Kusama Polka Dot Pumpkins

Students watched a short video about the life and artwork of Yayoi Kusama. She is a contemporary artist from Japan known as the Polka Dot Princess. When she was a little girl her family owned a plant nursery and seed farm, so she spent a lot of time in the garden looking at flowers. One day she had a vision that all the flowers turned into polka dots and it's inspired her artwork ever since. We looked primarily at her polka dot pumpkin paintings, sculptures, and installations. For their project, students created a drawing collage inspired by Kusama. First they glued two different colored papers together to create a floor and wall area. They painted a polka dot background using white paint and patterns of small and large dots. Next they drew a pumpkin to look 3D using contour lines, traced over their pumpkin, and added a pattern of polka dots to their pumpkins with black oil pastel. To add color they mixed yellow and red paint to crate their own orange paint. The oil resist method of painting allowed their black polka dots and contour lines to show through their painting. When it was dry they cut out the pumpkin, glued it to their background, and added a shadow with charcoal.