SYMBOLS     

What were our early ancestors trying to say when they painted these images of bison on cave walls? Why might they have buried a figurine of a pregnant woman in a crop or field? Are we different today? What is the message behind Keith Haring’s image of Lady Liberty? Why did Andy Warhol recreate an image of an everyday can of soup? What is Jean Michel Basqiat communicating in his self portrait? What are meanings in these symbols that people everywhere can relate to. Which symbols require a prior knowledge or a cultural background?

                 

What is the purpose of these images? How do they employ the use of line to help convey their messages? How is color used to strengthen the symbolic meanings that are behind them?

USING SYMBOLS IN THE STUDIO

PERSONAL SYMBOL

The use of symbols is universal and enduring. Through the exploration of symbols as forms of representation, create a finished work responding to how you see symbols as representations of yourself. Study the history of symbols from hieroglyphs to pictographs to Islamic pattern motifs to uses in contemporary culture then create a list of qualities that make you unique. Brainstorm images and symbols for those qualities, then combine them into a singular symbol that stands for who you are as an individual.

• Examine symbols found in different geographic locations different time periods and across different cultures. The use of symbols is universal and enduring.

Why are some symbols universal, while others reflect a specific time or place?  

    
• Discover through hands on exploration how symbols
are created to describe or reflect a specific
person/place/thing.

What symbols might you select to represent different
aspects of your identity?

• Understand how symbols are an essential aspect of
communication and can transcend language/culture.

What does your symbol say about you? What were you
trying to say? How successful were you in
communicating this idea?

Here is an example by Kali Johnson, a former student from the Jaffe Institute: