Art appreciation

California kids take it to the next level in this exhibit. I’m very impressed by the sophistication of the teachers, who had each class study a different artist. All the artists were influenced by comics and cartoons, which makes for a rich mix: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, and Takashi Murakami, a comic artist. Then the kids created their own versions of the work. Imagine your first-grader doing a Warhol-type portrait of SpongeBob Squarepants!
A lot of kids who read comics like to do their own drawings, starting by copying and tracing and hopefully going on to their own creations. What I like about this project is that the teachers took that natural tendency and encouraged kids to push it a little farther.