Telling stories: narrative masks.

Devon Toth, grade 8, age 13, Selene. Ceramic mask.

... Into Selene's hair I wove horses symbolizing her steeds. In her hair there is a flower that symbolizes the earth, and in her cheek there is a figure that was meant to be her husband. The horses are her silver steeds and her hair is blue symbolizing the night. Her face has a green tint, as the earth reflects in her face.

Each year, our school district presents an art show, showcasing some of the best work produced by students during the year. For the past few years, we organized our show thematically, highlighting a few of our conceptual priorities. We decided that we would select a question essential to artists, and examine it thoroughly with our students at all grade levels.

The Artist as Storyteller

With the theme "artist as storyteller," my eighth grade students studied how artists tell stories. To reinforce learning from language arts, students looked at specific stories that have inspired artists for years. With this lesson, students make connections between different subjects taught in school and see how art can impact many areas of their lives. Interdisciplinary connections not only reinforce learning, but also open new avenues for young artists to explore and find inspiration.

I decided my students would construct three-dimensional ceramic masks based on the stories told in Greek mythology. Greek myths have inspired artists, writers, and musicians for centuries. My students had a wide range of human experience and emotion to draw from as they worked with each myth.

The Art Problem

Part of the criteria was that the masks were to be more than mere depictions of what a particular character looks like. Students were to act as an illustrator would, and tell the story in mask form. We began in the oral tradition, by listening to the stories read aloud. I purchased some taped versions of stories in which famous actors read myths with much emotion and great inflection. (If taped versions are unavailable, the teacher can easily read the stories aloud.)

The goal for our first day was to listen to and become familiar with each of the myths. The second day, we listened again and drew as the stories were repeated orally. My students had approximately eight myths to choose from. They were inspired by the heroics of Prometheus, captivated by the fall of Icarus, and saddened by the tale of Helios and Phaethon.

Once students had completed their initial drawings, they selected the drawing which displayed the most potential. As the next few art periods passed, we played the tapes quietly in the background as students refined their concepts and ideas. Each day students would come to class with books that they had checked out from the library. Some were looking up mythology in art while others just wanted to read through the text and pick out a few lines to develop visually.

After the planning was complete, we translated our plans into three-dimensional ceramic form. We began by rolling out slabs of clay and draping them over plastic mask forms. Fabric was placed between the form and the clay to keep the clay from sticking and to facilitate the removal of the clay at a later date. Students cut in negative spaces for eyes and mouths if it was appropriate to their designs, and added clay to make the generic face forms more individual and unique. Students were reminded to take elements from their stories and incorporate them in order to narrate their tales. One student took a line from the tale of Selene the moon goddess, which said: "at night Selene rode her silvery steeds through the darkening night sky ..." and added three galloping horses rising out of the character's windswept tresses. The rich narrative language of mythology effectively inspired students as they constructed their masks.

We stored our masks in plastic bags to keep the clay soft and in a workable condition. When the sculpting process was finished and the masks were leather hard, we removed them from their forms and gently peeled back the fabric. It is important that the clay not be left on the forms or the masks will crack as they dry and shrink. Students should also be told to place small holes at eye-level on their masks so that they can be strung with wire and hung when completed. Niachrome wire, looped into the clay prior to firing and completion, could also be used for less conspicuous hanging, if it is available.

Finishing

We finished our masks by working in the style of contemporary artist David Stabley. Students painted their masks with black acrylic and then gently rubbed a colored metallic finish lightly onto the surface, in order to develop a rich patina. The process is quick, as it does not require additional firing, and it is also quite easy for all students to do. Many of the students overlapped their colors and the results were beautiful and harmonious.

Assessment

At the end of each art problem, students write an artist's statement, which accompanies the work when it is displayed. They describe their work in terms of the materials and techniques used, and also tell about the specific elements and principles of design that they considered as they completed their artwork. Displaying the artist's statements alongside the finished work enables the viewer to appreciate the wide variety of skills and complex thinking that went into the creation of the artwork.

For this particular assessment, students were instructed to give a brief description of the mythological character portrayed in their work, as well as to describe the artistic decisions that they made. This reinforced the idea that the artist is a storyteller, allowing students to explain each interpretation in their own unique and individual way.

Extensions

A lesson such as this could easily be adapted to include myths from other cultures. An art teacher might select mythological heroes from cultures other than Greece, and explore their common heroic threads. Students might also write myths of their own, strengthening the interdisciplinary connection, and design a character mask to accompany their text.

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students consider ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with the visual arts.

Nora M. Klein is an art teacher at Veronica E. Conner Middle School in Grand Island, New York. [e-mail]