SELF-PORTRAIT QUILTS (grades 2-12)
This workshop combines an exploration of traditional American quilt art with basic skills in portrait-making.
Students in groups of 6-8 will create several quilts while using portraiture as a spring -board. They will learn how to depict facial features with drawing and/or collage, then transfer these drawings onto felt. Students will gather ideas while looking at traditional American Folk paintings and choose headdresses and clothing (shoulders to waist). They will then paint the portraits with oil pastels. In preparation for the quilts, the portraits will be cut to the contour of head, shoulders, and torso.
Student designs will also be stimulated by looking at, and discussing the paintings of Grant Wood, Grandma Moses, and Faith Ringhold’s quilts, which are often portrait-based. They will use traditional geometric quilting designs with either painted felt shapes or cloth (depending on time restrictions)
The quilts will be assembled as puzzles and overlaid with the self portraits.