A Month of Keith Haring

Hello everyone! September was a whirlwind of welcoming friends back, learning all about our new classrooms and classmates, the  basics of color theory, and pop artist Keith Haring. 

Keith Haring was born in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1958. Keith became a famous artist known for his cartoon-like paintings of dancing figures, dogs, and even space ships! Keith loved to make art with children and created many murals in children’s hospitals and schools. Keith became sick and passed away in 1990. Because he was very committed to making his art available to everyone, his work is still very popular today. I absolutely love to start off the year with his art because of how often he worked with children. Many of his murals were collaborations with local schools and youth programs. In fact, his mural We The Youth in South Philadelphia was made with the help of children from CityKids in New York and the Brandywine Workshop in Philly. Keith wrote in a journal entry in 1987, “When I do drawings with or for children, there is a level of sincerity that seems honest and pure.” I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly and it is the reason I love my job!

This month, students were presented with a color mixing work inspired by Keith Haring’s Wedding Invitation. Children first matched the watercolors to the color of the figures on the paper. Then, they added the color to a jar and mixed them together. Lastly, they painted the heart with the color they created. It was awesome to see how each child made a different variation of the colors with the same materials and instructions as their peers. We also read The Color Tree by Denise Bennett Minnerly to learn more about color, and played a fun color guessing game that explained primary, secondary, and complementary colors.

The kindergarteners explored color theory a little further with complementary colors. Each child was invited to sort out the primary (blue, yellow, and red) and secondary (purple, green, and orange) colors, then create an interactive color wheel to help them see which color made up complementary pairs. Then they started a project inspired by Keith Haring’s work. Children painted six pieces of paper in the primary and secondary colors. After the paint was dry, they used stencils to recreate some of Keith’s famous figures on three of the papers. They cut out the figures and matched the color to its complementary pair and glued it to the front. Lastly, they used a Sharpie to add the signature Keith Haring line work. The children loved making these figures their own, and I think Keith himself would be impressed with the results!

Every primary classroom worked together to add a piece to the Keith Haring inspired mural that is currently up in the lobby. When Keith was a child, he and family played a game in which one person started a drawing, then after ten seconds they switched drawing with each other to make collaborative pieces of art. Every class was given a large sheet of paper with different colors of oil pastels. I asked each group of students to choose either a primary or secondary color, then gave them ten seconds to draw whatever they wanted on the paper. Once everyone had a turn, the paper was then made into a figure from Keith’s art. After each class finished their figures they were all displayed in the lobby along with the kindergarteners’ art projects. It was so awesome to see everyone’s efforts come together to make one work of art to make our school a little more beautiful!

Stay tuned next month for a new artist and art concept!