Tagore Doodles

Painting didn't come easily to Nobel prize for Literature winner Rabindranath Tagore though he worked at it for a long time. He did however make a habit of turning his written mistakes, cross outs, etc into elaborate drawings and doodles as he wrote. "He turned struck-out words into ornamental motifs and sometimes linked the scratched out words on the pages of his manuscripts into an art-nouveau-like arabesque .....Victoria Ocampo who spotted these during his stay in Argentina as her guest was impressed and found artistic merit in them. "He played with erasures,‟ she wrote, "following them from verse to verse with his pen, making lines that suddenly jumped into life out of this play: prehistoric monsters, birds, faces appeared.‟'* Tagore went on to be recognized as a great painter, and was the first Indian artist to have artwork displayed around the world.

*Current Exhibitions Upcoming Exhibitions Past Exhibitions. "Rabindranath Tagore: The Last Harvest | New York". Asia Society. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
As a way to acknowledge and reconcile our own inevitable 'mistakes and cross-outs' I think it would be great to collect them in the art room as the year goes by, or encourage other teachers to contribute, and have children choose 'a mistake' to use as a starting point for any type of artwork, depending on the materials at hand and the time frame. It could be the community scrap bin that kids turn to when they finish with something else or they could be distributed randomly and incorporated into paintings or collages, sketches, etc. imagine a whole display of artwork made from other people's mistakes or false starts. It sends a good message about upcycling as well.

Tagore 1861-1941

Tagore's own signature:

Scissors

There are a lot of fascinating artifacts in the Museum of Everyday Objects at Sanskriti Kendra. For centuries Indian artisans have found clever ways to decorate their utensils and tools. I thought that these ancient scissors look a little bit like bird faces, but I have to admit I was surprised that they weren't a bit more playful, since on a wall nearby there were faucets with animal heads, nut crackers carved to look like people, locks that looked like birds, etc. (see pictures below).
Make your own pair of scissors using cardboard and a brass fastener. Look at a pair of scissors.  What would you do to make this pair of scissors more interesting? Brainstorm clever ways to design your own pair of scissors, consider things that open and shut, two things that might be joined together? Opposites? Things that come in pairs? Sketch an idea first so you can visualize each section. Draw the two sections side by side on shirt or recycled cardboard, remembering to leave a finger/thumb hole at the end of each section, then cut out carefully and assemble with a brass fastener. Scissor parts could be paper mached before they are attached with fastener, for a more involved project.

Painted Trucks

Highly decorative trucks and lorries, bright colors, fanciful images, roosters, and flowers, tassels inside, etc. this is one way a truck driver advertises his pride in his job, and his vehicle. If you were choosing a truck to transport your items you might be greatly influenced by these decorations and the energy the driver put into his truck. invite children to transform a common object or machine using similar techniques, use your imagination, make it special, make it stand out. Could be fun for middle school, esp. Would be a great multi- media project, transform a serious sketch with fanciful add-ons like fringe, pom-poms, rhinestones, etc. or simply add colored magazine papers to black and white sketch or newspaper collage. Check out this blog for a great article on the painted trucks.

after making paper mache vehicles, and embellishing them with sequins, paint markers, bottle caps, etc. the artists were invited to draw their creations.