Teaching Materials “Butterfly’s Ball and Grasshoppers Feast” An exhibit organized by the North Dakota Museum of Art Rural Arts Program [email protected] (701) 777-4195 Table of Contents Letter from the new Director of Education……………………………………………… 3 Introduction to the exhibition, “Butterfly’s Ball and Grasshopper’s Feast”………… 4 About the Rural Arts Initiative…………………………………………………………… 8 The Elements of Art and Principles of Design………………………………………….. 9 Visual Thinking Strategies………………………………………………………………... 12 Jennifer Angus Artist’s Statement………………………………………………………… 14 Project: Reading Pictures………………………………………………………………… 17 Project: Exploring and Collecting……………………………………………………….. 21 Interesting Information about Cicadas…………………………………………………... 26 Project: Can You Draw what I see?........................................................................... 31 Project: The Colorful World of Insects………………………………………………….. 41 Project: Jennifer’s Collection, Where in the World?...................................................63 Project: North Dakota and Our Insect, the Ladybug…………………………………… 68 Project: Poetry and Insects……………………………………………………………….. 78 Project: “La Cucarachita Martina”………………………………………………………. 103 Project: Create Your Own Insect — with a Catch……………………………………… 115 Information about the Teacher Survey / Evaluation Form……………………………... 121 2 Hello, My name is Matthew Anderson and I am the new Director of Education for the North Dakota Museum of Art. I am greatly looking forward to working with you to enhance the education component of NDMOA’s Rural Arts Program. Here’s the thing, I need your help. In the past we have provided teaching materials to accompany the traveling exhibitions. These teaching materials have included information about the exhibition, visual art lesson plans, integrated lesson plans, and other resources. At the exhibition, or available through request, is a survey. I ask that you please complete this survey and provide me any additional feedback as well. I want to know what I can do to make the Teaching Material as relevant for you and your class as possible. Each project/activity is aligned to North Dakota Department of Public Instruction’s Achievement Standards and Common Core Standards. Additional standards may also apply. The following projects are developed primarily for elementary grade levels, but many of the activities can be adapted for all grades. All activities were developed in conjunction with the North Dakota Museum of Art’s traveling exhibition “Butterfly’s Ball and Grasshoppers Feast”. —Matthew Anderson Director of Education North Dakota Museum of Art 3 “Butterfly’s Ball and Grasshopper’s Feast” Come take up your Hats, and away let us haste To the Butterfly’s Ball, and the Grasshopper’s Feast. —William Roscoe, 1802 About the Exhibit “Butterfly’s Ball and Grasshopper’s Feast” is an exhibition by contemporary artist Jennifer Angus. She celebrates and connects us to the world by using insects as her subject matter and medium. In some cases this exhibit and its materials may encourage youth to make informed decisions regarding global and community responsibility and to realize the moral and ethical obligation we have in sharing our world with insects. At the very least, this exhibit may inspire the young artists, musicians or writers among us. “Butterfly’s Ball and Grasshopper’s Feast” is an exhibition that travels as part of the Museum’s Rural Arts Initiative. The following materials help students make connections while they learn through the interaction with actual artworks. Students can practice abstract and concrete language and writing skills using insects as a theme as well as develop art skills while doing art activities. By conducting research, they will understand how artists form ideas and how important issues can be addressed by art. Images of insects have appeared in art and culture throughout the ages. Egypt: Scarab beetles, also called dung beetles, roll balls of animal dung across the ground and then bury them in underground nests. Thousands of years ago, the ancient Egyptians noticed this habit and associated it with the way the sun moves across the sky each day. Japan: In Japan, the dragonfly is a national emblem. In fact, Japan used to be called Akitsushima, or Dragonfly Island. The long, rainy summer season and numerous rivers and streams provide ideal living conditions for dragonflies, which spend the early stages of their life in the water. More than 190 dragonfly species can be found in Japan. China: Beginning in the T’ang dynasty (A.D. 618-907), the Chinese kept crickets in cages in their homes. At night they often placed the cage by the bed, so they could enjoy the crickets’ song. It is thought that the practice of keeping crickets began with women of the imperial palace and was later taken up by peasants, who viewed it as a graceful hobby. During the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1279), crickets were prized for their fierce fighting instinct, and cricket fights became a popular entertainment. By the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644), keeping crickets had become a scholarly pastime, with crickets serving as subjects for poems, stories, and academic research. Netherlands: Luscious peaches. Plump grapes. Succulent plums. The Dutch painter Abraham Mignon created a visual feast. 