illustrated writing on elementary Visual Art
This post concerns replicating primary source artifacts, firstly, Native American masks. A cohort of 2nd graders able to take some guided notes on particular sets of masks they both saw in person and briefly read about, also heard me tell them a general reason for masking in ritual dance, and at my discretion, made their own embodiments of supernatural power. Ideas such as gills for breathing underwater, power to meet Janet Jackson, as well as carnivorous teeth were volunteered via initial conversation.
Months after drawing, sculpting, then painting ceramic face coverings a closed-notes, Visual Art pop quiz followed up on Social Studies. Two topics included unspecific tribal masks and Mandan village huts that forewent autonomy of weight, force and balance–readymade bowl armatures were cast in paper mache then painted to imitate sod. Students chose to answer the typed questions likewise in writing, and handwrote legibly. Though most listed brown or round to recall the organically engineered lodges, and wrote a sentence to explain that Native American masks are for summoning supernatural power.
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| 2nd grader |
More time spent pencil drawing but with no assignment rubric proceeded spotting dozens of manufactured ceramic tile floors. On 1/64 square inch gridded paper I first mimicked a few solid-color circle and square patterns. Next I uniformly downscaled motifs into ruler measured, adjacent areas of a larger paper surface by setting up tile-to-motif length ratios and solving proportions manually. Intersecting Greek keys in a continuous pattern required dividing the 30-x-22 inch perimeter into equal quotients. One-inch keys repeating 30 and 22 times would have been mathematically perfect for the dimensions, but resulted in broken corners. To ensure the fret squares turned the corners facing the correct direction, I had to iterate them an odd number of times, the length 31 times and width 23 times. Since I was limited to a standard ruler I estimated each of these iterations at 15/16 inch, necessitating a few squares be rectangular tiles. (A 31-x-23 inch perimeter would have allowed for an odd number of perfectly equal iterations.) Around a center of regular hexagons are 16 copies of an irregular shaped logo–a bird with a rolled up certificate under its wing. These were digitally expedited–first scan-pixelated, percentage input resized and inkjet printed–then cut out and collaged.
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| Parakeet Diploma |
Accredited grade schools have influenced my English Language Arts objectives. Including a few aforementioned 2nd graders who chronologically organized more than one mask schematic without any scripted dialogue. Upon reviewing captions, speech bubbles then storyboards with rulers on 12-x-18 inch paper, classes narrated mythological themed comics. Additional plot prompts plus differentiated writing goals have been shared by homeroom teachers.
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| 2nd grade time travel story with onomatopoeia |
An in-class appeal for animating black holes instead of Indigenous pictographs also merited exploring volume and motion in outer space. In deliberation, one student's question about monkey test pilots led them to independently read about spaceflight history online then scroll “1961” for Yuri Gagarin. Another pictureless sequence exclaimed “Oh no, a black hole,” while an experienced sketcher tried sublimation from pressure in comet tails. Twelve-column planning sheets and pre-numbered frames helped children understand a frame rate, in addition to counting drawings of a gelatinous cube jumping up and then being weighted down as if by mass and gravity. Kinetics exponents can share resources and objectives.
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| 4th grade animation cell |
Art teachers have written developmental rationales in anticipation of cluster schedules. An article titled “The First Visual Symbols” ascribes various motor cognition levels to children in the same elementary class. It extols a “sensory logic stage” (Burton, 1980, p.61) for using language to conceptualize pre-representational art. Observing diverse progress to plan then represent imagery informed this teacher's reason for allowing their student body to change ideas as they practice.
The ceramic, convoke Janet Jackson mask inferred sensory logic. A preparatory drawing with carnivalesque decorations became less recognizable as painted sculpture. Upon jotting down a title, its maker near correctly spelled “Michael Jackson Face.” Maturity might make personally identifiable features and wood carving feasible. Meanwhile this student wondered, "what happened to him?" Supposing classmates were asked this, they could also advise on costume and choreography for summoning Janet or consider funerary mask ideas.
In short–I recommend elementary teachers plan inquiry-based, interdisciplinary dialogues followed by related, problem solving art activities. Then assess if creativity motivates learning objectives. To study art history I suggest schools prioritize literacy.
References
Burton, J. (1980). Developing Minds: The First Visual Symbols. School Arts. (October Issue), p.60 - 65.