Parshat Noach: Rainbow Mural
The whole point of doing this program a second time around was so that I could do the exact same projects this year as last year, making my life very easy! Well, so far that has not been the case. I was too tempted by the grand idea of starting the year off with a large collaborative project. I am somewhat obsessed with google imaging the words "collaborative art project" - I just love all of the examples out there of big beautiful colorful pieces of artwork made up of the contributions of many individuals. So, when Parshat Noach came around, I couldn't stop looking at some of the "pins" I had been storing, many of which used a rainbow theme...
Ultimately, I was most enchanted with this "collaborative paper quilt" (that's what you should write if you want to find a million examples of this project).
There are MANY blogs out there that detail the process but these are the ones that I mainly referred to when preparing:
The original project is used to teach the quilt work of an artist named Libs Eliot. I did not try to connect this project to a specific artist or even technique. I focused on how such simple shapes and colors can make something so impressive and beautiful. I also did not give as much direction as the creators of the project - I did not want to limit them to using only particular shapes or sizes. I also did not attempt to do a massive project of many hundreds of squares like this one (I only did 96 squares :)):
It took a fair amount of in-advance organizing and cutting (with a professional paper cutter!) but the mural itself was done all in one day - I worked with four classes and then quickly staple-gunned the whole thing up on a bulletin board. I am super happy with the way it came out and I am happy with the juxtaposition of last week's project (light and dark/black and white) with this week's parsha (a rainbow of colors!) I am also happy that they were very similar techniques - creating bold designs using just paper, scissors, and glue. Here's our final product:
The kids were super creative and excited about the project. After it was hung though, many kids complained that I hung their square up upside down :)!!!!
Again, there are SO many directions to take this in - the science behind rainbows, the components of the colorwheel, the geometry of the triangles and squares, the spiritual symbolism of the rainbow....
Of course, this is a great project to talk about the individual and community - every square is unique, each square alone might not be so impressive but all together, the impact is great.
SHABBAT SHALOM!