Edward Hopper is a Very Lonely, Scary Man... According to Fifth Graders

The fifth grade is doing a painting like Edward Hopper. I went through the power point presentation with them and discussed the source images of Hopper. We discussed the lonely and sometimes almost spooky feeling his art work gives and they noticed his use of contrast. The kids were cracking me up with their responses about his artwork. "The lady looks very sad. And lonely. Why are all his ladies lonely??" or "That house looks haunted. Like super haunted." When I told them that House by the Railroad was the inspiration for the movie Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock they were all like "I KNEW HE WAS CREEPY!!" I was dying laughing most of the week. I was impressed that a lot of them knew what contrast meant. I also passed around posters of Hopper’s work so they could inspect for themselves the work he produced. They then were shown images from around Preble County, of places a lot of them were familiar with, including the covered bridges, churches and post offices in the area. They were very excited that they would be working on the buildings that they knew so well. We talked about how Hopper used clean lines and heavy contrast in his work and that they also would be using those elements to create a painting like his.They are anxious to get their drawings done so they can start painting. I think picking building and places around Preble County made a difference in their interest in the assignment. At the beginning of each class I’ve been asking them to reiterate the information given to them about Edward Hopper the previous week and we’ve been going over key vocabulary terms such as “contrast” and “value” and “mood.” The biography we used about Hopper fascinated them because the author used phrases like “stormy marriage” and talked about Hopper’s feelings about his subject matter. They remember those details better than anything else. I have had a kid both days say “He had a stormy marriage!” when I ask them for a quick fact about him.