Trends Modern Art

And the Día de los Muertos festivities just keep going and going, right? It's not even noon yet and I have another art project you can do that is super fun and creative, too.

I promised I would share a Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera calavera collage and here it is. If you don't know what a collage is, it is simply a cut paper assemblage. What I love about collage is, you can do anything with some colored paper and scissors. No wonder Henri Matisse called it painting with scissors!

I have bins and bins filled with multi-colored cardstock, paper and tissue paper. Most of it is scraps from other collages I've done. I just hate to throw anything away. Yes, I am that teacher. But really, any cut paper that is left over is perfect to be used again in another collage. Hence, my rather large collection.

So, again I ask you...who needs paint when you have paper and scissors?

I decided to try this collage with my eleven year old son, Sol. It started out as a couple of skeletons, or calaveras, but somewhere down the line it changed to Frida Kahlo (my muse) and her beloved Diego Rivera. Frida is easily recognizable in almost any art medium but Diego was a bit more of a challenge since his most recognizable trait, his large body, can't really be duplicated on a skeleton!

• You will need multiple sheets of cardstock in lots of different colors. The size is dependent on the size of our overall collage.
• You will need one large sheet of paper for your base. We chose a 12 x 12 inch sheet in blue.
• Sharp scissors
• Glue stick. Anything else will cause a huge mess because liquid glue takes forever to dry. More experienced students can use rubber cement, but make sure you have proper ventilation. That stuff stinks!
• If you have older students, consider using tweezers to help shape the smaller details. My son was frustrated by some of the small cut pieces of paper sticking to his fingers, which got lots of glue stick on them.
• When working in collage, start with your large, basic pieces as your foundation. Sol lightly traced his skeleton shape with a pencil before cutting it out. Everything else, we just eyeballed.
• I helped my son with the finer details of this collage, such as Frida's hair, dress and her jewelry, and Diego's shirt.

If you give your students consistent guidance while they are working, their finished projects will turn out amazing! I say "consistent guidance" because there are always students who want to rush through the project. Or there are those who "don't know what to do".  If you take your students through the steps of laying down their foundation shape, then they are more likely willing to continue working on building their skeletons. Sometimes, a blank piece of paper is just too daunting.

Hope you have a blast creating this Día de los Muertos collage. We certainly did!

The artwork above was created by my eleven year old son (with a little help from mom).

¡Feliz Día de los Muertos!


Woohoo!

The day has finally come. Today, we will be painting our skeleton faces, complete with decorative flowers and swirl designs, putting flowers in our hair and we'll be heading downtown to our local Day of the Dead celebration. What about you? Do you have anything exciting and/or creative planned for you and your students?

In honor of Day of the Dead, I thought I'd share a very cool sugar skull template for my readers to download for free! Yep, that's right, it is one of the coloring pages that I'm offering in my Dia de los Muertos Activity book. And it's all yours to use in the classroom. Free. Gratis.

Some fun things to do with this template:

• You can color the sugar skulls and embellish them with glitter, puffy paint, marker, crayon or oil pastels, whatever you'd like.
• Maybe you can add some bling to your sugar skull and glue rhinestones onto it.
• Or you can fashion a few flowers from colored tissue paper and glue to the top of the sugar skull. Oh, you fancy huh?
• Finally, cut out your mask and glue to a popsicle stick.
• Voila! A really cool mask you can use to celebrate Día de los Muertos with your family or your art students.

I did one of my first Day of the Dead art workshops of the season last week. It was so much fun! Sometimes I forget how amazing it is to teach art to children.

Some of you may be thinking, really? Are you trying to pull my leg?

No, I'm being totally serious.

There is something about creating art and working with children who have uninhibited creativity. They are very free, unafraid to take risks--they really lose themselves in their art! All that energy is contagious.

Sadly, adults aren't like that at first. It really takes a while for people to let go of themselves.

Anyhow, I was reminded of this fact this week. I taught a simple Day of the Dead art lesson to a group of awesome third graders, one of which was my son Cyan. I shared a brief history on how they celebrate this day in Mexico, we read a really cool children's book about the subject (which really made me have a thought--more on this later) and then we got to work creating our own sugar skulls with oil pastels. My son's amazing teacher even let us listen to the Lila Downs Pandora station, so we could really get the whole Dia de los Muertos vibe going.

