Skirmish

You may ask yourself, who is the kneeling character in the last post? Why is he there? Well, he is a misplaced archer and should be here.

The Chinese warriors (246 B.C.) have returned to the 3rd grade this year. We are building Emperor Xian's army in miniature. We would need to use all of Prospect Park to build it to scale. Last year, I got a grant for the model magic to create this project and this year the generosity of our PTA has made the project possible.

Here are the basic facts:

Emperor Xian was the first emperor of China. He managed to unify China and begin work on the Great Wall but he was a generally nasty, violent and warring leader. When he began to think of his afterlife, he knew he would need protection, so he had artists recreate his army, in larger than life form, to be buried with him in his tomb. This huge army of several thousand soldiers remained buried and forgotten until 1974 when a few farmers were digging a well and struck something hard. They had found the most exciting archaeological dig site of the 20th century.

I want to give credit to Eva Lewandowski for doing this project first, a few years ago, with Mr. Greller's class. I loved it and, with her blessing, adapted it to the art studio.

There are always a few students that ask questions like " Can I have multiple arrows wounding my warrior in the worst, most violently possible, way?" I have already discussed the weapons of 246 BC with them so they know that guns were not invented. We have also talked about the fact that the weapons of Emperor Xian's army are mostly gone. Some weapons were taken in tomb looting thousands of years ago and some wooden handles have disintegrated over time, leaving only the bronze blades. So when they ask if they can show the effects of war, I tell them that we need to be historically accurate and that the emperor's army was poised for battle in case he needed protection in his next life. They have not engaged in battle yet.

I , usually can guess which students might ask this question because their drawings and paintings have already shown a leaning towards high action.

My favorite part of teaching art to children is the surprises that inevitably arise. This is also my favorite part of making art. One moves forward with intention and suddenly the unexpected moves in and the meaning of the endeavor receives a twist. Suddenly, the process is funnier or more dramatic or a meaning crops up that wasn't there in the beginning, deepening the experience.

So, my surprise this year happened in Ms. Goldberg's class on our 2nd day of painting the warriors. I had talked about glazing to the class to achieve depth and richness in the painted surface. I had talked about European painters building up their surfaces in layers. We were using acrylics and matte medium to add more color. This would be our last class producing the Chinese warriors before we held our "mini-museum".

At table 5, always a table of quiet self-sufficiency and concentration, I was unaware that Chinese warriors were engaged in a silent bloody battle. Anjali and Ana had decided to make ghastly crimson wounds in their warriors. The students in the class who had been eager from the get go to make sculptures from a violent war had listened to my argument that no war had taken place. These girls decided they didn't care about historic accuracy and went for it.

What do I think? Well, when someone does something out of character, I generally applaud it. I was pleased. I admired the students that held back when their impulses would have wanted bloody arrows covering every limb of their sculpture and I also admired the quiet decision these girls made to let the impulse flow. The crimson color was appealing, after all.

James, in Mr. Greller's class, told me that that "China's Terracotta Army" is coming to Washington. I looked it up and James is right. The show that was at the British Museum last year (they produced a really great teacher resource packet) will be in Washington in the fall. I'll be there. Thank you, James.