shamans effigies and an engineering nightmare Grade: D-

i started my ancient art art camp today. 7-9 year olds. we looked at art of the ancient americas in the galleries at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory. in particular the shamanistic potterys of transformative animal effigies; art that reflects the spiritual world, and the path to that realm. a favorite example in the collection is the Pataky jaguar from Costa Rica; dated centuries before the spanish arrived.

This effigy shows the shaman in a meditative pose while entering the spirit realm by transforming into the form of a jaguar...eyes wide and endlessly black represent the look into inner space and documents the dilation of pupils, a common side effect of hallucinating; a critical if not the central component of shamanistic religion. inside the jaguar effigy were small clay marbles, and when the shaman shook it; it growled with a rattle.

on the knees you will see a repeat pattern that is not jaguar spots but a pattern even more jaguar than that: many small jaguars, creating a super intense jaguar bomb of power. and not just any power but four-realm power like climbing into the trees and entering the sky realm; swimming in the water realm; being lord of all the jungle on the terra realm by day and night, and king of the spirit realm.

given the chance to merge with an animal to travel the spiritual realm what would you choose? what attributes would best serve your purposes? we discussed the merits of birds with their obvious charms, fierce meat eating animals, nimble monkeys and dolphins. we examined a praying mantis on a raised bowl, camouflaged in a swirling pattern and considered the survival strengths of various insects.

i showed them my two totems (no longer effigies because that refers to 3D objects) of the owl and the jaguar...and the moving parts on each: the 16 second video below shows what they looked like:




the kids embraced this enthusiastically and began designing their animals. critical was getting them to make the bodies big enough to attach moving parts. i had all kinds of animals from snakes (bad idea; too skinny) to porpoises (not ideal- horizontal) to birds (yay!) to bears (thank Christ!) i am a product oriented teacher, but not so much so that i insure success. meaning, if i advise you against something and you decide to ignore that advice, i let it play out. i find my advice has more value as the days pass when i do this. some kids took the advice and listened to the instructions and they had the killer final. they gleefully marched about while flapping the bat wings and big frog legs and crab claws of their newly constructed totems. sometimes right in the faces of the "strugglers". thats the jungle for you! kids are such merciless creatures. grrrrrrrrrrherhahahahaha!

i also never give false praise which really got the attention of one of my interns who is there to help me manage the personalities. example:

boy rips through the part of the process where you are supposed to cover the animal shape with surface design. he just schloked something out as quickly as he could so as to be finished and rush to the next phase.

he: is this good?

me: long pause. "i dont know. is it?"

he: shrug "i dont know"

me: well if that was mine i would fill in some of these areas solid black so its not just one big brown blob. and i cant really see the teeth cause they arent defined it all just blends together. i cant tell if he is ferocious or not. it looks a lot like you just did the fastest thing you could think of.

he: mild frown.

me: i think it could be excellent with more attention. i really do.


the intern asks about the exchange. are his feelings hurt? i tell her that even a 7 year old knows when hes just skating along and not really putting any effort into something. having seen him draw an elaborate obstacle course earlier i was confident he could do the detail surface work. and if i were to praise this thing he has made which is beneath his capabilities, then i have demonstrated that my opinion isnt worth anything. when he does something that shows real effort and thought i will praise it.
and it will mean more then. more to the point, he will learn to evaluate his own efforts better through this process.

and, if everybody gets equal praise when there is concrete evidence that contradicts giving it, then i become full of shyt. and then that takes the "glory" away from the achievers. many people believe that art should be the great equalizer where whatever is done is as good as the best thats been done. i hate that practice. everybody doesnt get to be the football star. or math wizard. you excel at art? you deserve recognition for being exceptional in that arena. i find something good to say about each childs work, but i will be very specific and honest. they learn very quickly the difference between "i like how you drew the eyes" and "this bear is awesome!"

i do get results.

however, i give myself a D- on my teaching today. when we finally got to where the moving parts of the totem had to be constructed with hole punches, paper fasteners and wire the class broke down into an anarchy of "ms. K9! ms. K9!" and "the mouth, wings, feet, arms won't work" and minor skirmishes over who would be next in line for me to fix it. when my 19 year old intern couldnt deal with the engineering of a dolphin mouth i knew the project was too hard...but on the verge of not being too hard too if 1/3 had a solid and highly individual final product. all were redeemed in the end but not without me doing some part of it and thats not good. and it was way chaotic the last 40 minutes. sword fights with rulers; a misunderstanding between girls resulting in tears; and a quiet child i autopiloted because i had fires to put out. i hate that.

later, one of the boys said: " i liked that this was kinda hard" as he slid his tiger's mouth back and forth to make him growl and bare teeth. to which his table mates replied "no you didnt!! you complained all day!" grrrrrrrherherhahaha!

tomorrow needs to go better.

*for foamy: who does this everyday IRL! *