Cave kids: Pecos River-style art - art projects

Arts & Activities, Jan, 2003 by Sylvia T. Clark

It quickly becomes clear that music, drama, art and dance have similar visual elements and principles to follow, including line, color, shape, space, texture and composition. Not being a music teacher, I chose the open-ended abstract lessons and presented them to complement the visual art. There is no wrong way to do these lessons; it simply requires using imagination, getting involved and inventing.

The students love this part of my art program and always treat it as a natural part of the day's lesson. It is a critical-thinking time (much like their visual art); a time to form groups and prepare an impromptu presentation. They know that everything they compose in this three-dimensional space, just like their compositions on paper, is entirely up to them.

Composition is important, and a thoughtful presentation is necessary, so I give them 10 minutes for each presentation. It is as exciting for the students to see the results as it is for me. The prompt for these pieces can be very simple; the students instinctively know what to do with it and, using the percussion instruments and scarves, they create some of the most interesting and unusual scenarios.

Later while listening to the music of R. Carlos Nakai's "Our Voices, Our Land," we thought of descriptive words for a cave-like space. Dust, cool, dark, dangerous, mysterious, exciting, comfortable, lonely, damp and special were a few that were suggested. We hung our "Petroglyph People" all around the room and then we danced to Mickey Hart's "Planet Drum" CD--just like cave kids from Antelope Creek.

MATERIALS

* Tempera paint, all colors

* Gold, silver and white marking paint pens

* Yarn

* Staplers

* Tape

* Glue

* Pipe cleaners

* Feathers

* Sticks

* Craft sticks

* Crayons

* Color markers

* Scissors

* Hole punchers

* Scrap paper (for stuffing or decoration)

* Raffia

* Beads

* Fabric scraps

(Just put it all out on the table and let the magic begin!)

For Performances

* Sticks

* Stones

* Drums

* Rattles

* Rainstick

* Bottles (to blow in)

* Cabasas

* Bells

* Claves

* Colorful scarves

(Items are available from West Music Co., www.westmusic.com, 800-397-9378.)

For Visual Art

* Art visuals (purchased, borrowed or recycled from calendars)

* Construction paper (18" x 24" in assorted colors)

* Brushes

* Pieces of cardboard

RESOURCES

Books

* Grant, Campbell, Canyon de Chelly, Its People and Rock Art. University of Arizona Press, Tuscon, 1978.

* Kandinsky, Wassily, translated by Sadler, M.T.H., Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Dover Publications, Inc., 1977.

Music

* Tchaikovsky's "Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23"

* Van Cliburn/Kiril Kondrashin/RCA Symphony Orchestra

* Mickey Hart's CD "Planet Drum"

* R. Carlos Nakai's "Our Voices, Our Land'

Web sites

* www.aosa.org

* www.utexas.edu/depts/tmm/anthro/ rockart/

At the time this article was written, Sylvia T. Clark was the visual and performing art specialist at Antelope Creek Elementary School in Rocklin, Calif.