4 Abraham Mignon, Still Life with Fruit, Foliage, and Insects. 1669. Oil on canvas. 5 But take a closer look. That fruit isn’t as delectable as it seemed at first glance. In fact, a lot of it is beginning to rot, and the scene is teeming with bugs. Ants are crawling on the peaches. A furry caterpillar creeps along the branch of purple plums near a white butterfly. From behind the striped gourd, a grasshopper peers out. Hidden in the foreground shadows, a black and orange insect climbs onto a piece of broken stonework. Near some acorns in the background, a dozen inchworms dangle in the air or crawl along the branches. And besides all these insects, there are several snails slithering about. Why would an artist want to include rotting fruit and countless insects in a painting? For Dutch people in the seventeenth century, when this work was made, still-life paintings often had symbolic meaning. The spoiled fruit, damaged leaves, and crumbling architecture all refer to the idea that in time everything must pass away. The caterpillars and butterflies symbolize the life cycle. And many of the other insects are associated with decay. Still lifes that carried this message were known as vanitas (Latin for “vanity”) paintings. They were especially popular with the middle class in seventeenth-century Holland. Insects have also played a vital role in education. Science and exploration: In 1699, Maria Sibylla Merian set out for the exotic tropical country of Suriname, a Dutch colony in South America. For two years she studied Suriname’s insects in their natural habitat. She observed their metamorphosis as they developed from egg to adult. She recorded their eating habits and activities, collected specimens, and drew each stage of their life cycles. Here you see Merian’s study of the four stages of the White Witch moth’s life. First are the eggs, seen in the yellow egg sack attached to the tree. Caterpillars (the second stage) hatch from the eggs. Merian shows one crawling on a branch and eating the leaves. The caterpillar eats voraciously and then spins a silken cocoon around itself (shown next to the eggs). Now it has entered the third stage, called the pupa. The pupa metamorphoses into an adult moth, which then emerges from the cocoon. Merian painted two moths, one in flight and one resting on a leaf with wings folded to reveal the beautiful lavender coloring. Merian was known both as an entomologist (a scientist who studies insects) and as one of the finest botanical artists of her time. She was taught by her stepfather, a still-life artist, and was greatly influenced by other seventeenth-century Dutch still-life painters. Like them, she paid close attention to detail. Her drawings and Maria Sibylia, Moths, Caterpillar, and watercolors capture every feature of the insects she Foilage, from Metamorphosis studied—the shimmering silkiness of a cocoon, each Insectorum Surinamensiom. 1705. bristly hair of a caterpillar, the intricate patterns of a Hand Etching and Engraving moth’s wings. Merian painted over a hundred watercolors during her time in Suriname. When she returned 6 home, sixty of them were reproduced in her book Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname). http://www.artsmia.org/education/teacher-resources/fivefacts.cfm?v=60 November 17, 2013 As you can see, insects have significantly influenced the way we interpret the world. From science to art, religion to philosophy, insects have been a part of the human experience worldwide. 7 Using the Museum Rural Arts as a Resource Rural Arts Initiative The Rural Arts Initiative began in 2003 with the Museum’s first traveling exhibit Snow Country Prison: Interned in North Dakota. The Museum, recognizing the difficulty of bringing children to Grand Forks on the far eastern edge of the state, has made its goal to bring exhibits to rural communities. We invite each hosting community and its schools within a fifty mile radius to actively participate by attending the exhibition in their community, holding related events, and using the exhibit as a source for learning. Butterfly’s Ball and Grasshopper’s Feast is the ninth traveling exhibit from Grand Forks. Previous exhibits included Interned in North Dakota: Snow Country Priso;, Shelterbelts; Introductions: Artists’ Self Portrait;, Jim Dow: Marking the Land; Animals: Them and Us; and Fantastic. To find out more about the Museum’s Rural program visit www.ndmoa.com or call 701-777-4195. Before You Visit the Exhibit Teachers are urged to prepare students by first helping them understand that our personal responses to what we see reflect individual opinions, and that it is always good to ask ourselves questions about what we see. We suggest that before you visit the exhibit you look at Visual Thinking Strategies. These are methods for interpreting what we see, and are included at the end of this document as well as interwoven in some of our activities.