Graffiti & Glitter explained.

     If I were to make a list of the most requested topics or materials in my art room, at the very top, you would find two things: graffiti & glitter. Splatter painting runs a close third (apparently middle school is the time to connect with your inner Jackson Pollock) but I couldn't think of a catchy enough title from splatter painting. Back to the graffiti- it is absolutely incredible to me how many times a year (sometimes more than once a day) I am engaged in dialogue with my students about graffiti. It sounds something like this: "Miss, when are we gonna' learn how to do REAL art, like graffiti?" or "Miss! Look at this drawing I did!" as they show me a print-out of a stylized graffiti alphabet and the letters of their name traced & colored on another sheet of printer paper. Luckily for my sanity, I love graffiti. I especially love to talk to my students about the social & political implications of graffiti and the artists who use graffiti to make statements of incredible worth. If the graffiti-interested student is intrigued by the idea of art as a means of making social commentary, I'm in art teacher heaven. But, if they aren't interested, they will usually stop asking me to do a "write your name in a cool graffiti font" lesson. I'd call that a win-win situation!

     Glitter, I do not like so much. One day, a few 7th grade girls came to see me to ask if they could borrow some glitter. They were doing a presentation in health class about how germs spread. In their presentation, one girl put glitter all over her hands and began shaking hands with other students in the class. As anyone who has used glitter before could probably predict, it took just minutes, even seconds, before there was glitter stuck to the clammy hands of every person in the room. This confirmed it for me: glitter is a germ. It spreads like wildfire, its nearly impossible to clean effectively, and even when you think you've finally got rid of it all, it hides in a dark corner of your room until it wants to make a mysterious reappearance on your upper lip moments before an important meeting with your administrator. I do have to admit, it is a pretty germ. I can appreciate it in things like nail polish (until you have to remove it!) or when it is shellacked onto something, like a fossilized ancient disease.

If you were to name the top two or three most requested things in your art room, what would they be? And tell me, how do you really feel about them? :)