool used by artists for generations. How does it work similarly to the eye, and what is it missing? Rearrange the elements. Direct a light source on an image inside the box to project the image into a darkened room – recreate one of Leonardo da Vinci’s greatest leaps of invention: a projector.

Scientists and artists want to understand how the eye and brain work together. This device lets you spin patterns at controlled speeds. Blend images. Trick your eye into seeing colors where there are none. Make columns wobble in 3D after the artist Duchamp. Animate birds. Create your own illusions. Experiment with Benham’s Tops and patterns.

When the primary colors of light, red, green, and blue are mixed, white light is produced. By looking at the shadows cast when an object blocks one or more of these color components, you can observe both the additive and subtractive processes of color mixing. Instead of subtracting light via an absorbing pigment, the object's shadow "removes" the component color from the "white" light. For example, the yellow shadow is the result of blocking the blue led and only allowing red and green to mix. Similarly, yellow pigment absorbs blue light and reflects red and green. The addition of red and green light makes yellow. The bluish-green shadow - CYAN - is the result of blocking the red light. Where the cyan and yellow shadow overlaps appears to be green. Why? This small shadow is where both red and blue are blocked. Likewise, when we mix cyan and yellow pigment cyan absorbs red and yellow absorbs blue. The only thing left to be reflected is green. Cyan pigment and yellow pigment both reflect green, so that's what we see. (In white light) Also make a Benham Top and experiment with it and its separate interchangeable patterns.