Please excuse my long absence.

Tues. 10/24/06

Today we learned about Adinkra cloth, which is made by the Ashanti people of Ghana, West Africa.
1. We learned about how Adinkra cloth and stamps are made.
2. We made stamps and created our "cloth" using our stamps in certain patterns.

Day Seven. Wed. 9/27

1. Time to prepare for group presentations
2. Cave Art group presentations
3. Time to work on maps homework
4. Getting to know you/drama games: "What Are You Doing?" and "Down by the Banks".

HOMEWORK
1. Maps - Due Fri. 9/29

Some student-generated "cave art." (Courtesy of http://www.artteacherconnection.com/pages/caveart.htm)

Day Six. Monday 9/25

1. In-class time to work on Lit. homework
2. Zip, Zap, Zoop (learning names game)
3. Cave Art group work. Presentations on Wed.
4. Talked about map homework

HOMEWORK:
1. Map assignment – Due Friday 9/29. I will be giving you time in class on Wednesday to work on this. The goal is not scientific accuracy. The goal is for you to get to know a certain place more in-depth.

Cave painting, Lacaux, France, 15,000 to 10,000 B.C.
http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study/images/cave_painting_l.jpg

Day 5 Wednesday 9/20

1. Henna review and ancient art lecture
2. Group project – making “cave art” - presentations on Monday.

HOMEWORK
Sense of place maps – Due Wed. 9/27

A woman applying henna.
http://www.nilevalleyherbs.com/henna-foot-small.jpg

Day 4 Monday 9/18
Henna – lecture & slide show
Practice using henna.

No homework.

A woman wearing a lip plate.
http://ethiopiapartnership.org/Surma%20lip%20plate%20bride.JPG%20web.JPG

Body art is possibly one of the oldest forms of art. Because evidence of body art disappears when it washes off or people die, we don't really know for sure how long people have been marking, decorating, embellishing, and/or expressing themselves on their bodies. Most of class today was spent watching a video on body art and answering questions about it. Some of the types of body art we learned about included: * tattoos (including traditional Maori tattoos, which were carved into the skin, and Irezumi, which covers the entire body) * feet binding, which took place in ancient China * the art of the Geisha in Japan * the history of the Asarco Mud Men * religious cheek piercing that take place on the island of Kuket * the Crocodile Man scarification ritual practiced by the Manbetu people of Central Africa HOMEWORK: Henna designs and question for Seema due Mon 9/18

Day Two. Tues. 9/12/06
Today we explored the question “What is art?” We looked at and discussed pieces by Vincent Van Gogh, Piet Mondrian, Johannes Vermeer, Marcel Duchamp (“The Fountain” – featured above, courtesy of www.beatmuseum.org/duchamp/fountain.html), and Marco Evaristti’s installation called HELENA - The Goldfish blender. I also shared some art pieces that I brought from home – a tapestry from India, a piece from South America, and a puppet from China – and talked briefly about the importance of seeing art in its context.

Homework Due Thurs. 9/14
1. Original piece of art
2. Post comment to weblog

Peter Coffin's Untitled (Rainbow), 2005. Photo: Peter Coffin/Andrew Kreps Gallery. Courtesy of http://villagevoice.com/art/0637,saltz,74400,13.html

Welcome to 9th Grade Cultural Aesthetics!

Our class got off to a smashing start with a quick sharing of your artistic selves, a review of the syllabus, and an introduction to me, my expectations, and my ideas about the class. During Iron Artist, in groups you created your first pieces of art of the class, producing some fascinating works.

Homework was assigned as follows:
ALL due on Tues. 9/12
1. Get syllabus signed
2. Make sure you answered all the questions on the back of the syllabus