After checking out the 4th grade STEM lessons on soils and erosion, I was inspired to learn if artists ever use dirt and mud in their art. I was curious to see if we could be inspired to turn STEM lab materials into our own art creations.
After a short search I discovered Japanese artist Yusuke Asai. He was a ceramic artist who found studying at the university to be too expensive, so he taught himself how to paint and spent time at zoos, museums, and other public places to research his art and find inspiration.
He chose dirt as his medium because he can find it anywhere and it brings him closer to the place where he is creating. He also feels it is important that dirt is a living medium where seeds grow, insects live and it is a part of the ever changing natural world.
The following images are of his mural installation called Yamatane at the Rice University Gallery in Houston, Texas. For this mural the geology students at Rice collected 27 different shades of soil for Yusuke to use in the mural!
Here at GEMS I found one shade of Georgia dirt. The 4th graders' project focused more on texture than shade to create contrasts in our shapes and lines.
Dirt was sifted into 3 sizes- the smallest we added water to and painted with:
next we used the sand mixed with glue and water to create lines:
then we created textures and shapes with the pebbles and stones.
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