Making Masks

Nature Links has been very lucky to have recently added a new teacher to our staff! Hilary Tobin is a fabulous art teacher who runs Island Meadow Arts, through which she offers art classes from her home studio. Hilary’s classes seek to “encourage students’ exploration, enliven imaginations, and bring art history to life through a variety of mediums.” During Hilary’s art classes, Nature Links participants have been using objects and supplies that can be found around the home to create imaginative pieces that they have been really proud of!

In our most recent art class with Hilary, we analyzed and made masks. While masks have been a pervasive part of our social culture for several years now since the onset of the COVID pandemic, these masks are worn for protection and are often meant to blend in rather than tell a story. However, masks play an important role in African cultural history and have been worn for thousands of years in celebrations, spiritual or ritual ceremonies, or to commemorate social and religious events. In our class, we looked at several examples (both traditional and contemporary) to talk about what we noticed about the materials used and the images they bring up. We compared the differences between the traditional African masks and those made more recently by contemporary African artists.

After analyzing the images, students gathered a few readily available materials like egg cartons and paper grocery bags to begin creating their own masks. We had so much fun discussing different ways to use the materials and experimenting with various configurations. Some students set out to make scary masks, while others wanted to give their masks a silly or humorous appearance. Either way, Nature Links participants felt engaged, supported, and challenged while creating their work. Thank you to Hilary Tobin and Island Meadow Arts for joining us for this interesting and fun workshop. Check out a few of the masks our participants created below!