Education is always an interdisciplinary process. Math, Science, Art, and English are learned in the kitchen. History, Math, and Science are often found in a laboratory science class. Math and Science often go together for nutrition.

Wikipedia defines it best, “Interdisciplinarity involves the combining of two or more academic disciplines into one activity.”

Art teachers may want to adopt a lesson that encourages their students to learn about color, value, shape, composition, and health at the same time! Here is one that I did to accomplish that goal:

In a study of abstract art we find many artists who deconstructed something to make a design. The most famous of course is Piet Mondrian and his work with trees.

Here is one with apples. The first image is an abstract painting with gouache that is inspired by deconstructed apples. I cut the apples and peeled them to find a variety of shapes and to study their colors. Then I produced the abstract image. This is all in pursuit of my Visual Art Certificate with UC Berkeley Extension as part of my commitment to keeping all of the products up to date with the most current styles in the art and graphic art world. I am brimming with ideas that will definitely come to fruition in 2018 and beyond!

But something happened in the studio – the students including myself began eating the apples I had in my bag and the entire classroom was filled with apples. Apples are one of the most popular fruits in the US and there are many interesting parts to them. So an art teacher could have a lot of fun using them along with their shapes and colors in drawing projects, abstract painting projects, and more of course. The apples did not go to waste! If you see the last photo I made a baked applesauce that consisted of 8 apples, 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. I brought all to boil on the stove and then baked them for 20 minutes in a 400 degree F oven. When they were cool I mashed them with a potato masher.