ROCK ART Connecting to the past - Brief Article

Arts & Activities, Jan, 2001 by Marianne Knipe

Using art to connect to the past can be an exciting experience for enthusiastic, hands-on learners in elementary school. At our school, fourth-grade students worked on a project that provided a fresh way of looking at the natural, social and cultural world around them.

Our project of creating huge, authentic-looking rock sculptures covered with pictograms generated a lot of enthusiasm and interest in the study of prehistoric art. Students gained an appreciation for the ancient humans who left their work incised in stone or painted on cave walls. Students also discovered that art is found not just on the walls of museums, but also in the world around us.

Our introduction to the project was through storytelling. Students became very interested when they heard the story of the young girl in Altamira, Spain, who discovered the first known cave paintings. Looking at the Altamira cave paintings was the beginning of our journey into prehistory. We also tried to discover why human beings have the desire to communicate through visual images.

For inspiration, my students took a walk outside to look al the rocks used in the landscaping. Looking at real rocks gave students ideas for the kind of coloring to use on their sculptures. Students also looked at pictures of the rock art found in the Great Basin area of the American Southwest. We learned about pictographs (painted images) and petroglyphs (images that were pecked or scratched into rock surfaces).

The Fremont and Anasazi tribes created profile images of animals, as well as stylized, frontal renderings of human figures wearing elaborate jewelry. Some experts believe that the rock-art panels of this period are a form of storytelling, with the animals representing the verbs, because they are often depicted facing specific directions with footprints added to illustrate travel or other action. Some of the earliest images of rock art are simple, abstract designs pecked into stone with round rocks.

Depictions of animals are by far the most common rock-art images found in the Southwest, and they also proved to be popular as subject matter for my students. These kinds of images provided the inspiration for our hands-on journey of learning about the past.

After our initial study of rock art, students began creating pictograph designs of their own. Students made several preliminary sketches of an image to be painted on their rocks. They were asked to think about an image that would have a special meaning or association for them. Students were to put only one image on their rock and also be able to explain why the image was chosen.

Our next step was to create large, authentic-looking rocks. This was accomplished with very simple materials. Students took large single sheets of newspaper and loosely wadded them up, wrapping the rock-like shapes with masking tape. Students then covered the "rocks" with plaster cloth (a combination of gauze and plaster used for making casts) to create large, irregular rock forms.

Painting the rocks presented an opportunity to teach color theory to the students. We used tempera paint and grayed our colors with complements and then added plenty of white to soften the colors. Students chose one color to paint the rock and two colors for sponging onto the painted surface. The combination of the grayed, pale colors and the sponge effect helped to create very natural-looking rocks.

After creating our rock sculptures, students painted a pictograph onto the surface with brown paint, adding to the beautiful, natural look of the sculpture. The resulting sculptures looked amazingly like real rocks that had been found on a dig.

We had a lot of fun displaying our sculptures by grouping them and piling them up. The art room was temporarily transformed into a boulder field! They became part of a schoolwide exhibit of ancient art and looked wonderful next to cave paintings and free-standing amphora.

Studying ancient art and having the experience of creating our rock-art sculptures made learning come alive for my students. Just as the original rock-art images may have been records of events, religious ceremonies or magic, our sculptures represented a palpable learning experience that helped students connect to history. Perhaps they also connected to the inner spirit that prompts us to create visual images.

Marianne Knipe teaches art at Roosevelt School in Allentown, Pa.