It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
– Henry David Thoreau
Nature encourages a sense of wonder and sparks our creativity. From Claude Monet to Henry David Thoreau, everyone has been inspired by nature in one way or another. Art in every sense of the word has been influenced by nature. These artists could be reflecting on the beauty of nature or how they fit in the world or simply describing their home. Others use the free resources available to them that are everywhere they look.
The possibilities are endless!
- Vines
- sticks
- pine cones
- grass
- mud
- bark
- flowers
- leaves
- berries
and the list goes on!
So when we went to Hamilton’s Green Club meeting today, that is the question we posed: What can we create using natural materials? We spent the first part of the meeting searching for materials and trying to come up with ideas. I found a stick from a pine tree that still had pine needles on it and I asked what it looked like. Together, two students and I decided it looked like a tail of some kind.
Maybe it could be used for a monster tail!
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- Finished collecting supplies!
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- Now it’s time to create.
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- What to make?
Creating art out of nature seemed much easier said than done. Questions were asked such as ‘What are we making?’ and ‘How do we do this?’ while their imagination was still trying to turn on again.
Then, the pine cones started to look like bodies.
Maybe we could make a person, a hedgehog, a squirrel, or maybe a monster of our own creation. Together, we all made sculptures. Berries were used as eyes, sticks as arms and legs, flower petals as ears or crowns, and the pine needles were used as fur.
Here are a few finished products.
