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Early American Heroes and Art
by Sharon Jeffus (Copyright 2008)
When we speak of inheritance, so often we speak of tangible things that we can touch and feel. However, every American child has a rich inheritance of intellectual property that is owned by us all. We so often speak of copyright and ownership of ideas. It is true that it is important to teach children to note every source when they write. However, there is a vast grouping of intellectual property; visual images, music, and books that are considered public domain and belong to the American people, in particular, the young people of our country. Hollywood creates exciting visual feasts for children to see. Our own national archives contains material just as exciting and we are seeing real history in their photographs. We have our own national treasure! A supervised visit to the national archives via the computer can show children what our ancestors looked like one hundred years ago, how they lived, and how they persevered and even excelled in their daily life. Maps of the civil war, political cartoons that are even revelant today, sports pictures of great human triumph; all of these are available free of charge. They belong to the American people, in particular the American children.
They are considered public domain. Public domain is the body of knowledge and original ideas (especially creative works such as writing, art, music, and inventions) to which no person or other legal entity can establish or maintain proprietary interests within a particular legal jurisdiction. It is the opposite of copyrighted work and is considered to be part of a common cultural and intellectual heritage which can be used for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Public domain art belongs to you.
Charles Willson Peale, master early Amercian artist/scientist, can be studied by children who are learning about early American history. Peale painted many early American personalities, including Lewis and Clark. You can go to this website to see some of his work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Willson_Peale.
He also did an amazing picture of "Exhuming the First Mastadon" for children to enjoy. These marvelous pictures are in the public domain. We want to develop students who love research and study history. When you study great men of early America, you can go to the early American artists who painted them to see what they are like. Go to this website to see a Peale's George Washington: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Washington_1772.jpg.
When you see movies depicting this time period, you can see how important portraits like this one are. You can see how the father of our country dressed. You can see other things about him, too. Look at the picture on the next page and list how many details you can notice about what he is wearing.
To be able to appreciate a great gift, you need to be aware that you have it. We need to teach our children that they own so much more than just the tangible things. They own an amazing heritage that must and should belong to them. Being able to recognize these early figures also helps younger children in counting money. You can find George Washington's picture on the one dollar bill and the quarter. An art project can help both older and younger children in not only studying history, but money recognition as well.
Harnett was an early Amercian still life painter who also enjoyed painting money. You can go to this website to see a picture of a five dollar bill he painted and got arrested for. It looked so realistic, that they thought he was counterfeiting! Can you recognize the famous American on the bill? http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/harnett/money_1.shtml
Gilbert Stuart also did a picture of George Washington that was very famous. Go to this website to see it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gilbert_Stuart_003.jpg.
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Draw a picture of one of our recent presidents. Type in his name on the computer and then the word wikipedia. Read about his life, look at his pictures and do a portrait of him that tells about what his was like. Dress him in period clothing and put things in the picture that might tell you what he is like.
Geoge Washington is in the foreground of this picture by Peale (below). What do you see in the background of the picture? Things in the foreground are larger, things in the background are smaller. Can you see the flag in the background? What does that look like?
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About the author:
Sharon Jeffus has a B.S.S.E. in Art Education from John Brown University and continued on in her studies to be certified to teach English from the University of Arkansas. She studied painting at Metropolitan in Denver and sculpting at Southern Illinois University.
Sharon has written over fifteen books and heads the internationally known company Visual Manna. In her first book published in 1992, she developed the Visual Manna teaching method in which art is integrated with art appreciation, techniques, vocabulary and core subjects. She has also written an Indian Arts and Crafts program that was rated outstanding by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Sharon has written for a number of magazines and educational resources.
Visual Manna now offer s live art classes via the internet for high school and junior high credit. An art offers students training from professional artists.The new series Artsy Animals helps teach children reading and values. Check out the Visual Manna website at www.visualmanna.com
or for more information call 1-888-275-7309
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