I wanted this project to give the kids a chance to adorn their imaginations with ideas and images of bold colour, strength, identity, and exotic culture. They made this project with- you guessed it, milk jugs! Painting both the inside and outside was a sneaky strategy of mine to get the boys to layer their paint, and to lend attention to detail.
Part of the rationale for this project, was the importance of getting children used to going back to old pieces and adding layers and new mediums to enrich their pieces. Going back with a new perspective and new approach, and adding depth and detail is good practice in developing fully formed ideas. It also gives students further interaction with their artwork. Kids are quite often so ready to finish and move on to the next thing, that it is a good lesson to learn that a re-visitation and refinement can enhance their connection to their masterpieces, and even to themselves.
In the re-visitation of the mask, M, who had painted it pink inside, decided to change everything the next week and paint it after one of the example I showed them, and we had discussed. M, who doesn’t ever like to make a plan, was following one despite himself! I called attention to the fact that he was using a plan, and he smiled about it, realizing that possibly he had room in his creativity for planning! ☺ Smiling, he shrugged and said, “Yah. But this is different.”
M went on to think about next Halloween, and possibly wearing the mask, and H thought about the purpose for masks like his.
“Africans would actually wear these things when they would catch food, because it’s actually really scarce.” H