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).

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.

Last week I decided to share my love (read: obsession) of Frida Kahlo and her self-portraits. On a recent trip to San Francisco to see a large collection of her work at sfmoma, I realized just why she painted so many portraits. It wasn't because she thought she was beautiful or interesting. She painted bowls of fruit or portraits of other people to make money to pay for her mounting doctor bills. She assumed people would not care to pay for her intensely personal paintings. During the times after her many surgeries and when her body was giving way, she was confined to her bed. That was where she painted self-portraits to the point where she perfected her own face.

I wanted to teach the students how powerful color could be to convey emotion. So we embarked on a self-portrait project, splitting the portrait down the middle. One side is their happy, "crazy" side with warm, bright colors. The other is calm, serene side with cool colors.

• Make sure students have a 9 X 12 piece of white paper and a pencil.
• Pass out circle templates and instruct them to draw their own heads. I've found that making them use templates keeps them away from drawing little pinheads.
• Once they have drawn their features, have them draw a line down the center.
• Some of the kids got confused as to what was a cool color and what was a warm color but I think they understood the overall principle.
• We fun with this project. I know I did because I got to talk about Frida Kahlo!

The artwork above was created by a 5th grader.