American Folk Art Projects

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Students looked at slides of wooden decoys carved for ice fishing. These beautifully carved figures can be decorated in a very colorful manner but are most often realistically painted to resemble the native fish species. Students first created fins out of cardboard which they colored with permanent markers. They then made small tubular forms out of Sculpey into which they inserted their fins. The fish were then baked and the bodies also decorated with marker.

Students learned that the Pennsylvania Dutch created decorative certificates called Frakturs to record events such as marriage and birth. We identified typical symbols such as flowers, birds, hearts, and animals and pointed out that the designs are often symmetrical. After learning some basic calligraphy techniques, students used markers to create their own Frakturs in which they demonstrated their lettering skills by writing their names and birthdates.

Another art form brought to America by the Germans was the hex sign. The "fancy" farmers decorated their distinctive bank barns with large, colorful geometric patterns and the same bird and floral designs that adorned their frakturs. These very colorful symbols are now called hex signs. Students folded a large circle into 8 sections and used some of these designs to create thier own hex symbols.

Students learned that some very successful artists have had no formal training. These artists are ofted referred to as folk artists. Students then looked at slides of folk paintings by the Georgian artist, Mattie Lou O'Kelley. They identified her subject matter as scenes from daily life and discovered that she could include a lot of information in her paintings by using a technique called "stacking" where "layers" of landscape were painted one above the other until only a thin strip of sky remained. Students used tempera paint to create their own richly patterned landscapes, Mattie Lou O'Kelley-style.

Kindergarten students looked many examples of patchwork quilts. They then learned some simple folding and cutting techniques that allowed them to make a variety of squares and triangles. After choosing several colors of construction paper and wallpaper, each student created their own quilt square. All these squares were then arranged on the bulletin board to create one large class quilt.

One of the most whimsical forms of American Folk art might be the whirligig. Students looked at slides of windtoys from across America and discovered that many of them represent authority figures like policemen, firemen, and members of the armed forces. Students then used cardboard, tempera, and brass fasteners to construct their own whirligigs complete with twirling arms.

Students looked at weather vanes from accross America and discovered that the figures represented were different depending on where they were found. Pigs, horses, rooster and such were seen topping farm houses while people living near the ocean had fish and mermaid weather vanes. Students decided on a figure and used tints and shades to paint a cardboard weather vane of their own creation.

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