Seven Deadly Sins.

For the past several years, three high school teachers in Pennsylvania have been collaborating on ideas for new and exciting art problems for high school students. We call this collaboration project IDEA (Inter-District Experience in Art). The participating teachers include Lynn Kraft from Quakertown Community High School in Quakertown, Nancy Clark from Southern Lehigh High School in Coopersburg, and myself. We developed the collaboration to broaden both students' and teachers' frame of reference about the visual arts. The project offers a shared experience and an integration of ideas among combined high school populations in the solution of an art problem. The art problems involve an amount of risk because of their controversial nature. This year, the problem focused on the Seven Deadly Sins. Students and teachers from the three high schools met at the Allentown Art Museum for a group introduction.

The Art Problem--Knowledge Objectives

Students learn:

1. about the origin of sin and its connection to humanity, and how sin was depicted in examples as early as the 6th century;

2. how both literature and visual art historically reflect sin; literary examples include Macbeth by Shakespeare, the Greek myth of King Midas, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and others;

3. how specific colors, animals, and punishments are associated with sin;

4. a methodology of organizing a composition with a circle using ratios and proportions and formulas derived from the golden ratio or golden section;

5. to read a work of literature, a poem, or an article, analyze it, and interpret it; and

6. to translate what they have read into a visual image.

The Art Problem--Skill Objectives Students will learn how to:

* Place objects and elements with a circle to create a successful composition;

* Use paint, pencil or collage materials to solve the given problem; and

* Attach three-dimensional objects to a frame to create a relief sculpture.

The Art Problem--Activities

After establishing our objectives for the problem, we planned the following activities for the day at the museum:

Listen to a presentation given on the Seven Deadly Sins-pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust. The focus of the presentation pertains to the origin of sin and how it is connected with the "religious" community. An explanation of how sin is always a separation from God, the community, another individual, or the self will be given. (This presentation was given to students by the president of our school board and a community reverend.)

Become aware during the lecture of how various sins are represented through symbolic elements, colors, animals, and punishments.

Listen to a lecture on the way sin has been depicted in literature and visual art.

Participate in a group reading activity. During this activity, students will read a piece of literature, an article, or a poem that exemplifies one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

See an art historical overview of artworks that use a circle format for a composition.

View an art exhibit at the Allentown Art Museum by the contemporary artist Nick Cave, and make connections between the artist's work and the message communicated by the work.

After our museum introduction and activities, students then had to:

* Solve the given problem of interpreting a sin visually through a work of art using the established criteria;

* Critique their artwork and that of their classmates; and

* Assess their artwork using established rubrics from their high schools.

Although controversial topics such as sin are often unpopular in public education, we feel fortunate that our school districts promote calculated risk-taking as a means of providing meaningful and engaging learning opportunities for our students.

Materials

19" (48 cm) wooden squares and
  frames for the base of the artwork.
12" (31 cm} circular illustration
  board or canvas board
Pencils
Erasers
Layout paper
Acrylic paint
Colored pencils
Glue

Resources

www.qtenic.com/ct/elpisodes/midas. html

www.rushman.org/seven /index.html

www.ecsel.r)su.edu/rreynold/Zeus Text.html

Komunyakka, Yusef Poetry Oct/Nov 99, Vol. 175, Issue 1, p. 36. Item number 2331514

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students synthesize the creative and analytical principles and techniques of the visual arts and selected other arts disciplines, the humanities, or the sciences. Students apply subjects, symbols, and ideas in their artworks and use the skills gained to solve problems in daily life.

Cathy Beck is an art teacher at Palisades High School in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania.