Jim Dine Hearts

JIM DINE (1935 - )

Four Hearts, 1969

Pronounced: Dine

Art Style: Contemporary, Pop Art

Art Terms: symbol, repetition

Activity: Collage

Medium: Pastel and Watercolor

Materials: watercolor paper, construction paper, scissors, watercolors, brushes, cups for water, chalk or oil pastels, glue sticks

(*thanks, Gina Colbert, for sharing this lesson)

Slideshow Here

Meet the Artist: Here's a link to a brief article here, as well as the information in the slideshow (thank you Cheryl Collins!). 

Discussion Ideas: Focusing on the Four Hearts painting in the slideshow, ask the discussion questions - (1) What's going on in this picture? (2) What makes you say that? (3) What more can you find?

Additional ideas you may want to bring out in your discussion: Artists use color and subjects to express their ideas, just like how writers use words, or dancers use their bodies. Jim Dine has been painting and sculpting hearts over and over for years. What do you think he's trying to say by using the symbol of a heart in his works? What is a symbol? (an object that stands for an idea). What's the effect of showing the same symbol over and over? (...which is called repetition)

Activity: 

Set Up: Pass out watercolor pans, brushes, and one of each kind of paper to each child. Also, put 1 color of chalk pastel on every child's desk (they probably have glue sticks and scissors in their desk but you may want to check with teacher to be sure. You'll need these at the end for the last step).

1. Have the kids make any kind of quick design they want on the watercolor paper using the watercolors. Just make sure they get the whole paper covered with color. (Filling it with color is the main goal here, rather than painting a picture)

2. While that dries, have them pick up their piece of chalk and draw a square on their black paper. When they finish their square, have them pass the chalk to their neighbor on the right and draw another square with their new piece of chalk. Do this as many times as you need to until the black paper is covered with colorful squares.

3. Have kids fold the black paper in half, and then draw half a heart shape. Cut and unfold to reveal the beautiful checkered heart.

4. Glue heart on watercolor paper, voila a Jim Dine masterpiece!

Student Work: