The Cajita Assignment- the lidded box

High school years help us understand our identity!

In this project, students will reflect and analyze their individual and cultural identity and communicate these attributes visually through their lidded vessel creation.  Each thrown or hand-built container will show the artist's passions, traditions, culture, and spirit.  Students will brainstorm their ideas in their sketchbooks, create their conceptual art, and critique their finished artwork with peers. Here are some of the students' creations!

Examples of Student Sketchbooks

After viewing artwork from the socially conscious Harlem Renaissance collage artist, Romare Bearden.  Ceramics I students created a collage covered sketchbook that reflected their identity as influenced by their environment.

What is Art?

Art is perception, it is an experience which evokes thoughts and emotions.  
Art gives our eyes an opportunity to discover and our minds inspiration to think.  
Art allows our words and thoughts to be translated into images, a dialogues between the artist and the viewer.  

Art is an expression of the imagination!

"Art allows us to reconnect with our inner spirit which is rich in thoughts, feelings, and dreams."  -mary boone, gallery owner and director


I asked the students, "If Art is defined as an individual's expression of a culture, is ceramics an art?"
Ceramics One students responded...

"Of course, anything that you can create is art."-Emma
"I believe so because you are building something with your imagination"- Evelyn
"Yes because you are expressing yourself."- Garrett
"When it isn't assigned it's art." -Daisy
"Yes, because we are describing our self through clay."- Adriana
"Yes, it shares the different values of a culture."- Taylor

"Yes, because you are always taking your own culture and envoking it into your work to create a style."- Abby
"Yes, because you are an expression of a culture." -Conner
"Yes, ceramics shows cultural differences while incorporating various elements of art." -True
"Yes, because it is another outlet to process culture and the outside world." -Liora

"Yes, it shows skills and takes interpretation." -Angel
"Yes, culture can be worked into ceramics.  For example, a lot of culture could have been expressed in the mask piece." -Grace
"Yes, because like most forms of art, artists can only create what they know. " -Bacca
"Yes, ceramics is definitely an art because just like other forms of art it uses personal expression and style." -Samantha