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Profiles and Perspectives: Art, Biography, and Collaboration: Creating Books for Children about Art and Artists
By Jan Greenberg & Sandra Jordan

One of our challenges was to pull the reader into the experience of the piece, using the language of art. Usually when we highlight a work of art, we begin by posing questions to each other, following a line of inquiry we used in both The Painter’s Eye and The Sculptor’s Eye. It still works today. By looking at the parts of the artwork, we can learn something about the whole. The Gates covered many acres, and the views of it varied according to the time, place, light and the weather, but by considering a photograph of The Gates on a snowy day in the park, we can reproduce part of our process.

What do we see? The first step is to describe only what we know is there.

A series of saffron banners, hanging from tall vinyl portals, meandering through snow-covered trees.

How is the work organized in terms of the elements of art: color, line, form, and texture?

Sensory words describe qualities in an artwork that can be perceived through our senses: taste, touch, smell, and sight.

Here are some sensory words to describe The Gates.

• Color: The Gates are-saffron colored, glittering in the sunlight.
• Line: The poles are stiff, angular and straight. The square fabric banners ripple and sway.
• Form: The Gates are  rectangular and open. They  serpentine around the paths in the park.
• Texture: The surface of the poles is slick and smooth. The panels are coarsely woven.

How does the artist use the elements of color, line, texture and form
to organize the artwork, to give it balance, rhythm or variety?

• The contrast of the fabricated Gates, made of industrial materials, with the changing naturalistic landscape of the park offers variety.
• The repetition of their vibrant saffron color and the angular outlines of the portals, with pleated fabric panels, creates both a sense of rhythm and a sense of unity.

What is the feeling expressed by the artwork?

• The fact that this large-scale work invites the viewer to become a participant, interacting, moving through the portals, gives it a celebratory and playful quality. Christo has said, “We never make a sad piece.”

Other questions to ask might be: If you were choreographing a dance for The Gates what would it be like?  What kind of music might you choose?  Using sensory words, compose a poem about it. By exploring other art forms, we enhance the quality of the experience.

The complete version of this article can be found in Language Arts, Vol. 85, No.6, July 2008.