1. EPHEMERAL ART
LESSON
Dashia Richey
Students: Johnny, Karin, Ashton,
Stella

2. Rationale
In this lesson, the students will begin to merge their
considerations of environment with the concept of art
and art-making. Environmental art is an umbrella that
covers many types of artworks within our natural
surroundings. Most importantly, students will become
more aware of their environment and their roles in it. In
these lessons, students specifically will learn about
ephemeral works and environmental works. Students
will experiment with the natural elements
compositionally and as mediums in their works.
Students will also observe their surroundings and begin
to pick out things that are considered art. As students
build knowledge of environmental art, they will also
begin building relationships with their community and
peers. In the final lesson, the students will produce a
collaborative environmental piece for the school. This
piece will be outdoors and visible to everyone. In doing
such a large scale piece, students will gain a sense of
pride as well as unity while considering their
surroundings and habitat.

3. Key Concepts
Ephemeral art helps me understand my place in the
world
Ephemeral art exercises the imagination
Ephemeral art allows freedom and self expression while
manipulating natural elements
Ephemeral art fosters critical thinking

4. The Lesson
What is Ephemeral?

5. WWW.DRICHEY.WEEBLY.COM

6. The Activity
After our discussion, the learners were to go outdoors
and create their own ephemeral composition.
They were to consider color and form.
They were allowed 25 minutes to complete their
compositions.

7. Process of ephemeral
art making

8. Stella-1st
grade
Stella’s interpretation of
ephemeral art was
representative. For her to
understand it, she had to
make something that
made sense to her.

9. Johnny
Johnny’s piece is interpretive.
He incorporated color and
form. He also plays with the
idea of progression and growth.
The leaf design began with
seeds, moved into green for
growth, oranges and reds, to
dark colors for decay and
decomposition.
His interpretation deals with
what the object is a part of.

10. Ashton-6th grade
Ashton wanted to build something-so he made a habitat.
Again-representative, this made sense to him.

11. Karin
Karin really struggled
with this. She kept
saying, “What do I
make?” and “I don’t
know what to make.”
She did not like the
lesson at all.
She made a dog bone
vase and shoved some
leaves in it.

12. Reflection Activity
Each learner was provided a token response card and
assigned to another learners artwork. They had to go
look at the artwork and write their reflections on the
card.
Upon completion, they handed their cards to me and I
read them out loud and we discussed.

13. Reflection Cards

14. Reflection Cards
Stella-“Kinda pretty”, “fall”
Johnny-“forest floor, decomposition, expired life
leading to new”
Karin-“safety and strength”
Ashton-“leaf like” “pretty cool”- when asked what does
‘pretty cool mean?’ “because it grew from seeds to dead
leaves”

15. What I Learned
Ask different questions in the beginning regarding
interpretation.
Great lesson for all ages.
The website interaction was awesome.
Have a variety of token response cards and have them
do a longer writing activity.

16. Different
Give learners more time to write reflections and have
them discuss their responses instead of me reading
them.
Encourage learners to use expressive words or more
adjectives to describe their opinions.
Show more images of compositions that aren’t
necessarily ‘something’ this would challenge their
interpretative making efforts.