SKULLS/MEXICO

Last year for Dia de los Muertos my 6th, 7th, and 8th graders made colorful skulls. We talked about the significance of the Mexican holiday, and we compared Halloween and Dia de los Muertos to see what differences and similarities we could find. We also looked at different skulls on-line to gain inspiration for our own creations.

The first step in building our skulls was to paper mache a balloon. Make sure to check the size and shape of your balloons ahead of time. I had one class where each student received a balloon that could be blown up to the size and shape of a basketball! The ideal shape is oval, and the size is up to you.

After the paper mache balloon dried completely, we poked holes into the areas where we wanted to insert egg carton cups (I'll use the word "cup" for lack of egg carton terminology) for eyes and a nose. If you look carefully, you can see the egg carton insertions in the first photo. You can also see where we taped egg carton cups for the cheek bones. Below the cheek bones you can see where we taped thin, pre-cut cardboard pieces for the jaw.

After the paper mache completely dried, we applied a coat or two of white gesso to strengthen our skulls. White acrylic paint works, too.

Then we painted our skulls using fun colors and playful designs. Before we put our skulls on display, we made tissue paper flowers. If you have ever been to a Dia de los Muertos celebration, you know that marigolds are in important part of the holiday tradition as they help to guide the spirits.

If you look carefully at the pink and purple skulls in the photo below you can see a shiny glitter coat that some students applied to their completed skulls. Excellent work, everyone!

HOPILAND INSPIRATION

The photographs displayed here are from "Indian Day" at the school where I teach. Indian Day is held each year in September, and it's my favorite day of the school year. An entire day is devoted to a variety of dances performed by students and staff for parents and the community.

Living on the Hopi reservation fills one's imagination with an endless array of inspiration from which to draw upon while making art.  Different ceremonies are held throughout the year, and the colors, textures, and designs on display are enough to fuel a lifetime of potential artistic expression. Anytime I go for a simple walk in the village or the desert, I come home with a head full of project ideas. It's just a matter of engaging in the creative process in order to bring those ideas to life. Sometimes this doesn't happen as often as I would like!

Hopi culture is so rich in many ways. The children grow up immersed in such incredibly layered traditions, and they come to art class brimming with creative potential. I love sharing art from around the world with them and watching them integrate their own cultural impressions into their art projects.

ALEBRIJES/MEXICO

 My 7th and 8th graders are learning about the famous Mexican artist Pedro Linares Lopez and his paper mache fantasy creatures known as Alebrijes. Last week they designed their own two-dimensional alebrije on paper, and this week they built three-dimensional armatures which will be covered with paper mache next week. After the paper mache has completely dried, they will paint their alebrijes with bright paint and fanciful patterns.

 I was amazed at the eagerness and ingenuity that my middle school students displayed during the building stage of this project. It's incredible what one can build with cracker boxes, frozen juice containers, and toilet paper tubes!

                                         Check out these legs...dish soap bottles!

A whole entire egg carton for this creature's mouth.  

The photo posted above is one that was taken in Mexico City during an annual parade which features alebrijes and is in memory of Pedro Linares. Check back in soon for our completed alebrijes.

HENRI MATISSE

The first three pictures posted here were made by my 2nd graders and are their own versions of "Polynesia, The Sea" by Henri Matisse. Prior to creating them we had an outdoor lesson using chalk which is explained further below. When we took the project indoors, one of my students made one of his shapes stand up off of his artwork. Everyone wanted to do this, and so our little Matisse replicas took on a three-dimensional quality!

NOTE: The lesson explained below occurred before the artwork posted above was made.

 The artwork above was made by Henri Matisse in 1946 and is titled, "Polynesia, The Sea".  Before I took my students outside to work with sidewalk chalk, we discussed the elements of art found within this piece.  Shape and value seemed to dominate the conversation, while visual texture was definitely included as my students imagined feeling all the different plants and critters from the sea found within the picture.

 Students chose two or three shapes to focus on while replicating them outside with sidewalk chalk.

 It didn't take long to begin filling our sidewalk squares.

 Big clouds were forming, and students knew that their hard work would soon be washed away.

