GROW at the Nasher: Drip, Swing, Squish Tour; Part One

We started the Drip, Swing, Squish tour by listing all the materials that artists use to make sculptures. Then we named all the verbs that describe what artists do when they make art.

2nd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

5th grade

How many materials and verbs can you name? Here are a few that students shared:

Materials
clay, wood, glass, ideas, wax, iron, stone, string, cement, fabric, plastic, bark, wire, pencils, food, cars, gold, paint, silver, buttons, canvas, popsicle sticks, glitter, toys, rocks, glue, tar, ice, chisels, hands, boxes, people, fabric scraps, brains, blowtorch, space, electronics

Verbs
sculpt, roll, paint, shape, think, carve, draw, sew, focus, sketch, look, paint, mold, build, create, plan, glue, color, spray, shade, make, design, put together, melt, focus, cut, mold, brainstorm, carve, write, experiment, gather, combine, weld, talk, look, improvise, feel

We kept these lists in mind during our tour, as well as our vocabulary:

Visit 2/Visit 3 Vocabulary:
gesture/el gesto
balance/el equilibrio
archive/el archivo
remnant/el resto
textile/el textil

We sketched and walked all the way around our first sculpture to see it from all sides.

The Cup by Sterling Ruby

2nd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

5th grade

The artist who made this sculpture, Sterling Ruby, poured liquid urethane to create the dripping, melting look in The Cup. You can watch a video of him making this sculpture here.

It almost looks as though The Cup is frozen: it is frozen in the air, and the urethane is frozen where it dripped. Sterling Ruby feels that sculptures like this show a frozen gesture. A gesture is a movement of the hand, or arm, or face, or body that expresses an idea or emotion. The gesture here could be a big imaginary hand holding the cup, or the urethane dripping from the artist's hand.

You might say that this cup froze in the middle of scooping or pouring. Which do you think it is doing, and why?