Mehndi Hand Designs

Mehndi is the traditional art of painting the hands, feet or body with a paste made from the powdered, dried leaves of the henna plant. It is an ancient form of body art that has been practiced in the Middle East, India and parts of Africa for thousands of years and is typically used during celebrations and festivals.

Our grade 8 students had a chance to explore Mehndi and design their own hand art using markers and gloves to take the place of traditional henna on skin. Besides the benefit of being less messy, this technique allowed students to create a design which would be permanent after the glove was filled with cotton batting. Traditional Menhdi materials fade and are washed away in a few weeks.

Students reviewed traditional designs from India, the Middle East and Africa as well as the Maori peoples of the Pacific. They used these resources as a jumping off point to create their own personal Mehndi art. Take a look! Clicking on any image brings you to the gallery for more art.

 

Social Justice Calligrams

The subjects of Art, Literature and Language Arts came together for this project our 8th grade students have just completed. Social Justice is a major theme in Mrs. Panzo's Literature and Language arts classes this year, where students have been researching and writing about the topic in a variety of challenging projects.

They applied that knowledge for this art project by developing a favorite quote or writing by an important figure they had studied into a calligram. Calligrams use a word or piece of text to create a visual image related to the meaning of the words themselves. Students could also choose the alternative of developing a poem about themselves and their interests they had written into a calligram. In the art room we stressed that the visual image relate well to the text, and that the words vary in size and thickness when needed to create visual interest. Students were excited to bring this important theme into their art, and I think the results are stunning, don't you? Find more examples by clicking on any image below.

More Carnival Masks

Our 8th grade students have offically finished their masks for Carnival, and just in time for graduation! It was a great interdisciplinary art lesson with ties to language, culture and history. See the original post for more information. Everyone enjoyed the project and put in their best effort so be sure to take a look. I've put these latest masks on the gallery page and you can reach it by clicking on any of the photos below.

 

Carnival Masks!

Yippee! For the last several weeks our 6th, 7th and 8th grade students have been working hard on the creation of masks for their celebration of Carnival around the world. I am happy to finally begin sharing the results. Parents, you should be proud of your students, they all put in their maxium effort and we have many gorgeous masks to show for it. For those of you who missed the mask display on Carnaval night, you have a another chance to see them right here.

Before beginnning the lesson in the art room, students spent time in their Spanish classes studying Carnival celebrations and culture in the various countries around the world who celebrate the pre-Lenten event. Just as cultures and celebrations differ widely, so do mask designs. After choosing a photo of a favorite mask students set about creating their own in a similar style. Many chose to build their masks in paper mache, which was then painted with tempera or acyrylic paints. Others created their designs with layered poster papers and foil. Feathers, glitter and whatever was available in the art room was utilized to make their masks as authentic as possible.

Click on any image below to get to the gallery. I'll be adding more masks next week as they are completed.

Notan Designs

Nōtan is a Japanese design concept involving the play and placement of light and dark as they are placed next to each other in art. Our grade 6 students created cut paper notan designs using a single color and black. The results show their images as both positive and negative shapes and create these striking works of art. Click on any image below to see more in the picture gallery.

More Mandalas

Sixth and seventh grade classes are completing their versions of mandalas, the traditional circular, symmetrical design with Buddhist and Hindu origins. I love how they follow the "rules" for mandala design but are unique reflections of each student artist's personality. Click on any image to get to the picture gallery.

 

Mandalas

To explore art from other cultures and understand radial symmetry, students in grades six, seven and eight have been creating mandalas. Mandalas have their origins in Buddhist and Hindu cultures, in fact the word "mandala" means "circle" in Sanskrit. Each student is designing their own mandala, the only rules are they must be circular, show radial symmetry, and be unique to each artist.

The mandalas shown here were done by grade eight, aren't they terrific? If you click on any image you'll go to the picture gallery and see more of them.