plaster casting and mask creation

Last week, with the support of Robin Adair and Carol Wylie from the Mendel Art Gallery, the students created masks from plaster casting. The process was a lot of fun and the students are excited about their creations. Most of the students in my class made animal masks to be used in the play as spirit animals from the Boreal Forest. One student made his mask to look like David Suzuki, who has a cameo appearance in our play. The grade eight students created caricatures to be used in a song they are performing about consumerism.
Before Robin and Carol arrived, I had my students print a picture of the animal mask they wanted to created. They simply Googled animal masks and were able to view many different styles. When Robin arrived, he had a giant tote with everything we needed to start the creation. He gave students each a plastic garbage bag to wear so that their clothing was protected. Students chose a partner to work with, were given some plaster bandaging and a container of water, and instructed to slather Vaseline on their faces. I brought hair ties and elastic headbands to help the kids keep their hair out of their masks.
Robin was fantastic, and his instructions were clear and easy to follow. The students were excited, and therefore a bit noisier than usual. Robin told the students to cast their partner's face, removed the cast, and then repeated the process again with the other partner being cast. Once the process got underway, the students quieted down and became absorbed in their task.
After they pulled the casts off of their faces, they began the work of building animal faces right onto the plaster casts. We did this to save time instead of building a mask off of the cast that would eventually be removed.
Robin helped students figure out how to create antlers, a proboscis, ears, and a beak. This part of the process took us an entire afternoon. I'm sure we could have kept creating, but before we knew it, it was the end of the day.

The next morning, while we still had all the mess out, we decided to continue working with the plaster casting to finish up our masks. Later in the afternoon, we got out acrylic pain and began painting the masks. We still have detail work that we need to finish, but we are close to being done this portion of the project.
The support and help from the Mendel Art Gallery was invaluable. When running an ArtsSmarts grant there is always so much to to do and coordinate, and without this support, I'm not sure what we would have done for masks - perhaps paper plates with eye holes cut out? They had access to the supplies necessary and the expertise to help us learn this process. As a teacher, I try to soak up these learning moments as much as possible. This is something that I think I could now do on my own, if I could find, and afford, the materials.
As for student learning, I saw lots of it. Students were problem solving in real time. They had to figure out how to create their own animal by learning a technique. They had questions like, "How to I build a muzzle?" and then they had to solve that problem on their own. Sometimes we think of a project like this as frivolous and fun, but in thinking that way, we fail to give credit to the real learning that is taking place. Our children need to have opportunities to have problems to solve on their own. They need to be able to try something, have it fail, and attempt to do things in a different way. The arts are a great place to allow for this learning to take place.
In working with a partner, students had to communicate their ideas, put faith in their partner, and work hard to help their partner to create a strong sturdy mask that could support additional features. As well, because their were only 4 adults in the room, students had to teach each other. Several students created a wolf mask, but I only had to help the first student with the creation of their muzzle. After that, they were the "expert" and could teach another student.
I'm not sure what the education program at the new Remai Arts Center will be, but I have certainly enjoyed working with the staff at The Mendel. I hope that the programing for schools is still accessible in the way that it has been through the Mendel. On behalf of St. Anne School, thank you to Laura Kinzel and the Mendel Art Gallery staff for you support, assistance, and partnership over the past three years. Thank you for your hard work with our students while you supported our ArtsSmarts projects. We have been so fortunate.
For anyone reading this blog, please check out our mural at the Mendel Art Gallery in the auditorium. It will be there until April 19th.
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