Wednesday, March 6, 2002
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Wednesday, March 6, 2002 |
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Students work with batik for Black History Month project Every picture tells a story. That is what students at Peachtree City Elementary School are learning as they study and reproduce an old form of African art that uses symmetrical symbols to translate messages. During art class, all students at the school are trying their hand at one of the oldest art forms in existence, Batik. A popular African art, batik is created by drawing an image on cloth using wax. The cloth and wax are then dipped into dye to finish the process. Mostly symmetrical symbols are used in batik to represent something that is larger. For instance, a heart represents love. As students began their projects, they were asked to select from a variety of African symbols including some unique ones representing danger, direction and a king's castle. Instead of using cloth and wax, the batik process was imitated in class by using paper, oil pastels and Indian ink. In order to ensure that each shape was truly symmetrical, students drew half of an image onto paper using an oil pastel and the folded the paper in half and rubbed it to create an exact mirror image on the opposite side. Afterwards, the ink was brushed over the artwork and blotted to give it a true batik finish. "A student in one of my classes is from Nigeria and he told me that his mother specially orders clothes that are done in batik. He is so excited about creating his own piece of batik art and said he couldn't wait it take it home and show her his creation," said substitute teacher Lenore Austin. Art teacher Teresa Samson came up with the idea to introduce students to the batik process as part of Black History Month activities at the school.
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