Jane McTeigue

Jane McTeigue is a published visual artist specializing in book arts, graphic design and paper engineering. Jane designs curriculum based pop-up books which she helps students write, illustrate, assemble and bind. To date she has created over 7,500 books with students throughout Kentucky on topics including Rainforest, Electricity, Magnetism, Geometry, Civil War, Kentucky History, Weather, Cave Life, Local Geology, Earth Science, Ancient Egypt, The Water Cycle, Pond Life, The Branches of Government, Hygiene, Exercise, The Food Pyramid, The 5 Senses, The 4 Seasons, Gardening, Mexico, The Human Body, Dinosaurs, Colonial America, and The Elements of Art. Her residencies are lively, fun, and filled with ooohs and ahhhs as she engages students and enriches curriculum content through a medium everybody loves: pop-up books!

As an artist in residence, her goals are:

• To teach students and educators creative methods for recording and sharing information.
• To teach students to express ideas through both visual and literary mediums.
• To encourage students’ self esteem by guiding them through the art process toward achievement and success.
• To heighten students’ abilities to visualize, design and construct three-dimensional forms.
• To deepen students’ understanding of Kentucky Core Content thematic units based on the comprehensive curriculum objectives of the teachers and the school.

Residency Title: Kentucky History Pops Up!
Residency Length: Two weeks (10 day TIP grant)
Grade Level: 4th and 5th grade

In this residency each student will write, illustrate, assemble and bind a 4 spread Kentucky History pop-up book. Pop-up themes and illustrations include: Kentucky’s First Settlers and Settlements; The Six Geographic Regions of Kentucky; Traditional Arts and Crafts of Kentucky; and the Civil War. Prior to the residency, students research and write text that will be integrated into the individual books. Other inclusions in the books consist of paper patchwork quilts that students design and create, paper basket samples that students weave, and time permitting, I teach students how to make corn shuck dolls.

Outline
Day 1: Sharing examples of my own published books, I begin the residency with a discussion on how pop-up books are designed, produced and published. I use pop-up books illustrations to identify the creative opportunities inherent in 3-D (pop-up) illustrating. Students begin learning the cutting, folding and gluing techniques required in bookmaking, and begin work on their first spread.

Days 2-8: Discussion includes Principles and terminology of illustration (color, texture, composition, value, emotion, form); using illustration to express ourselves; text placement and page design. Students assemble and illustrate the four pop-up spreads.

Day 9: Students add text to the pages.

Day 10: Students bind their books and share completed work with class.