He obtained a degree in mechanical engineering and worked in that field for a time, but he continued to be interested in art. He finally decided to study art and ...
July 22, 1898 Birthday of Alexander Calder Alexander Calder was an American artist. While he is known for his sculptures, paintings, prints, and jewelry designs, he is probably best known for his use of the mobile in art.
Alexander Calder was born on July 22, 1898, in Pennsylvania, the son of artists. While he liked art, he was not certain he wanted art to be his career. He obtained a degree in mechanical engineering and worked in that field for a time, but he continued to be interested in art. He finally decided to study art and moved to England, then Paris where he continued to advance in his craft.
While studying in Paris, he created Cirque Calder, a miniature circus he set up to entertain friends. It contained performers and animals that he created out of wire and bits of everyday materials.
Here are some activities to try that relate to Alexander Calder’s famous works.
Cirque Calder (You can view it at http://whitney.org/Collection/AlexanderCalder/8336195): Cut-Out Circus For this project, you’re going to need a very big sheet of paper and some pictures of circus animals and clowns that you can cut out. If you would like, you can use the patterns included with this worksheet. Color and cut out all of the animals for your circus. Then, arrange them and glue them to your big sheet of paper. Now, draw pictures of what they are doing. Are they performing tricks? Are they making someone laugh? Don’t forget to draw an audience watching the circus!
Make Your Own Model Circus! When Alexander Calder made his model circus, most of what he used are things you probably have in your house right now, like wire, wood, metal, cloth, cardboard, leather, rubber tubing, corks, pipe cleaners, bottle caps, etc. Your challenge today is to make your own model circus using things you find around your house. (Be sure to ask permission before using the things you find.) Maybe you’ll have acrobatic action figures or clowns riding in a toy car. Maybe you’ll have a tightrope made of clothespins and string or a crowd of stuffed animals. Be creative, just like the God who made people out of the dust on the ground!
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Red Mobile (You can view it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Calder-redmobile.jpg): Balancing Act (For this activity, remember to use weights that are advisable for the age and size of the student.) Step One: Gather together several objects that can be held in one hand, for example: small books of different weights; canned food; a stuffed animal; DVDs; a pair of sneakers; a bag of pasta, buttons, batteries, beads, or other small objects; a flashlight; a box of nails; etc… Step Two: Recruit two friends or family members to help you. Step Three: Stand in the middle of a room, with your eyes closed, and your arms outstretched straight to the sides. Step Four: Have your two volunteers each choose one item from your selection. (No peeking!) Step Five: Raise one foot off of the floor. Step Six: Have your volunteers each place an object in one of your hands at the same time. What happens? How do you attempt to keep your “mobile” balanced? Now, try a variation: Holding a bag or bucket in each hand, have your volunteers place an item in each (have them place their objects at the same time). Now, have them continue to add objects to each side simultaneously, and try to keep up with the shifting weight without falling completely out of balance! Don’t forget to stand on one foot with your eyes closed! You deserve a rest! Check out http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/interactive/mobile.htm and design your own mobile, using the tools on the website to compensate for changes in weight. Science and Kinetic Energy Imagine you are sitting on a porch swing, rocking back and forth, watching the breeze spin the mobile hanging in the doorway. The breeze stops, but the mobile doesn’t. It continues spinning, gradually spinning slower and slower until it finally stops. You stop pushing the swing back and forth and wait to see if the swing will slowly stop rocking, too. When it does, you wonder—why did the mobile and the swing stop? Did you learn that Isaac Newton said an object in motion stays in motion? Your science book called it the law of inertia. So, why did the mobile and the swing stop? Look up Newton’s laws of motion, and answer these questions: 1) What was missing from your version of the law of inertia? 2) What force was responsible for slowing down the mobile and the porch swing? 3) Now imagine you could store all the energy in the wind. Would it be a lot of energy? What could you do with it? People have tried to harness the power of the wind for thousands of years. Today, some of that wind power is converted into electricity. Could wind power be our only source of energy? Why or why not? Write a paragraph explaining your answer. ©2015 Bonnie Rose Hudson WriteBonnieRose.com
©2015 Bonnie Rose Hudson WriteBonnieRose.com
©2015 Bonnie Rose Hudson WriteBonnieRose.com
©2015 Bonnie Rose Hudson WriteBonnieRose.com
