For October, we dove into the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of my favorites. I thought the dark nature of his work was appropriate for the season of Halloween! The kids enjoyed hearing his life story and journey to becoming a world-famous artist. We read the book Radiant Child, and we also watched the Ted Talk about Basquiat- although I cut it off at 3:45 due to it mentioning the nature of his death.
We talked about his hard lines, the roughness of his work and how any subject can be seen as or become art. It was a hurdle for some of them to let loose and gain confidence for a project with “no rules.” (their only rules were to share pencils!) Many of them got a kick out of signing their work “SAMO,” as Basquiat did. Their drawings using (high quality) colored pencils were amazing!
Stephanie Hardin 