Keith Haring Sculptures

Haring was an artist and social activist who started his career creating public art in New York City subways.  He went on to create artwork around the world with his own symbolic imagery, and is now one of the most recognized artists of the 20th century. 

For more information about Keith Haring, please visit: http://www.haringkids.com/

Fifth grade OES Art Club students recently completed papier-mâché sculptures inspired by Keith Haring's famous figures. 

Students interested in the project volunteered their time during lunch and recess over a two-week period.  Most days the art classroom was filled with more students than chairs, with more than 25 fifth graders participating. 

By the end of the second week, students were helping one another with the project directions, mixing their own
papier-mâché paste, and coming up with creative ideas to complete their sculptures. 

I really enjoyed working with this group of students and sharing my own fascination with Haring's work.  As our time concluded, I asked students to autograph my project example, which I labeled, "Art Club 2015, Oregon Elementary School."  This will be a nice reminder for me when I teach future classes about Keith Haring.

Students began the project by choosing a Keith Haring figure to replicate.  They cut their shape out of cardboard, creating a front and back for their sculpture.  To give the sculpture some thickness, students used strips of tag-board, rolled between the layers of cardboard.  The sides of the sculpture were sealed using masking tape.

Once the sides were taped up, students could begin using the papier-mâché paste.  We used a 3:1 glue and water mixture to create our paste.  Students dipped strips of brown paper towel into the paste to drape around their sculptures.  This was a time-consuming and messy process, but the students did a great job.

Once the papier-mâché had dried over-night, students could begin painting.  I initially told students to paint the figure one color, and add a bold, black outline, characteristic of Haring's work.  As students began discussing ideas to decorate the figure, I was reminded of Haring's patterns within some of his outlined figures.  I encouraged students to come up with their own creative ideas for decorating the sculptures and I love how they turned out! 

This has been one of my favorite OES Art Club projects so far.  I am looking forward to teaching students more about Keith Haring this spring when we begin our unit on Pop Art.  Check out the video below for more photos from this fun project!