Thursday, February 24, 2011
LE: Cave Paintings
When I think of cave men, the "it's so easy, even a cave man can do it" Geico commercials come to mind. But a look at cave paintings prove otherwise. They are breathtaking, anatomically precise, and there's nothing easy about it. The purpose of these mysterious paintings are yet to be discovered, but one theory is that shaman (communicators of the spirit world) painted animals in order to capture their spirit and ensure the success of the hunt. Students pretended they were shaman and started their mystical process. They first crumpled up a recycled sheet of paper and painted an animal in earthy colors. They also added a layer of soft pastels and colored the background. When they were done, they "signed" their painting with their handprint, a symbol of the shaman's identity.