The kids drew, colored, were very inquisitive and I got the chance to road test my Day of the Dead Activity pages that I posted about a couple weeks ago. They loved all of the cool shapes. The punk rocker was a fave, so was the large sugar skull. As a thank you, the teacher gave me some really pretty jade-ite skull earrings. So sweet.

Each one was so unique!

Love the bright blue around the eyes.

Markers on the Sugar Skull template looked like so much fun, I wanted to join in!

The punk rocker was in high demand.

Working hard at creating art.

The school girl calavera coloring sheet.

The teacher hung all of our creations on the classroom wall and it looked amazing!

Everyone used the same template yet they all came out very distinct and colorful.

Still wondering what to do with your students on Day of the Dead? Grab your Day of the Dead Activity book or come back on November 2nd when I'll have a really cool Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera calavera collage for you to share with your classroom!

Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is quickly approaching on November 2nd.

Of course, as a Mexican folk artist and teacher, this is my favorite time of the year! I love everything about it--the cool night air that Fall brings, the smell of copal (incense) burning,  the sweet sound of rattling shells on the ankles of the Aztec dancers and the colorful sights of the altars, the sugar skulls, the face painting....and of course, the artwork.

I am so excited!

My kids are equally excited about this day because I usually have an art activity planned for them, in addition to the other activities of the night. There are so many interesting and exciting aspects about this day, culturally and artistically--it's so much more than "Mexican Halloween".  It's a holiday steeped in tradition and every year its influence spans wider and wider.

In response to the demand, I've decided to create an activity plan to share Day of the Dead on the interwebz. It is perfect for the classroom--whether it be a traditional public school classroom, the charter school hybrid,  private school or a group of homeschoolers. It's suitable for all ages, and it's supported by twelve quality links for you to explore.

What makes this activity plan different from others you've seen is that I've created six custom coloring pages for teachers to share with their classroom. That's right, I've infused my own Day of the Dead style of art into these coloring sheets and they can be used in a variety of ways and incorporated into several art lessons for your students.

When you order this 10-page activity plan, you'll receive:

• Summary of the origins of Day of the Dead
• Vocabulary words
• Six unique black and white calavera coloring sheets that you are free to reproduce as many times as you wish*
• You can choose from a Frida Kahlo calavera, a dancing couple, a punk rocker, skulls with roses, a school girl and a large sugar skull (which you can use as a template to create a mask).
• In addition to several other ideas for you to celebrate this holiday with your students, there are 12 interesting and educational links for you to explore.

I can't wait for you check out my activity pages! The image above is a sneak peak of the first page. My own children have been coloring them with markers for days now and they are really enjoying all of the organic designs, especially the punk rocker and the Frida Kahlo calavera.

*All images on the activity pages are meant solely for personal use and use in the classroom. Do not reproduce for sale in any form.

The Day of the Dead is celebrated on November first and second. I really hate when I hear people call it a "Mexican Halloween". That couldn't be farther from the truth. It is a tradition that can be traced as far back as the Aztecs. To put it simply, it is a time to remember your loved ones that have gone on before you. Some people honor their deceased with altars and ofrendas, or offerings. This is where people get really creative. They decorate it with cempasúchitl, or marigolds...favorite things like toys (for little children) or their favorite drinks, food, pictures, artwork, music. Even pillows and blankets are laid out for their loved ones to be comfortable on their long journey.

Jose Guadalupe Posada was a well-known Mexican engraver and illustrator. His work has long been associated with Dia de los Muertos and it is what inspired me to begin this project. It's something I did at home with my children since the co-op we belong too doesn't observe any non-Christian holidays. And that is fine with me. We had alot of fun doing this at home.

• You will need a 9 X 12 sheet of black paper. Construction paper or poster board will do. I preferred the construction paper because it had a little bit of texture to it.
• Allow kids to sketch lightly with a pencil. I worked on my own sugar skull alongside them so they were able to get an idea of how to draw it.
• Pass out oil pastels and encourage kids to create unique shapes and designs in the background.
• When they are finished coloring it in, instruct kids to outline in black oil pastel. This makes the colors pop.
• Color pencils could be used on top of the oil pastels to create even more depth of line and shapes.
  

The artwork above was created by a fifth grader.