This year’s community art project was inspired by Wassily Kandinsky’s
Farbstudie painting. You may remember that I did this
lesson with LE at the beginning of the year for the sole purpose of experimenting with color. I've expanded that lesson to incorporate the symbolic significance behind the Circle. According to Kandinsky, the Circle is the most peaceful shape and represents the human soul. Other meanings are unity, nurturing, and infinite energy.
The goal of this project was for students to explore different expressions of the Circle and communicate it through rings of color. After discussing extensively as a class, each student from LE-MS painted their idea on a small square canvas. Some students painted cycles, such as seasons, planets revolving around the sun, human and animal life, or time. Others painted the emotional quality of the shape. Teachers will be participating in this as well so stay tuned for the final product!
When I think of cave men, the "it's so easy, even a cave man can do it" Geico commercials come to mind. But a look at cave paintings prove otherwise. They are breathtaking, anatomically precise, and there's nothing easy about it. The purpose of these mysterious paintings are yet to be discovered, but one theory is that shaman (communicators of the spirit world) painted animals in order to capture their spirit and ensure the success of the hunt. Students pretended they were shaman and started their mystical process. They first crumpled up a recycled sheet of paper and painted an animal in earthy colors. They also added a layer of soft pastels and colored the background. When they were done, they "signed" their painting with their handprint, a symbol of the shaman's identity.
