Focus Questions:
Preparation:
1. Historical context: Read the biographical information at the end of the lesson plan.
Procedures:
Observe
1. Introduce the students to the image, Thank You Hide. Discuss the concept of discovery. Tell the students that it often takes time to work your way through something. Tell them that at first they will only be asked to look and describe what they see, but encourage them to let their feelings and intuition go along with their observations. Their thoughts and ideas will be explored later.
3. Begin to ask questions about what they are looking at:
Interpret
8. Explain that this artist has not actually used an animal hide to create this print, that he drew a shape similar to an animal hide in ink onto a flat aluminum or stone surface that was pressed onto large sheets of paper. Because this ink drawing became reversed when it was pressed onto the paper, he would have had to write all of the names backwards. Ask the students to hypothesize some reasons why the artist might have used the shape of an animal hide as his map shape. Point out to them that when people try to represent what they know, they will make many choices about how they will create an image.
Activity:
Engage the students in a project of mapping some of their own experiences. Help them identify choice points along the way in creating such a map, including
Biographical Information:
William Wiley was born in 1937 in Indiana and received his Bachelor and Master in Fine Arts degrees from the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute). In his 40-year career as a painter, watercolorist, and sculptor he has translated his studies of Zen Buddhism, Sufism, mythology, and the daily news into works that contain humor and elusive meaning.
Glossary:
abstract: nonrepresentational or nonobjective; having only intrinsic form with little attempt at pictorial representation
realistic: representative of a person, place, or thing; recognizable
context: the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs
print: a drawing that has been transferred from a woodblock, a metal or plastic plate, or polished stone to a piece of paper
Lesson Plan 1: Getting Our Bearings by Knowing Our Origins
William Wiley (American, b. 1937- )
Thank You Hide, date unknown
lithograph in five colors
31 3/4" x 44"
Madison Art Center Purchase
Premise: In order to move into the unknown, it is useful to analyze and synthesize what is known from past experiences and influences.
1. How can maps help us know where we are so we can know where we are going?
2. In what ways is a map an abstraction of reality?
Link to JASON Project Curriculum: Navigation and Mapping
2. Language: Look at the Glossary at the end of the lesson plan to become familiar with terms to use in talking about this artwork.
3. Classification system-This artwork is a print. Prints are multiple impressions made from plates or stones or screens onto paper. This print is a lithograph. Traditionally, lithographs are made by inking a special lithography stone and pressing it onto sheets of paper. Because of the size of this print it probably was printed from an aluminum plate. Each individual print is an original work of art.
4. Equipment-The tools that are necessary for discovering this object are eyes, spatial awareness, familiarity with maps, and information about Native American practices of using animal hides for creating visual images. Equipment that may be collected for the classroom are examples of maps, a globe, photographs, and pictures of Native American hide drawings and paintings.
2. Ask the students to look closely at the lines and shapes, colors and textures, and to simply describe what they see. Draw their attention to different parts of the image. Encourage their observation of names at certain locations.
Analyze
Is it a "real" map of the United States? How is it different?
In what ways is it different from the maps they are used to seeing?
What does the shape remind them of? Point out that it is a form derived from nature.
4. Discuss maps in relation to realism and abstraction. Start by asking them whether maps are "real" or abstract depictions of the earth? Using a globe, a map, and some photographs, help the students understand differences between an actual object and a realistic representation of it, between an actual object and a symbolic representation of it, and between a representational image and an abstract image.
5. Discuss this map in terms of abstraction and realism in the world of art. Tell the students that realistic artworks are intended to give a representational image of people or objects or landscapes. Abstract artworks emphasize other qualities, like geometric shapes or emotional expression or the surface of the painting or the artist's ideas. Ask them to describe the ways that they think this artwork is realistic or abstract.
6. Draw attention to the words on the map. Tell the students that the use of words and text incorporated into art objects is a particularly twentieth-century art style. They hint at the ideas the artist is communicating, and they stimulate associations in the viewer's mind, but they don't tell the whole story. Discuss words, or language, as abstractions of reality.
7. Discuss with the students the common use of animal hides by native peoples as surfaces for image-making. Show them pictures of hide drawings and tell them that they have probably been created since early human civilizations, but they are less likely to survive through time than drawings on inert surfaces like rock. Ask the students to think of some experiences that might have been recorded on animal hides.
9. Tell the students about the artist. Discuss this image by William Wiley as a map of his experience, as a personal story. Ask them to notice how the artist has "abstracted" (or modified) parts of the map to emphasize his own experience of certain places. Tell the students that the artist has "mapped" some of the people and places who have been important to his artistic development; for example, there is a reference to "Cliff" at the upper right, about where Connecticut would be, which was the home of artist H.C. Westermann, who was an important influence on his career. Wiley is well-known for being quite cryptic and mysterious in his choice of symbols in his art, so it is not always possible to know the people or places he is picturing.
10. Focus on the idea of the unknown, the discomfort or impatience we feel about not having answers. Humans seek to understand in order to have a sense of control over the unexplained and the unforeseen, in order to feel safe and protected from surprises. But there is the contrasting desire to move beyond the safe and predictable to the next challenge, the next region that is unexplored. This process occurs when people look at art, too. They are uncomfortable when they don't know the language, don't have some guideposts, are put off by the feeling of being "taken for a ride" by an artist who seems unwilling to explain the intent or who is doing something unfamiliar. William Wiley says, "People always ask me what something means...but I don't really know what it means, and that's why it's interesting to me...I think art is such a wonderful concept in that that's one of its main functions-to remain undefined."
the particular experiences they want to map
the kinds of materials they will use
the extent of realism or abstraction they will employ
the presence or absence of language in their map
the particular ways they will use art elements, such as, color, line, shape, texture, space
Lesson Plan 2: Getting Our Bearings by Knowing Our Dreams
Lesson Plan 3: Getting Our Bearings by Knowing Our Universe
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