Reinterpreting Art Pt 1

Last year when I was in Rwanda I went to an art class, and there on the blackboard was a piece of art that a elementary class had sent with me on Biomes. It was so small on the blackboard. The class was expected to draw it exactly as it was, not how they might have creatively reimagine it. And they had to keep getting up from their desks to get a closer look.

That gave me an idea to see if I could enlist State High art teacher Maure Irwin-Furmanek and her students to create large art pieces for me to take to Rwanda. We discussed artists with unique styles that the students could reinterpret, not just make a duplicate of it. The hope was that the pieces would give students and teachers ideas, resources, artistic techniques and inspiration for their art.

Annika Godura shard, "the painting I decided to reinterpret was "Tiger in a Tropical Storm" by Henri Rousseau. I decided to use the tiger as a focal point of my work. SInce Rousseau is known for his almost story-book like style, I decided to make my images large and simple, with bright and bold colors."

While I'm in Rwanda I hope to meet with Rwandan artists at several artist cooperatives to enlist them to come to our school in 2017/2018.