Middle School

Artwork by Gracie H.

The Essential Question
How can students express emotions, dreams, or ambitions through art?

Objective
Students will make a plaster cast of their hand and combine it with assemblage to express how they feel about a subject, dream, or ambition.

Materials
plaster strips, petroleum jelly, water, strong glue or découpage medium, acrylic paint, found objects and/or magazine clippings, markers, canvas

Procedures

1. Ask students to think of a subject they feel strongly about.
2. Students collect found objects associated with that subject.
3. Guide students in making a plaster cast of their hand that will hold some of those objects. (Follow package directions and coat hand thoroughly with petroleum jelly before casting.)
4. Students paint the removed cast after it has dried and hardened.
5. Students glue their found objects in place and mount the finished artwork to a painted canvas.

Melody Weintraub is a retired classroom art teacher and adjunct art education instructor for the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville.