Observation Flower Collages... Looking Closely

Part of my role as an art teacher is to ask questions of my students so that they can develop their own strategies to solve an artistic question.  In this way, I hope to set up a space where students trust their own visions.

Will you show your flower in an environment?

We talked about observation as looking closely to become aware of the qualities of what we are looking at.  We talked about how our wild flowers have many, many petals.  How the center of the flower was comprised of numerous seed pods, and how the stem was rough and hairy. The challenge here was translating these observations into a collage of paper shapes.    

How will you change the paper to show the texture of the stem?

Ultimately, the process of making art from observation helps to break down a clichéd schematic approach to making images.