Transformed folk art.Transformed folk art folk art, the art works of a culturally homogeneous people produced by artists without formal training. The forms of such works are generally developed into a tradition that is either cut off from or tenuously connected to the contemporary cultural mainstream. AS AN ELEMENTARY ART TEACHER interested in native American art American art, the art of the North American colonies and of the United States. There are separate articles on American architecture, North American Native art, pre-Columbian art and architecture, Mexican art and architecture, Spanish colonial art and architecture, , I decided to challenge two of my sixth grade classes to enter into the early American pastime of producing group folk art. We would be studying tribal art and symbolism Symbolism In art, a loosely organized movement that flourished in the 1880s and '90s and was closely related to the Symbolist movement in literature. In reaction against both Realism and Impressionism, Symbolist painters stressed art's subjective, symbolic, and decorative at the same time. The two classes broke into groups of three to six students and formed their own stitchery bees. They were introduced to native American tribal motifs (Southwest, Northeast, Northwest and Mayan), and the process of developing a fill-in stitchery using #13 blunt needles and three-ply yarn. One of our goals was to transform Indian motif into a personal art form. The students chose their favorite motif and enlarged it onto white burlap, using black magic markers. All the motifs were in black-and-white, so the students weren't influenced by original Indian choice of color not of the white race; - commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed. See also: Color . The students continued to work, stitching and solving design and color problems with my guidance. Once the process of color choice and stitch was established, the students took their stitcheries outside of the artroom and worked at home during the dark hours of a Wisconsin winter. The end products were brought back during the last week of May, and we added finishing touches finishing touches finish npl the finishing touches → der letzte Schliff finishing touches npl → ultimi ritocchi mpl just before we presented them to the school as a graduation gift. The Kachina kachina (kəchē`nə), spirit of the invisible life forces of the Pueblo of North America. The kachinas, or kachinam, are impersonated by elaborately costumed masked male members of the tribes who visit Pueblo villages the first half of the Stitchery (41" x 28"; 104 cm x 71 cm) was the first piece done. The four student artists spent every afternoon after school and weekends in each other's basements, holding their own type of old-fashioned stitching bee, listening to music and visiting. What is so powerful about the resulting images is the fact that the students combined their knowledge of color theory and design to an ancient motif to create a new art form. |
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