SYMBOLIC ARM and MASK PORTRAIT
3-D Printed Arm Cast - New Technology, Is this the new future?
Porcelain Tattooed Ballet Arms Installation
African Masks
Chinese Masks
Native American Indian Masks
http://www.thecraftyninja.com/plaster-hand-project/
3-D Printed Arm Cast - New Technology, Is this the new future?
Porcelain Tattooed Ballet Arms Installation
African Masks
Chinese Masks
Native American Indian Masks
http://www.thecraftyninja.com/plaster-hand-project/
mask_casting_worksheet.pdf | |
File Size: | 226 kb |
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Ben Jones is an artist, activist, and educator, who uses his art to bring awareness to the plight of humanity throughout the world. A native of Paterson, NJ, Ben Jones co-founded the African American Cultural Committee at Montclair Art Museum years ago. The Ben Jones Scholarship was established to honor the artist’s life-long commitment to youth art education and diversity in the arts.
Black Face and Arm Unit s an installation consisting of 30 life-size plaster casts of faces and arms, each of them furiously decorated with intensely colorful dots and stripes arranged in patterns, although there are many areas in which the decoration is intentionally formless and even crude. Still, the immediate and intended reference is to body-painting traditions across Africa, where skin is often regarded as blank canvas. Traditionally, body painting was used in African societies to denote social status or signify religious belief. While it is hard to discern any specific cultural markings on the painted plaster casts for “Black Face and Arm Unit,” that is not really the point. Mr. Jones’s decorative designs are abstract, gesturing to the religious legacy of body painting while at the same time being above or outside that world. The work was a catalyst for him to explore his African roots more deeply, as several later pieces on this theme reveal
“My advice to aspiring artists is…to get all the art exposure you can get and one of the best places to get it is at a museum…take workshops and have contact with great teachers and other young people who are also aspiring artists.” – Ben Jones
Black Face and Arm Unit s an installation consisting of 30 life-size plaster casts of faces and arms, each of them furiously decorated with intensely colorful dots and stripes arranged in patterns, although there are many areas in which the decoration is intentionally formless and even crude. Still, the immediate and intended reference is to body-painting traditions across Africa, where skin is often regarded as blank canvas. Traditionally, body painting was used in African societies to denote social status or signify religious belief. While it is hard to discern any specific cultural markings on the painted plaster casts for “Black Face and Arm Unit,” that is not really the point. Mr. Jones’s decorative designs are abstract, gesturing to the religious legacy of body painting while at the same time being above or outside that world. The work was a catalyst for him to explore his African roots more deeply, as several later pieces on this theme reveal
“My advice to aspiring artists is…to get all the art exposure you can get and one of the best places to get it is at a museum…take workshops and have contact with great teachers and other young people who are also aspiring artists.” – Ben Jones
BIG IDEA: Students will cast their face and/or arm for a temporary sculpture installation. They will paint it with patterns and symbols that reflect their cultural heritage, goals, who they are and beyond. They will get input from family members for symbols to reflect ancestors.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How does art record and communicate the human experience?
KEY KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING:
STUDENTS WILL:
DESIGN PROCESS:
VISUAL DIRECTIONS - Plaster Mask
SCIENCE CONNECTIONS:
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How does art record and communicate the human experience?
KEY KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING:
- To provide students with hands-on experience with various tools and materials used in design and construction. The student will make a mold of both their arm and from a mask.
- Create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
- Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
- Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.
- Cooperate with classmates to cast arm and face and demonstrate craftsmanship in plaster addition.
STUDENTS WILL:
- Look at and discuss significance/purpose of African masks and other masks from around the world - understand meaning - discuss similarities/characteristics. Look at body adornment in various cultures.
- Look at the influence of African art on Modern Art.
- Research design/art in their own culture - symbols - textiles - imagery. Learn about the beliefs and values of their ancestors. Make a mini journal of their findings - including sketches.
- Make a blueprint for face and arm to do some planning - this can be on going through the lesson and can change.
- Learn terminology: There are Three forms of plaster casting: One employs a waste mold, another a piece mold (both plaster of paris), and the third a gelatin mold; all reproduce the original clay or wax model executed by the sculptor. The waste mold is chipped away (wasted) to free the hardened cast, which was poured in as liquid plaster. The gelatin mold, being pliable, may with care be sprung from the cast and removed intact and used for replicas. The piece mold also may be used again, being so divided as to be readily drawn away from the undercutting of the cast without damage to either.
- Discover artists Ben Jones and George Segal, contemporary artists of modern society; Sculptures of George Segal
DESIGN PROCESS:
VISUAL DIRECTIONS - Plaster Mask
- An apron is necessary for this assignment. go get one and put it on!
- Working with a partner, cut plaster mesh into strips.
- Discuss with your partner while you are cutting thoughts and ideas. Collaborate and plan for your blueprint.
- Take lotion or oil and place on arm. You can use plastic wrap if you choose instead but the final effect is not as good.
- Direct your partner on what you want them to do. Your the boss. Make sure to stress the importance of overall quality. Work fast but not sloppy! As you are layering the plaster strips you can also use the plaster to create three dimensional effects.
- KEY areas to focus on....the wrist and the joints in the fingers. Stay as still as possible. You will need anywhere from 3-4 layers on your casting.
- Allow to sit and dry on your arm. Make minimal movement.
- Remove and let cure.
- Working from your blueprint draw out on your ideas on your arm casting. Begin painting.
SCIENCE CONNECTIONS:
- Plaster casting is needed in dye-casting and can be a cost effective alternative for manufacturing prototype solutions. Many parts that are typically made by plaster casting are lock components, gears, valves, fittings, tooling, and ornaments.
- Plaster casts are used not only for the creation of new sculptures, but also for the numerous replicas of famous marble or stone statues. The ancient Egyptians used models of plaster taken directly from the human body. The Romans cast in plaster many thousands of copies of Greek statues. In another sense of the term, plaster casting refers to the surgical technique of encasing in a plaster-of-Paris cast any part of the body in which bones are broken so that the bones may set smoothly without interference by motion, jarring, or physical shock.
- Chemical Reaction: Plaster is made by heating and subjecting the mineral gypsum to high temperatures. of about 150°C where it loses water and produces the powder, plaster of Paris. The re-mixing of water with plaster causes an exothermic chemical reaction that releases heat. This heat helps to harden the Plaster of Paris allowing it to set.
- When a doctor sets a plaster cast to hold broken bones together he uses a little extra water. This extra water helps absorb the excess heat released, while some heat is lost to the surroundings. The large surface area of the cast also helps to dispel the heat of this chemical reaction evenly.
- Plaster of Paris chemical Formula:
Gypsum =heat=> Plaster of Paris + steam
2CaSO4·2H2O =heat=> 2CaSO4·½H2O + 3H2O
Chemical formula of Plaster of Paris = CaSO4·½H2O