Edgar Degas, The Belleli Family Portrait, 1859
Lesson #2 - Leave Your Mark in Text and Image
Overview:
Artists often explore and create narratives based on personal history, cultural heritage, and personal historical events. In this lesson students will investigate how narratives are passed down through generations, what kinds of stories are important, and how they affect their own present identity.
Essential Questions:
- How do words, text, and language shape an artist's work?
- How can words become art?
- Can art tell a story about our personal history?
- How do artists look to the past to explore the present?
- What do personal historical stories tell us about ourselves in the present?
- Why are some stories told, as opposed to others?
- Why do some stories continue to be told over time while others are lost?
National Core Art Standards:
VA:Re.7.1.Ia: Hypothesize ways in which art influences perception and understanding of human experiences.
VA:Re.7.2.Ia: Analyze how one’s understanding of the world is affected by experiencing visual imagery.
VA:Cn11.1.Ia: Describe how knowledge of culture, traditions, and history may influence personal responses to art.
VA:Re.7.2.Ia: Analyze how one’s understanding of the world is affected by experiencing visual imagery.
VA:Cn11.1.Ia: Describe how knowledge of culture, traditions, and history may influence personal responses to art.
Objectives
Students will explore their own family stories and preserve their narratives for future generations. Students will investigate artists who use personal stories and history to create artwork. Students will also create a portrait using text from their personal stories connecting their ancestral and cultural history to their present lives.
Tools and Materials:
- heavy weight paper, illustration board, or Dura-lar
- magazine Cutout
- photocopies
- photographs
- Yes Glue
- palette knife
- ink
- brushes
- various sized ink pens
Inquiry 1:
- Students will be asked: If they were to pass down an autobiographical or personal historical story, what would that story be?
- Students will think back five to ten years to a remembered, shareable event from their lives. Students will then break into groups of four and share the story, using the following questions to start: Who are the other people involved in your story? Where did the story take place? How does the story impact your present-day life? Why might it be worth remembering? Is it worth passing down to future generations, why or why not? Students will write the story down in their sketchbooks.
- Students will then look at the Metropolitan Museum Connection Video, Blood, as well as stories on storycorps.com and humansofnewyork.com. They will then come up with several questions that they will ask in an interview of a family member or a significant person in their life to solicit stories from their past.
- Students will interview and document their conversation as a video, pdf presentation with pictures, or recorded voice interview.
Inquiry 2:
Students will look at and compare and contrast the art of Faith Ringgold and Trenton Doyle Hancock, as well as Katie Paterson's work, Future Library. As a group students will discuss using the following prompts: What influences are evident in Faith Ringgold's and Trenton Doyle Hancock's work? What role does autobiography, cultural heritage, and history play in their work? Can stories and art be like a time capsule for the future?
Students will look at and compare and contrast the art of Faith Ringgold and Trenton Doyle Hancock, as well as Katie Paterson's work, Future Library. As a group students will discuss using the following prompts: What influences are evident in Faith Ringgold's and Trenton Doyle Hancock's work? What role does autobiography, cultural heritage, and history play in their work? Can stories and art be like a time capsule for the future?
Activity:
(See Pinterest Board for text and image examples.)
- After looking at several images that use text within their art, students will create a collage self-portrait, utilizing text from their stories and interviews (in written form, cut from other sources, photocopied from student's written text, etc.).
- When students are finished they will write a letter about their portrait to the next generation.
(See Pinterest Board for text and image examples.)
Resources:
- Personal stories represented on (www.humansofnewyork.com/about)
- Personal stories represented on (www.storycorps.org)
- Video interview of artist Trenton Doyle Hancock (www.pbs.org/art21/watch-now/segment-trenton-doyle-hancock-in-stories)
- Information for Katie Paterson's artwork "Future Library" (www.katiepaterson.org/futurelibrary/)
- Met staff interview on "Blood" (www.metmuseum.org/connections/blood)
Artists: Pinterest page
- Faith Ringgold
- Trenton Doyle Hancock
- Katie Paterson
- Martin O'Niell
Assessment:
Students will explore text and image collage and use relevant text in their self-portraits. Interviews will be thoughtful and insightful. Students will explore personal stories and memory. Students will be able to explain the significant connection of their written stories in their artwork and present identity to future generations. Written work will be evaluated based on completeness. Students will respectfully participate in all discussions.
Unit Rubric
Unit Rubric