Presentation of Learning: A Blanket of Love

“Love is safety and comfort. It’s the same feeling I get when I’m wrapped up in a blanket.”

The International Quilt Museum housed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln describes quilts as the “tactile pages of our shared American story, each different, but part of a collective whole.” This month, a group of iLEAD Exploration learners enrolled in our Engage Art class created individual artworks celebrating their unique ideas about love and stitched them together into a single digital composition. This “blanket of love” certainly illustrates how individuals can create a powerful communal statement while also celebrating their true selves.

Engage art teacher Jessica Diaz came up with what is surely the perfect assignment for February and the festival of love on the 14th. The Art 1, Art 2, Digital Art, and Cartooning classes first studied how artists ranging from Gustave Klimit to Mary Cassatt to Edvard Munch have portrayed love. Then, because sometimes you need to look at what something is not to better see what it is, they also thought about loneliness and heartbreak. After this, the iLEAD Exploration learners were ready to try their hand at expressing what this universal emotion means to them.

Learners were asked to complete a two-part assignment:

• Reflect on the things you love and create a “word art,” which you fill with a minimum of 25 things that you LOVE.
• Use your word art to inspire a concept sketch for a fully colored and rendered piece of artwork on your personal representation of love. The artwork must be in a square format.

Learners had their choice of medium. Some sketched or painted on paper while others did so digitally with the Procreate app. Once the learners completed their artwork and described what inspired their work, the quilt took shape.

For the next assignment in what Ms. Diaz calls her authentic individual series, learners will create Cubist-inspired self-portraits but not before sketching each other on Zoom and focusing on the paintings and drawings of Picasso and Braque.

Resources
Valentine’s Day Art Presentation and Assignment
Make Your Own Word Art (see helpful instructions in the above presentation)
The Inspiration for Each Square of the Blanket of Love