For 500 years, Oaxacans have carved toys for children and masks for fiestas.  Recently they added to their repertoire and array of magical and saucy figures, such as coyote skeletons, dancing chickens , standing rabbits, angels, mermaids, oxen teams, frogs, and amusingly impudent devils and village drunks.  Sanded and hand - painted by the carvers’ wives, sisters, children, and parents, these whimsical and bewitching works are now recognized as a legitimate form of art.  While becoming more accessible to enthusiastic tourists and eager collectors, their sales are helping to rejuvenate schools, churches, town squares, and families who have been impoverished for generations.

OBJECTIVES
Students will

• learn about the art and culture of Oaxaca, Mexico
• Identify pre-Columbian and contemporary folk art of Oaxaca Mexico
• use a variety of materials to build an armature
• create a free standing form and paint it in the style of the fork art

MATERIALS

• forms for sculpture - cardboard of various weights
• cardboard paper rolls, wood, plastic containers and lids
• wire mesh, wire, tape, scissors, pâpier maché , newspaper
• samples, Oaxacan Art text, and articles

DEMONSTRATION
Demonstrate how to build an armature from the materials provided.  Show the students how to visualize what materials are best to create different forms.  Show how to tape the forms together, cover the form with pâpier maché, and finally how to paint the delicate designs.

Huichol Indian Yarn Painting From Mexico
Images of a Vanishing Culture

The Huichol Indians, whose pre-Hispanic culture still survives in the remote Sierra Madres ranges, live a life woven of magic and sacred mythology. Believing themselves to be that part of creation which entertains the Gods, Huichols are sustained by their earthly representatives - corn, peyote and the deer - thus symbolically renewing their divinity daily. 

Both women and men keep alive the ancient traditions which remain a precarious reality for these indigenous people still relatively unaffected by Western civilisation. But encroaching paper mills, airstrips, and government forces are rapidly altering this. Soon, all that will be left of this so-called "primitive" culture will be memories and the yarn paintings surviving in the hands of collectors.

Shamanic art originated with prayer bowls placed in caves as offerings. Whatever the size, the yarn paintings are personal interpretations of some aspect of Huichol relationship to the Gods. In this land of canyons, sparse rainfall, and uncertain crops, these Indians depend on their close psychic connections with Nature to survive.

Called "nierikas", or mirror images of God, these art pieces are creative manifestations embodying the Huichol belief that we all make our own realities. Such works, empowered by the visionary cactus, peyote, are magical talismans which return to our lives a fusion with those natural forces we have lost.

All paintings are traditionally made of yarn, board and beeswax.

Wayang Kulit
Balinese Shadow Puppet Assignment

The Island of Bali is one of the smallest but best known of Indonesia’s main islands.  It is a population of three million Hindus surrounded by  180 million Muslims.   Bali is about the size of Rhode Island (2175 square miles.)   Famed as a tropical paradise, with charming people, and the sophisticated artistry of its distinctly Indonesian-Hindu civilization, Bali is also a surfing hot spot .   Gunung Agung  is the highest  mountain at 2,152 meters.   This sacred peak is where the divine spirits dwell.  Bali is among the volcanic chain of islands known as the Ring of Fire. 

The Balinese make an art out of everything.  Painting,  sculpture,  carving, dancing, and decorating lavish offerings to the gods are the mainstays of everyday life.  The people are heavily invested in their  Hindu religion, and their art forms are born of a desire to please the spirits that govern their existence. 

The Art form we will be reproducing is the Shadow puppet (Wayang Kulit).  This art form is one of the oldest  dramatic entertainment.  Wayang Kulit  is a performance of flat leather puppets in the hands of a mystic storyteller, the dalang, who casts their shadows on a backlit screen.  For the Balinese, the plays performed serve as a medium through which they learn about their classical literature and address anecdotes of all life’s situations.  Hindu mythology is adapted into this theater.  Performances are seen at important stages in the life of a Balinese.

The Dalang  is the narrator of the Wayang Kulit.  He is a skilled artist, a spiritual teacher, philosopher, and a master of eloquence and poetic embellishment.  He is the true star of this shadow theater, who almost single-handedly directs the whole drama.  While remaining seated he deftly manipulates his puppets for up to six straight hours.  Each puppet is heavy and he may be required to handle as many as four at a time.  He conducts the  orchestra (gamelan),  and plays the drum (kropak) with his foot.  The dalang must have encyclopedic knowledge of the Hindu epics and speak them in several dialects. 

The story is local variations of the Mahabharata ,a Hindu  myth, dealing with the feud between two rival royal families, the Pandavs  and the Korwas.  It is a story of treachery, jealousy, heroes and villains.  Another play presents the theme of the Ramayana, in which Prince Rama  tries to rescue his beloved Sita  from the clutches of the monster-king Rawana.  Rama  is helped by a great army of monkeys led by their flamboyant and fearless leader, the white ape Hanuman.  Armies clash and millions die.  In all plays absolute virtue wins over absolute evil and cosmic order is attained.   

Making the Wayang Kulit:

Provided for you are examples of  Balinese Shadow Puppets  as well as student made art.  There are templates for tracing puppets  on sheets of watercolor paper.  The images are  cut out using scissors and exacto knives.   The Puppets are  painted on both sides using one color.  We  are using acrylic and house paint.   Carefully paint  Balinesian inspired designs on one side of the Puppet, and don’t forget the arm parts.  Punch holes in the shoulder and arms to bracket the sections with brads.  Attach a dowel to each puppet using glue.  Lastly, coat the puppet with acrylic gloss varnish.

Emphasis for this project will be on the detailed design painted on one side of the puppet.  Artwork should be carefully cut, and the design should be well thought out and executed with precision.