Creatives
By Diana Gabriel & Carlos Osorio
How did your team conceive your project?
There is a lack of creativity in the professional field nowadays. It is important to nurture that power we all have at a young age but loose when we get older. Having them be the most imaginative they can be while coming up with their own projects was fun for the students. It helped them achieve a free and curious dynamic in the class sessions.
How was inquiry introduced to students and how did you integrate the inquiry process into your project?
We asked the students about the topics they were the most interested in to best figure out what would be the type of concept and imagery we were going to adap into the projects. The constant flux of students made it a bit difficult to have them all at the give their input but some of the most common topics were culture, family and nature.
How did your team’s project change?
Many of the changes were adapted based on interest and the progress of a particular topic. When we started the project based on identity, most students were not keen on talking or making art about themselves. We then, adapted the project so they could find out more about themselves through their culture and ancestry, via an ancestry chart and sculpture of a family tree that contains objects representing their immediate family, ancestors and culture.
What did you learn about your students and how they learn?
Most of them appear to learn via demonstration and interest in the subject. Motive to work has to be there. I provided many power points with videos and we (teacher and artist) worked along them to show them the visual, technical, and conceptual qualities they can bring into their own work.
What did you learn about the way you teach?py
Diana (Artist): I tend to connect best with the students while working one on one. I Pay attention to the strengths of each individual and offer them a technical or conceptual choice that will best help them. Flexibility and creativity in teaching go hand in hand.
How did the pandemic affect your class?
I'm not sure it really did. Everyone has been cautious and masking from the previous year so most of use were eagert to work with our hands and interact with each other.
Group Drawing
Exquisite corpse
Exquisite corpse
Group Drawing
We did an exercise where we created line drawings with string based on our moods of the day. Here is "energetic".
The lines were traced, rotated, reflected and/ or edited to create figures or images the students saw forming.
Final result
The children extracted the lines and rendered the figure they saw from the string drawings created earlier. They then, cut them out and collaged them onto a new enviroment in order to create a narrative.
A giant rat jumping on the bed scaring the tiny human hiding right under.
Line Inspired Collage
Line Inspired Collage
Group Drawing
Group Drawing
Who are you?
A family tree
The stories, hobbies, likes and dislikes of our families and anscestors can tell us much about ourselves. For this project, the students, created a ancestral chart with information about their families and older ancestors. Instead of a portrait and a name for their relatives, they were asked to draw an object associated with each family member. They started with their own knowledge of their families, and later they asked relatives for additional information.
The students used the information they collected on their chart to plan their family tree. Using paper mache and recycled materials readily found at home and in the school recycling bins, the students began building their tree.
They used real discarded branches from the school grounds and cut leave shapes of different colors representing a season or the colors of the flag of their family's country of origin.
They also began sculpting and painting each of the items that represented members of their family and attached them to their tree using different techniques. Some were hung like ornaments, some were glued to the trunk, and some were placed on the ground by the foot of the tree.
Pollution
Environmentalist
and Inventors
and Inventors
We had a conversation with our students about the Environment and the threat that pollution represents. They made a book where they illustrated their own ideas about different ways in which pullution manifests and an invention that would help save our home planet for future generations.
Air Cleaner
Alebrijes
We embraced the Mexican folk mythology of the alebrije to make creatures that were representative of the student. As personal hybrid creatures, alebrijes, are made of a mixture of animals, colors and patterns. The animals were selected because of a specific desired attribute, natural ability, behaviour or likability. The color combinations were often picked because the students felt represented their own energy or personality. Some selected the colors and patterns, simply because they were bias towards a specific color combination. One of the most intesresting part of this process was seeing how each student brought their past, present and future into this project. The students weaved memories of experiences with animals and in places that have made an impact of them. Some, used this opportunity to channel colors and patters of events, places and wishes for their future.
NAME: Daisy Perez Cholula. 11 years old. 6 th Grade
The inspiration for my alebrije comes several animals. I chose the head of a fox because they have good hearing. The body of the alebrije was inspired by a dragon, which I painted it in a Chinese’s style design. I like that it looks professional. The inspiration for the colors is the following: Purple is my favorite color, the green represents the nature like plants, the yellow represents the sun, the blue is the color of the ocean and the Mexican flag on the ears, represents where my family is from. The technique I used to create the alebrije was an armature of cardboard and plastic, which I covered with paper mache to make it strong. I painted the body with gradation of acrylic colors I mixed myself and decorated it with a dot pattern in a mandala style.
NAME: Daisy Perez Cholula. 11 years old. 6 th Grade
La inspiración para mi alebrije viene de varios animales. Elegí la cabeza de un zorro porque tienen buen oído. El cuerpo del alebrije está inspirado en un dragón, el cual lo pinté con un diseño estilo chino. Me gusta que se vea profesional. La inspiración para los colores es la siguiente: el morado es mi color favorito, el verde representa la naturaleza como las plantas, el amarillo representa el sol, el azul es el color del océano y la bandera mexicana en las orejas representa de dónde vino mi familia. desde. La técnica que utilicé para crear el alebrije fue una esqueleto de cartón y plástico, la cual cubrí con papel maché para que fuera fuerte. Pinté el cuerpo con una gradación de colores acrílicos que mezclé yo misma y lo decoré con un patrón de puntos en un estilo de mandala.
Name: Elias Villegas, 12 years old. Grade 6 th
The tiger’s face and snake’s patters from Disney’s Coco movie inspired me to make my alebrije. I
also selected the arms and ears from the main dragon in the How to Train your Dragon because I
like his character. Those are some of my favorite movies involving animals. I mixed my alebrije
from different animals, like the dragon, tiger and snake. I like dragons and tigers because I find
their energy strong, scary and mean. I also picked the pattern of the snake because it reminds
me of my uncle’s pet snake, which I like very much. The colors I picked as inspiration from the
Coco movie but also because they are bright and go well together.
La cara de tigre y los patrones de serpiente de la película Coco de Disney me inspiraron para
hacer mi alebrije. También seleccioné los brazos y las orejas del dragón principal en Cómo
entrenar a tu dragón porque me gusta su personaje. Esas son algunas de mis películas favoritas
que involucran animales. Mezclé mi alebrije de diferentes animales, como el dragón, el tigre y la
serpiente. Me gustan los dragones y los tigres porque encuentro su energía fuerte, aterradora y
cruel. También elegí el patrón de la serpiente porque me recuerda a la serpiente mascota de mi
tío, que me gusta mucho. Los colores los elegí como inspiración de la película Coco, pero
también porque son brillantes y combinan bien.
Human Tribal Masks
In conjunction with the alebrijes and the environmental project, each student designed a mask that relects their favorite natural phenomena and/ or animal(s) on this planet. Some added horns, andtlers and ears, inspired by tribals masks created by different cultures and from various time eras around the world.
End of the year Expo
