The power of expression - art projects

Arts & Activities, April, 2003 by Susan Buck

MATERIALS

* Viewfinders

* Acrylics

* 18" x 24" painting surface

* Brushes

* Palette knives

* Digital camera

* Mirrors

* Examples of expressive artwork

* Worksheets for students to fill

out on themselves

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will ...

* become more aware of personal expression in art.

* be conscious of a foreground, middle ground, and background in their compositions.

* achieve a strong composition using a viewfinder, mirror and a digital camera.

* show personal expression in their self portraits.

Teachers sometimes have to be a little sneaky. That was the case this year when it was time for the high school advanced art students to take a look at themselves during a self-portrait unit.

The sneaky part came when students were told to focus on their inside instead of their outside appearance. Students began the lesson by answering these soul-searching questions:

* How do you appear to others?

* How do you think you appear?

* What colors make you feel good?

* What is your family background?

* How does your family enable and disable you?

* What are you most proud of?

* What are you least proud of?

After the "soul sheet" was successfully completed, students were given the basic outline of the assignment. They were to draw a self-portrait. Their self-portrait had to have a foreground, middle ground, and background. In the foreground would be their hand. The middle ground would include their face and body. The background would be finished any way they chose.

To help organize the students' ideas from their "soul sheet" they were shown a graphic organizer that had three ovals with four arrows to add ideas. The three ovals were labeled background, middle ground and foreground. Students filled out the ideas from their "soul sheets" into the three sections to use in the three spaces on their self-portraits.

Next, the students had to find a way that they could observe themselves with their hand extending out toward the viewer. This is where the digital camera came in handy for some of the students. Other students looked at a mirror and then observed someone else's hand coming out toward them.

Students were so excited about their ideas that they took special care when they went to sketch themselves. It was important for the students to have a strong image of themselves to reflect their inner selves. The students liked the depth they attained from the foreshortened hand. They couldn't believe how big the hand was in comparison to the face.

Finally, the class was ready to finish their expressive portraits. Most of them chose to use paint, while others were more comfortable using a drawing medium. Upon completion, students wrote a brief paragraph explaining the content of their portrait and attached it.

The project turned out to be an expressive personal statement for themselves and for the student body. When the projects were displayed, the other students became interactive with them when they read the descriptive statement attached to each piece. This project truly showed students the power of expression.

Susan Buck teaches art at Valley Heights High School in Blue Rapids, Kansas.