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Distance Learning at Peck
Life Imitates Art: Sixth-Grade Artists Create Andy Warhol-Style “Zoomies”
For Scott Beil, the COVID-19 lockdown provided the perfect opportunity for his sixth-grade students to explore their theme for the year: art and identity.
Eight weeks ago, his students attended school in person. Now, the infamous Zoom screen has become part of their everyday lives. The artistic connection was clear to Beil.
“I was looking for something fun to do, and it just struck me how Andy Warhol’s self-portraits have such a new connotation now with people staring at screens with people in boxes all day,” Beil said.
So Beil assigned his students the task of having a “conversation with themselves” and making their own Warhol-style “Zoomies.” The assignment was to create four versions of their self-portrait:
- Self-Portrait in a Zoom Class: What they look like on Zoom when they are in class
- Self-Portrait on the “Outside:” What they like to do outside, either literally outdoors or simply outside of school time.
- Self-Portrait on the “Inside:” Who they are on the inside (a personal passion or interest, expressing their imagination, etc)
- Self-Portrait for “Friends/Family:” How they present themselves to family or friends
Peck sixth-graders don’t typically study Warhol, best known for his pop-art silkscreen portraits that depicted icons of everyday life and popular culture. But Beil said Warhol fit perfectly into the theme of art and identity.
“That’s one of the cool things about art. It’s relevant in different ways at different times,” he said.
Students honed many skills on the assignment: photography, composition, illustrating emotion through color, and looking at the same subject from different perspectives.
“Right now, we’re looking at the world much differently than we ever did before,” Beil said. “Zoom, something that wasn’t part of many people’s lives, is now such a lifeline. It’s fun to see the kids be able to see themselves and have that idea of a conversation with themselves.”
It’s not only fun, Beil said, it’s actually part of the process. Artists often step forward In times of great challenge.
“People will look back on this time and study the artistic expression of what was happening. From photography and writing to selfies and memes, we are always expressing what is happening around us,” Beil said.
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Northern New Jersey's timeless and transformative co-ed independent elementary and middle school education for grades K-8.
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