Craft In America - Education - Landscape

Craft artists depend on their natural environment for both materials and inspiration. Materials are collected, combined and transformed through the creativity and necessity of human hands. This educational guide delves into the indispensable and innate relationships between artists and their environment, thus providing educators with material that will relate to and reflect the core ideas, artists, and art forms presented in the Landscape episode.

Jan Yager discusses communication through art.


George Nakashima with his Peace Table.	David Gurney, Tree of Life with Adam and Eve, Detail, 2006	Timberline Lodge, created between 1936 and 1938

For many craft artists, natural materials are essential to their work. In this section of Educator Guide: Landscape, students will learn, through the work of George Nakashima and Jan Yager, how raw materials are transformed by artists into works of art that reflect upon and respond to their relationships to nature. Students will also explore how the artists’ deep connections with their natural surroundings inspire them to create beautiful, functional objects. Download the Natural Connections Guide in PDF format HERE to see get started in your classroom.	Many craft artists are inspired by the physical, social, and/or emotional aspects of the where they live and that influence can easily be seen in their artwork. In this section of Educator Guide: Landscape, students will learn how craft artists such as Kit Carson and David Gurney reflect their intimate relationships with their surroundings in their artworks. Students will also discover how other artists find inspiration from places special to them—whether that be the place where they live, a place they visited, or an imaginary location—to create beautiful handcrafted works of art. Download the Place Guide in PDF format HERE to see get started in your classroom.	We all live and work within our own personal landscapes—surrounded by objects, ideas, beliefs and values that help shape our personal identities. Both Richard Notkin and Denise Wallace work from within their personal landscapes to share with others what they care about deeply. When craft artists use their art forms to reveal their passions and concerns, their objects are imbued with special meanings. As we view and use the objects they create, we are invited to not only appreciate their beauty and form, but also visit the landscapes from which these objects emerged. Download the Personal Landscape Guide in PDF format HERE to see get started in your classroom.