Each year my school takes students out of Delhi and into nature for 1 week of experiential education. I'm on the 7th grade team and we take our students to Rishikesh which is on the banks of the sacred Ganges river. For me, the highlight of the week was when my students engaged in a mindful art activity inspired by the work of Andy Goldsworthy. Students also visited a village school, played games and made beaded necklaces with some beautiful children.

The mindful art activity can work almost anywhere and it is a great way to get kids/adults to connect with their natural surroundings! Try it out! Directions below :)

6 Square Feet: Making Art With What You've Got

What could you make from 6 square feet of natural stuff if that is ALL you have to work with? How could a pile of leaves, some sticks, stones, dirt, and sand...become a work of art?

For inspiration, let's look at the work of Andy Goldsworthy...

Andy Goldsworthy is an artist from England who is famous for his amazing site-based sculptures in nature. Instead of hauling his tools and materials to the site, he limits himself to using only what is available in that very site to create his works of art. To do this he has to observe his site carefully and interact with the space and the materials that are there. He looks for patterns, gathers, sorts, arranges, and combines the raw materials in inventive ways. What results makes us appreciate both the beauty of nature and the power of creativity. 

Your task: In a place of your choosing, make a sculpture or design that uses only the materials available in that place...

1. Find your plot: Look around for an area you feel drawn to, that is resource rich, and that is set apart from the group enough that you can concentrate on your own creative work.

2. Create your boundary: Using your 6 foot string, measure off 6 square feet and place a marker or create a line that shows your boundary. Challenge yourself to work within this boundary. You are allowed one "reach beyond the boundary" if you must. Use it thoughtfully and only if needed. 

3. Get acquainted: Observe your site carefully. Describe your site. Is it near water, dusty? leafy? List down your natural resources in your journal.

4. Interact: Begin to gather, sort, arrange, re-arrange, and combine the natural materials in your site until you get some kind of inspiration or sense of direction. 

5. Design: Using simple strategies like repeating, making patterns, creating lines, stacks, circles, lancing things together, wrapping begin to organize your materials in an artful way. Keep working until you hear the first bell. When you hear the bell, stop, have a look at what you have made and make a sketch of your site until your hear the second bell. Then come back to the meeting place.