After being inspired by a family trip to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s Electric OP Art exhibit, Mrs. Clayson introduced her Seneca School elective classes to the art form, and how they could use technology to create these visual pieces. OP Art is an art form that uses patterns, line placement, and the thickness of spaces to create an optical illusion, a sense of movement, or depth. OP Art is often black and white, but CAN be in color as well. Although you can draw, paint, or build OP designs, many times technology is used to create it. Computer drawing programs, 3D design programs, and even video programs can be used to create these interesting images.
The students first looked at examples of art created by famous artists Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley. The classes were then introduced to and taught how to use the Paint program on their school laptops. Students were instructed on the program’s different features and explored the icons and how they functioned. After becoming more familiar with the program, students were encouraged to design their own piece of artwork based upon what they had learned. The students really enjoyed making their creations and were surprised that changing something as simple as the thickness of a line could “trick” your brain into thinking an object was 3D, even though it was not. Mrs. Clayson was very happy with the end results, and loves that students were able to incorporate all of the STEAM attributes into a project that they created and could be proud of.
