West African Dogon Mask Mask by Sammie Nicely
After watching a BBC video on African masks, middle schoolers created their own expressive masks out of clay. Students attempted to capture symbolism in their pieces and gathered inspiration from both nature and the animal world, as commonly seen in authentic African masks. Some of the influences that inspired these pieces included cats, the ocean, and even football! After the final glazing, we added raffia, recycled items, and cowrie shells. In many indiginous African cultures, the cowrie shells have a spiritual component and are therefore often used to embellish important garments. We also looked at the artwork of Sammie Nicely, an African American artist that creates modern interpretations of masks and embellishes them with natural and recycled materials.
This is one of my favorite games to play in art class. On the last day of the quarter, 1st grade had only one 30 min period left so we certainly did not have time to complete a big project. I believe that creative drawing is very important so we decided to play a game that encourages reading and introduces students to the different parts of speech. 1st graders were new to this information so it was a good learning experience for all! Students had to pick a mystery word from the noun, verb, and adjective bags. They then put their three words together to make a funny picture. We saw tall hawks ice skating, orange hamburgers swimming, and even a slimy cat sleeping! Check out our artists hard at work...
