Metaphorical Painting with Seventh Graders

I developed an unusual lesson plan this last spring while I was taking a course on creativity that I wanted to share here.  I’m not going to go into the details of the lesson as most art teachers can figure out how to develop a lesson like this once they see the final projects.  I’m trying to encourage my students to think deeper and more critically as they create their artwork.  In the lesson I developed, students had to create a painting that was essentially a self portrait metaphor.  Now that is a mouthful and there was much planning I had to do with my students to help them understand the concept.  By the time we finished most students had a pretty good idea of what the difference is between a simile and a metaphor.  My students also had to write about themselves as the metaphor.  These are some of the students’ paintings and written reflections.

This first picture was done by a young lady that I think is highly creative.  She created her self portrait where she became a storm.  This is what she wrote:

“I am strong and amazing.  I feed earth with my rains.  My excitement races through me with bright yellow flashes.  My winds blow through the grasses and shake the trees.  My laughter bellows out in loud clasping thunder.  No one can stop me, I go where I please.  I am wild and free just like the birds themselves.  I raise ocean waves to their highest peak and wash away the dirty earth.  I dance and clean and sway in the wind for what seems like forever, until finally my job is done and I slowly fade away.  My name is Demi and I am the storm.”

I was so intrigued by Demi’s response because she is a very quiet student.  However when she is in art class, she always makes a huge statement.  Her art statement always seems somewhat like a storm took over and put life into this very quiet young lady.  I really want to do more of these intense assignments in the future.  I think it forced my students to really think about how they could not only accomplish this assignment but make it very meaningful for them.  I know the students really enjoyed painting these projects.

Another student wrote this:

“I am wild like a lion.  I fly over the houses like an airplane.  Sometimes I am violent and sometimes I am peaceful.  I can make you chill and sometimes I can even make you freeze.  I am always here sometimes cold, warm or hot.  I am the wind.  I am Susana.”

Susana is an ESL student.  I loved the way she put her face up in the sky and created this lovely, whimsical scene.  She loved doing this project.  I think it was one of her favorites.  With the blue puffs in the sky the viewer can really see and feel that wind disrupting this simple, quiet scene.  I think that it is also a good way to describe Susana.  She is quiet and warm at times but when she’s mad at another student she lets them know it!

The next student gave another response that I think was rather insightful.

“I am bright like the sky.  I am deadly like cancer.  I come out by day and leave by night.  I am happy when others are happy.  I am angry when people are mean so I will turn around and burn you!  I am bright like the sky.  I am the sun.  I am Jada.”

Jada told me that she is a good friend but if you do something to upset her she will “burn” you.  She had so much fun painting this project in “her style”.  She loved making the statement and I know her favorite part was the bit about burning mean people.

I would never have come up with this assignment without learning about the metaphor strategy.  I had to work hard to come up with a strong concept to use in art class for this lesson.  I love the end result.  The artwork is so fun and reading the student’s responses was so compelling.  I know my students felt “pushed” with this assignment.  They were asked to do something that they hadn’t done before.  Many of them didn’t even really know what a metaphor was.  They had vague ideas from language arts class.  I think most of them now have a good idea after this lesson.  I truly think that when asked to look at famous artwork in the future, many of them will respond to what they see and try to make connections to what the artist might have been trying to say with symbolism and metaphor.  More can be viewed at our Artsonia link. 

If you are interested in working with metaphors with your students this video is a great place to start.