This week we've been exploring the artwork of Katie Paterson, a contemporary artist who blurs the lines between Art and Science - which is such a sweet spot for kid projects! She's the perfect artist for preschool STEAM units.
Paterson is a conceptual artist who often collaborates with scientists to create pieces that reflect on our planet, space, and time. These are big concepts for little ones, but I've found that her work has been a great starting point for explorations of soil and rocks.
With her work titled Requiem, Paterson collected dust, fossils, and rocks from various points in our planet's history. After crushing all elements into fine powders, the artist invited guests to create layered vials of dust. It's essentually a visual history of our planet.
We couldn't quite replicate that, but we collected rocks of various colors, and talked about how the minerals create the different hues. We also collected a variety of soil samples to use.
Then the kids took turns crushing (after I did the initial crushing), and grinding the rocks and soil into dust using a pestle and mortar. They took that crushed rock and soil and layered it all into a mason jar.
The result is subtly beautiful, especially if you look carefully at the different layers of texture and color.
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