April 2, 2011

Conversations Through Art

Sometimes as you ramble through a rainy Sunday, you never know what you're going to find. As we explored the Stanford campus in March, specifically the Cantor Art Center, I rediscovered just how many conversant moments we can have with kids while casually soaking in the scenery...


Stone River: What shapes do you see in the stone wall? What does it look like to you? How long do you think it took to make? Where did they get the stones from? Do you like it?


Rodin Sculpture Garden: (OK, well, getting them to re-focus on the non-naked portions was kind of tough. Let's skip this and move on.)


Still Life Paintings: Isn't this similar to a project you did in class? Can you see how they used lighter colors to show light and reflection? Which part looks the most real-life to you? 


Landscape Paintings: Where do you think this is? Do you remember when we visited Yosemite? Does it look the same as you remember it? What's different?


Impressionist Paintings: What's the difference between this painting and the landscape painting? Why do you think the artist chose to be a little more blurry? Do you like that style? Back up. Move forward. Tell me the differences that you see.


Religious Paintings: (With this painting, the questions started coming from the other direction) Mom, where is God? What is Hell like? Do all good people go to heaven? Will I go to heaven? What are the angels' jobs?

Amazing how questions from a 6 year old can really keep you on your toes.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Can you provide the name and artist of the religious painting you posted?

Lorraine Akemann said...

Sorry Vanessa my notes from that trip are long gone. But next time I go I'll make a note of it.