Maps of Hope

Diaspora of Hope Curriculum armature
Art Activities, Goals, and Metaphors
Days 1 – 4
Leah Samuelson
10.05.08

Curriculum Description/Overview: Students will concurrently create each his/her own 1x1 meter map of “Who We Are: Maps of Hope” and one class “Life Box” (or treasure box) in which to place the rolled-up maps.

DAY 1
Goals: Introduce project ideas. Students learn to use oil pastels, start up their own maps, and start the Life Box.

Metaphor (and Aspects of Hope to watch for): A map is a way to show ourselves and others what our lives look like. It can show where we come from, where we are, and where we will go. It can
show what we look like on the outside and the inside.

Look for:

• Ways to foster self and life awareness in drawing content choices (realism & transcendence).
• Initiative with color and design choices.
• Intentionality with nature bits chosen for Life Box.
• Engagement (activity) with pictorial material and setting as students hunt for nature bits.

Lesson Breakdown (Art Activity):
Maps: Students design and apply decorative title and border motifs- reference creative lettering and motif books.
Instructor demonstrates oil pastel and blending techniques.

Box: Students paint a latex/acrylic base coat on entire box. Students gather sticks, leaves, etc from nature to decorate box later.

DAY 2
Goals: Lay-out space on maps for self portraits and images of life. Begin basic designs for Life Box.

Metaphor (and Aspects of Hope to watch for): Making a drawing is like talking without words.
Colors and lines tell stories to our eyes.

Look for:

• Future orientation as students combine elements of where they come from with where
• they are going.
• Initiative with color and design choices.
• Generating routes to goals and interconnectedness in partnering in creating tile shapes to fit Life Box.

Lesson Breakdown (Art Activity):

1. Maps: Do activity called, “I Come From” to generate map content.
2. Practice drawing things we “come from” on extra blank paper with oil pastels- reference pictorial land, animal, and people books.
3. Practice drawing a self portrait (part of map content).
4. Instructor explains how map will be a combination of images that will describe our lives
5. (including where we come from , where we are, where we are going, and a self portrait) and demonstrate how to plan for and arrange elements in the space of the 1x1 meter map.
6. Transfer or re-draw life elements onto map when ready.

Box: Will eventually be covered by poster board tiles, so students will cut patterns of the size and
shape of tiles to fit each surface of the box. Also students draw a diagram of the box that shows the position of each tile. Students devise a way to label for position both the diagram and the real tile patterns in correlation.

DAY 3
Goals: Continue developing map contents. Apply aging techniques to entire map. Decorate poster board tiles for Life Box.

Metaphor (and Aspects of Hope to watch for): Transferring or duplicating a drawing is like carrying a message from one place to another. Our “aged” maps will be a message to new comers and to our children’s children of the hopeful lessons from our past and the hopeful goals of our future. Oil and water techniques mix in interesting ways. There are changes we can find in life- beautiful things we can add that can work together, without erasing motifs of yesterday.

Look for:

• Interconnectedness and intentionality in explaining intentions of their work to other students.
• Generating routes to goals in experimenting with how to construct Life Box decorations.

Lesson Breakdown (Art Activity):

Maps:

• Students either present one at a time to the class, or engage in an open roam and observe time their plans and progress with their maps.
• Instructor gives helpful suggestions on how to think about solving spatial and drafting problems.
• Instructor can demonstrate graphite transfer technique.
• Students continue developing map contents with oil pastel.
• Instructor demonstrates wrinkling/creasing and tea/coffee staining techniques to age maps.
• Lesson on oil and water not dissolving one another.
• Students apply aging techniques at the end of the day and allow maps to dry overnight.

Box:

1. Use paint, oil pastels, and bits of collected nature to decorate poster board tiles for Life Box.
2. Attach nature bits with glue, needle and thread, etc.
3. Students should discover their own best ways to attach things.

DAY 4

Goals: Finish both maps and box and design ways to store and present them.

Metaphor (and Aspects of Hope to watch for): We can work together to find ways to share our lives and our plans with new comers and friends. Our “maps” will teach them things they didn’t know and we can learn from our observers things we didn’t see.

Look for:

• Future orientation in planning how work will affect viewers.
• Interconnectedness in engaging with viewers.
• Positive expectation in carefully rolling or folding maps and placing them in the Life Box for safe keeping and special showing.

Lesson Breakdown (Art Activity):

Maps:

• Finish drawings on maps, even on top of dried aging techniques.
• Roll up and tie maps (tie with special ribbons or cords), or fold up, or devise other way to store them in the Life Box.

Box:

• Attach finished tiles to box with a staple gun. Students should discover their own best ways to attach things.
• Design the rules and rituals of by whom and when the box can be opened and its contents presented.

SUPPLIES:
Smocks
Paper towels
Plastic cups
Plastic drop cloth/covering
Scissors
Pencils
Erasers
Paint brushes sizes 4 and 10
Latex paints
Oil pastels
Q-tips
Odorless paint thinner
1x1 meter substantial paper
Blank sketch paper
Staple gun and staples
Poster board
Colored tissue paper
Tacky glue
Spray adhesive
Needles and thread
Ribbon/twine/cord
Pictorial books (lettering, motifs, land, animals, and people)