 Medicine Hoop Assignment...
First Nations peoples in todays' North American saw most facets of life as being circular. The medicine hoop was a symbol of this cycle of life, it flowed clockwise following the four directions. Europeans brought the hoop to the American continent, and they called the medicine hoop the medicine wheel.
To the right is an example of a very basic medicine hoop indicating the colors, directions and energies that are traditional to many of the North American tribes. There are many other symbols, animals, plants and objects that are associated with each direction. Artists will depict what is meaningful to them inside the medicine hoop.
Use your watercolors, colored pencils, and other art materials...
...to create your own personal medicine hoop.
-
Your Sketchbook or Drawing Paper
-
A small Plate (that is just a bit smaller than the height of your book)
-
1 Sheet of Paper
-
Pencil
-
Eraser
-
Watercolors, Brushes, Water, Colored Pencils, Markers, Stomp or Paper Towel...
In the your Sketch Book
(or on a separate piece of paper), create a basic medicine hoop: draw a hoop with lines crossing in the center to make four quadrants. Make it big enough so that you have room to draw symbols, animals, plants and other objects that are meaningful to you inside the hoop.
Look deep inside yourself...
discover what colors, shapes, symbols, animals, plants, people, objects, etc. are meaningful to YOU and that symbolize the nature of each of the four directions.
You can use a small plate that is a bit smaller than the height of your sketch book and trace the hoop across two pages in it. In class I will show you how to find the center of the hoop to draw the quadrant lines, there are videos on YouTube that show how to do this: or you can just “eye-ball it” and draw the lines freehand.
Use watercolors, colored pencils and other art materials to create an image of what you envisioned inside the four direction quadrants. You do not have to use the traditional colors that are in the medicine hoop above and it is not necessary to write any words. You may use any art materials including watercolors and colored pencil: crayons, markers, pastels, including cutting out pictures from magazines and newspapers that you paste in and draw on.
Make something meaningful to you.
Sometimes the outside of a medicine hoop is adorned with feathers, shells and beads, you can add those to your hoop as well.
Be creative!
Be courageous!
WHEN YOU ARE DONE...
TAKE A PICTURE OF YOUR MEDICINE HOOP AND TURN IT IN THROUGH GOOGLE CLASSROM.
|
