Danny I., grade eight.

Megan Giampietro

I was interested in teaching my middle-school art students diversified art history lessons about the work of a woman in the arts who was important in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Elizabeth Murray (1940–2007) provided an excellent example. I had met Murray when I was a college student, and when her colorful, dynamic work was just beginning to be recognized in New York galleries.

Discussing Elizabeth Murray
What excites me about Murrayʼs work is how her canvases break out of the typical rectangle shape and each of her paintings has a moving broken edge; this concept fascinated students as well. They were also interested in the scale of her work. I showed them a photo of the artist sitting in front of one her paintings, and she is dwarfed by the size of the canvas.

What excites me about Murrayʼs work is how her canvases break out of the typical rectangle shape and each of her paintings has a moving broken edge.

Students were further inspired by the images and shapes Murray used for her work—vivid, fun, inspired by cartoons and drawn from everyday life, including people, tools, and animals. We talked about the shapes she used and how some were recognizable while others were completely abstract but not your typical shapes. They were irregular, flowing, jagged, amorphous, and zany.

Drawing and Cutting Shapes
After exploring Murrayʼs work, students brainstormed ideas for their own shape collages on scrap paper. When they were satisfied with their ideas, they drew their shapes on brightly colored card stock paper and cut them out.
Students were encouraged to think of scale in terms of small, medium, and large shapes. If they had too many small shapes, I told them they needed more medium and large shapes. It was a struggle for some students to draw their images large, and I often had to encourage them to draw using broad arm movements.

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