This document provides guidance and objectives for a student art project focused on cultural representation. Students will research a culture, choose an image that illustrates aspects of that culture, and create an original artwork expressing the culture. The artwork should communicate cultural identity, social commentary, ceremony/ritual, or myth/legend through visual elements like color, value, and form. Students will write a paper describing the culture and how their chosen image represents it. The goals are for students to learn about different cultures and use art to express cultural beliefs, values and practices.

1. Mrs. Comstock

2.  Culture is created by a sense of shared
beliefs and values of a group: the
beliefs, customs, practices, and social
behavior of a particular nation or people.
 There is a difference between examining
traits of cultural groups and stereotyping a
group. You need to understand that not all
groups of people have the same cultural
beliefs. You are going to represent an
“aspect” of a cultural group you choose.

3.  How can an artwork from a selected
culture or historical time period
represent that culture or time period?

4.  Classical Thai painting is mostly
confined to mural paintings inside
Buddhist temples and palaces. They
are idealistic and the themes
frequently depicted are those
related to Buddhism, such as the
Buddha's life stories, stories of the
three worlds (heaven, earth and
hell), and also those concerning
customs and traditions. The
subjects of the paintings reflect
different purposes: to beautify and
dignify the places of worship, to
promote Buddhism, and to educate
people through pictures.
(http://www.thaiwaysmagazine.com/
thai_cultures/index.html)
Therefore, this artwork represents the Buddhist culture.

5. What do you think this artwork represents?
 African culture has always
placed emphasis on
personal appearance and
jewelry. Many pieces of
such jewelry are made of
cowry shells and similar
materials. Similarly, masks
are made with elaborate
designs and are important
part of African culture.
Masks are used in various
ceremonies depicting
ancestors and spirits,
mythological characters
and deities.

6.  You will also see in
most of Africa’s
traditional arts and
crafts certain themes
significant to African
culture recur,
including a couple, a
woman with a child,
a male with a
weapon or animal,
and an outsider or a
stranger, or African
facepainting.

7.  Thisimage
captures
certain cultural
practices in
India.

8. This represents Hindu practices in
India. Look at the rich
tapestries, colors, and
adornments.

11. In your research, you would answer questions such as
“What makes wearing a headdress important in their
culture? Why do they do it?”

12.  How do perceptions in art reflect cultural
beliefs and values?
 Let’s look at the next slide and see…

13.  This is the beautiful Hawaiian Goddess
HAUMEA. Known as the Earth Mother,
Goddess of Fertility and Protector of
Pregnant Women, a painting of Haumea
is said to be the perfect lucky wedding
gift. Haumea's likeness in a newlywed's
home ensures blessings of a bountiful
and fruitful married life with healthy
children. Among HAUMEA'S many
offspring is feisty Fire Goddess, PELE,
who HAUMEA is said to have birthed
through her mouth.
 (Con’t. explanation of painting on next
page)

14.  HAUMEA oversees Earth's
gardens, especially those in her
Hawaiian Island home where the
Earth's most exceptional fruits and
flowers grow. From Sidney
Filson's series "Playing With
Gauguin" HAUMEA is depicted in
a field of anthurium flowers,
hefting a tray of mangoes and
very pregnant with a mango
herself. The background shows
an equally fertile diffusion of
Hawaiian mangoes and plumeria
blossoms.

15.  How do responses to works of art differ
based on whether the viewer is a member
of the culture in which the art was
created?

16.  Createan original artwork that expresses
a culture (PP3B-HSL2)
 Createan original artwork that
communicates ideas through the
following themes (cultural identity, social
commentary, ceremony/ritual, myth/legend
) (PP3C-HSL2)

17. While you are doing
this project, you will
also be covering the
following objectives:

19. • To do this, in your painting I want you to
experiment further with colors by mixing black (a
shade), white (a tint), and black and white (a tone)
when you are creating your colors.

20.  EP1F-HSl2: identify and use a range of
values to create the illusion of complex
forms

22.  Firstyou will research a few cultures and
decide which one you want to focus on.
You can do this by searching for images of
cultural artwork and then researching the
culture that inspired that image.
 OR- you can decide on a culture you are
interested in and then search for specific
images about that culture.

23.  You will be writing about the culture you
select and how it is illustrated in the image
you select. This needs to be a minimum of
one page long (typed) or two pages
(handwritten). IF it is handwritten, it must
be legible.

24.  Be descriptive about the culture you select
and how the image illustrates aspects of
that culture. Someone who sees your
image should be able to understand
(without reading your research) that you
are communicating through ART about a
culture.

25.  We will spend our first two days in the
library, researching cultures and images
that inspire you. I will be answering your
questions in addition to asking you
questions about the cultures you choose.
 Once we have sufficient research, we will
begin the process of prepping our canvas
boards.
 Questions??? Let’s do this 