When You're Hot, You're Hot...
Students use the medium of visual arts to demonstrate how colors can evoke different ideas and feelings.
What You Need
- a variety of still life arrangements
- several art supplies (paints, markers, crayons) divided into sets of hot colors (reds, oranges, yellows) and cool colors (blues, greens, purples)
- a variety of paper sizes, shapes and textures
What to Do
- Ask the class if they can think of any color terms that are used to define feelings. Examples: "feeling blue," "green with envy," "seeing red," etc. Discuss the use of color as a way to create mood, heighten emotion, or express feelings.
- Hand out art materials randomly. Invite students to select any of the still life arrangements around the room to draw. They may choose any size or style of paper: their only restriction is the color scheme of their set.
- When the drawings are complete, share and admire them. Then instruct students to exchange color sets and draw the same picture.
- Hang completed pictures around the room in pairs. Compare and contrast the images, perspectives, and feelings evoked by the different colors. Pick a few examples that clearly demonstrate how the same picture looks very different depending on the colors.
- Suggest that these pictures are like conflicts: If feelings are "hot," the situation can look dramatically different than if approached with a "cool head." Ask students what some of the effects of red hot anger can be in a conflict. What are some steps to resolve the conflict in a cooler fashion?
- Distribute journals. Ask students to describe a conflict they have had that initially evoked a "hot" reaction. How did the situation appear once they had "cooled" down? What are some ways to keep cool during a conflict?
Teaching Options
- Small groups could discuss and role-play conflict situations in which anger prevented resolution.
- Students could brainstorm a list of effective techniques for managing anger: writing, exercise, hitting a pillow, talking with a friend, etc.
- Students could look at the use of color to manipulate feelings in other artists' works. (e.g., Van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt, and O'Keefe often used color to evoke emotions.)