Art Lady

One of my 8th grade majors helped me find these pictures on the internet. I put these on the internet so my students can discuss them.

Here is a video that a friend of mine made for a student in Ms. Campbell’s drama class. Enjoy!
A Dream Deferred

by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore–

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over–

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

I taught how to make Mola’s my first 2 years of teaching, but haven’t done it in 3 years, so I thought now was the time. There is a great lesson plan at the Incredible Art Department and at Dick Blick under their multi-cultural lesson plans Professor Wimberly has a great .pdf file on the net of the History of the Cuna Indians and their Mola making.
What are Mola’s? Molas are women’s blouses made by the Kuna of northeastern Panama. The mola tradition is only about a hundred years old, but it is very important to the identity of the Kuna. The patterns originated in body paint and are made of many layers of bright cloth cut and stitched to create complex designs. The designs are often based on plants and animals and even events that are important in the lives of the Kuna as well as on things from the outside world, like Tony the Tiger from cereal boxes and images from basketball games or from greeting cards. This mola uses red, yellow and blue, colors that were used in body painting. –Marty, Potawatomi

An excellent website is the Art of Being Kuna @ the National Museum of the American Indian.
There is an article that needs some work on Wikipedia on the Cuna Indians.
We will be using scissors to make our Mola’s because I don’t have enough X-acto knifes.

I have a workshop coming up and needed a one hour project. I immediately thought of book making. Simple book making because we don’t have alot of time for sewing singatures, etc. I found two great websites. The first is Bookbinding by Brian Sawyer and the second is the Incredible Art Department’s Paper Making and Book Making page. Brian Sawyer’s site is for those that want to sew books. The Handmade Paper page is an excellent resource for teachers who want one stop shopping. I found a link to the San Diego Museum of Art and they have excellent lesson plans for making artists books such as the Accordian book, Star book, Flag book, Flutter book,  Tunnel book and others. There are some great videos on YouTube by Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord or skgaylord she is also on TeacherTube. She also has a website with free projects.