Making the Pictures in your Head
Week 4 FLASH ART CAMP
April 6-10 & 15-17, 2020
In the process of creating an illustration, artists think about (and often research) the settings, the characters and the history behind the story. To this point, we will consider a series of questions about the country Ghana where our particular story, LAZY ANANSI, originated before we begin our own illustrations. The conversation will include a discussion about how folk art, like folk stories, are created from things at hand, springing directly from the lives people live.
That Anansi the spider/demi-god/trickster originated in a culture that is known for its exceptional woven cloth speaks of the close ties between art and story and belief systems. — Legend has it that the Asante people learned to weave from the spider.
As many of the slaves brought to the Americas came from this region in Africa, we will look at work by African American folk artists for inspiration in making our own folk art illustrations of Lazy Anansi.
The use of found materials, simplicity of shape, brightness of color, abundance of pattern and the narrative nature of their work will become the parameters of our own work as we illustrate the Anansi story.
FLASH ART CAMP was created in response to the challenge of sheltering at home during the covid-19 crisis to help keep kiddos creative and engaged. We’re doing it live on Facebook. Every weekday at 2pm until we’re back to our normals.
Anne Cornell, our Pomerene Community Studio Artist — and the Ohio Arts Council TeachArtsOhio artist at Keene Elementary—whose genius lies in spinning ideas out of common stuff laying around the house, will lead the camp.
Resources
Kristian Svensson’s Ghanian spider photographs can be found here
Kahn Academy— Kente Cloth (Asante and Ewe peoples)
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