You are an Idiom!

Ceramic Self Portrait

Busts
Sculpture I
The Art Problem:
This Creative Challenge invites
students to interpret the idiom
of their choice through the
creation of clay sculptural
busts (about 2/3 lifesize).
Once fired, students enhance
both the form and content of
their pieces with a cold finish
by, first, underpainting them in
black, then dry brushing white
or off-white over the black
and, finally, adding highlights,
shadows, mood and surface
texture through mark-making
in colored pencils.

A Little Bird Told Me

Relate and Connect to Transfer
Explain, compare and justify that the visual arts are
connected to other disciplines, the other art forms,
social activities, mass media, and c
Identify, compare, and interpret works of art derived
from historical and cultural settings, time periods, and
cultural contexts
Identify, compare and justify that the visual arts are a
way to acknowledge, exhibit and learn about the
diversity of peoples, cultures and ideas
Elements and Principles
Balance
Proportion
Texture
Form
What is an idiom?
a group of words established by
usage as having a meaning not
deducible from those of the
individual words (e.g.,rain cats
and dogs,see the light).
Idiom Generating Competition
Change tables according to alphabetical order
Use a paper and pencil
No internet (no phones)
You will have 10 minutes to generate as many idioms as
you can.
Prizes

Idiom Pictionary
Requirements:
Your bust must be 2/3 the size of a human head and
shoulders.
You must base your design on an idiom that is also
representative of you and your personality.
Superior craftsmanship
Excellent use of class time
Superior construction that will not break.
Use of texture
Women Ceramic Artists - Scholastic
1. What is the meaning of
Warishinas Plum Beautiful?
What did the artist do with
ovals in Plum Beautiful?

It is a comment on
womens traditional role in
society.
She echoes and repeats
ovals to draw attention to
the piece of fruit the
woman is holding.
2. What is Viola Frey trying to say with her huge imposing
figures?

The figures are huge

and imposing. She
uses bright primary
colors to show the
flaws that some
people try to hide in
social situations.
The women in her
sculptures are not
victims.
3. How does Roxanne Swentzell use contrast to create
meaning in her Native American Sculptures?

She uses organic

shapes and
geometric Pueblo
patterns to
symbolize the clash
of cultures
experienced by
many Native
Americans
4. What makes Daisy Youngbloods animals seem
vulnerable?

The bent and twisted

bodies, rough
textures, and
fragmented faces
make the creatures
appear vulnerable.
5. How does Maryann Webster make her porcelain
sculptures?

She makes plaster

molds of real objects
like shells, then she
cast them by pressing
porcelain clay into the
molds. She twists and
distorts the forms to
suggest
environmental
damage.
6. How does Carol Gentithes use humor in her sculptures?

She stylizes the

animals, and
uses distortion
and
exaggeration.
7. Explain some ways ceramic artists use clay to make
landscapes.
They can be inspired by
the colors in the
landscapes and paint
pieces with those colors.
They can use flat slabs
that have different
textures on them to make
landscapes and they can
use landscapes to
decorate three-
dimensional shapes