 We talked about temporary art and the importance of finding enjoyment in the process.

Tomorrow we will have a brand new canvas to cover!

EGYPT

 During our unit on Egypt, we all made the very famous "William the Hippopotamus. He is the unofficial mascot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Between the two schools where I work, I kept track of over 200 hippos! A few heads and legs had to be glued back onto the hippo bodies after firing, but overall we had great success with this project.
Hippos were very important to the early Egyptian people for a variety of conflicting reasons that I found on multiple websites. You can read up on him and draw your own conclusions. As for me and my students we really enjoyed learning about and creating our own William.

 In the photos below, you will see our cartouche project. This was a blast for the kids because they began by learning how to write their own names using hieroglyphs and then forming a clay cartouche. They gently etched or carved their names into the wet clay, and after they were bisque fired they glazed them. The results were very impressive. We had to be extremely careful handling them before firing as they are quite thin.

 You can't learn about Egyptian art without painting the eye of Horus on authentic papyrus! This paper was ordered from "Dick Blick" in Seattle, and it was a thrill to work on. I read a blog where an art teacher made papyrus from scratch using local reed type plants, but we did not have that option.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

A new mosaic by the sixth graders of Hopi Day School.

Hannah was a visiting volunteer for a day. She is a natural at mosaic work. Thanks for your help, Hannah!

More volunteers, including the famous art teacher from Puente de Hozho in Flagstaff! You're awesome, Craig!

Thanks to the traveling students of the Seattle Bush School for their help.

AMATE/MEXICO

Amate bark paintings can be found for sale in various states in Mexico and have a long and interesting history. During this project we learned about the Otomi tribe near Puebla, Mexico.
Rather than gathering bark from fig trees, boiling it, pounding it, then laying it out in the sun to dry, we chose to crumple up sheets of paper from grocery bags in order to achieve the appearance of amate bark paper.

After crumpling the paper we added a thin coat of diluted India ink with a sponge brush. The India ink helps bring out the texture of the creases in the paper, giving it the look of handmade paper.

After the ink wash was completely dry, we drew outlines of our images with chalk.

The next step was to paint our images using tempera paint. Amate bark paintings in Mexico typically include bright, sometimes neon colors. My students were given a limited palette of colors in order to maintain true amate style.

Hopi students are eager to include iconic images from the Hopi culture into their artwork. The results are always quite impressive.

Here is the work of a kindergartener with the Hopi sun, Tawa, as the central image.

MOSAIC

Check out our mosaic-in-progress! Here are a few photos of some of the different steps and stages of this project. We started by breaking all of the tiles and separating them into different buckets and trays. It's also helpful to take the time to separate small pieces from large pieces of the same color.

Corn tassels and butterfly antennae are great examples of the need for tiny little pieces of tile.

A little bit at a time!

In the picture above, you can see how we masked off the corn in order to apply the grout. This was necessary because we wanted to keep the grout off the surrounding cinder blocks in order to maintain a smooth surface for future tiling.  

Check back in, we're going BIG!

JAPAN UNIT

NOTAN

Notan is a Japanese design concept that focuses on the interplay between dark and light and how the resulting contrast enhances the design. It is also a great opportunity to learn about positive and negative shapes. Notan is typically achieved with paint, ink, or cut paper. My students worked with cut paper. We started this project by making small  pieces, and then we went BIG! The leaves in the center of the bulletin display are fluid and organic, as are the waves in two of the corners. Then there are the geometric shapes in the opposite two corners. This only added to our discussion about contrast. Not only do we have color contrast with the black and white, now we have contrast between the basic shapes in the overall design.  Nice work, everyone!

GYOTAKU

Gyotaku, or fish rubbings, originated in Japan in the mid-nineteenth century. Fisherman wanted to record the type and the size of their catch, so they would lay the fish on a block of wood, ink it up and make a rubbing or print of the fish. Gyotaku is now a popular art form in many countries, and it can also be found on various items from clothing to surfboards. Here at our school we have a wonderful variety of rubber fish made specifically for gyotaku projects. We can use the fish again and again, and they don't stink!