STEAM Team: Nature Hide and Seek with the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Peacock in the Woods, Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1907

Science and Art intersected in last week's STEAM Team program for children aged 6-12. Experts from the Smithsonian American Art Museum came to the Library to talk to attendees about Abbott Handerson Thayer and his artwork.

Here are some Thayer's paintings that we discussed.  Thayer is credited by many to be the "Father of Camouflage", in the way he painted animals whose colors adapted to their natural surroundings so that they would be hidden, or camouflaged from predators. We learned about countershading, disruptive patterning, and other ways of camouflaging through art.

According to Richard Meryman from Smithsonian Magazine, "Thayer contended that even brilliantly plumaged birds like the peacock can blend into, and thus be camouflaged by, their habitats." Thayer created the above painting, Peacock in the Woods, to illustrate this theory. Thayer was often criticized for his theories on camouflage, even by Theodore Roosevelt himself, but that never stopped him from rallying for its use as a military strategy during World War I. He thought that a wartime boat could be camouflaged in water the same way an animal camouflages itself in nature, another theory we will be discussing during STEAM Team.

Angel, Abbot Handerson Thayer, 1887

After our discussion about Abbott Handerson Thayer and his artwork, participants of STEAM Team got the chance to create their own piece of art of a camouflaged animal, using collage materials such as magazines, patterned paper, glue, feathers, and more!

My favorite part of the program?  The moment an extremely eager eight year old boy excitedly interrupted the Smithsonian's presentation to announce that Thayer's Angel painting "LOOKS JUST LIKE MISS CASSIE."

STEAM Team: Art with Andy Warhol

Every Friday, our library hosts a "STEAM Team" program for children aged 6-12. STEAM is a framework for learning based on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. 

I of course had to choose the main topic of Art when I led this program because there's really no subject I enjoy more.  I decided to have the children focus on the great American Pop artist Andy Warhol.  We started the program with a viewing of  Andy Warhol from Mike Venezia's "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists" series, based upon the identically titled popular book series also by Venezia.  The movie was about 20 minutes long, and was colorful and engaging for the kids. I had a child as young as three and as old as 10 present, and it seemed to appeal to all the age groups.

After the film, we made our own Pop Art projects.  I pre-cut many different colors of rectangles, kittens, and puppies (using the AccuCut) so that kids could pick out their own colors.  When they chose four rectangles, they glued them on to a sheet of construction paper for the background of the project. I made a sample project layering the kittens in the style of Warhol's Pop Art prints.  Not only did the children catch on to the layering technique right away, but I was also thrilled when they got super creative with their own projects.  (I always try to encourage them that their projects do not need to look like mine- I want them to be creative!)  As you can see, that is exactly what they did- we even had a child who wanted to use puppies and kittens (see below)!  They loved picking out their own colors and so far I haven't met a child get who did not like playing with glue.  Parents were thrilled and said they could not wait to come back for another STEAM event the following week.