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Title - "Maman"

Artist - Louise Bourgeois

Material - Bronze, stainless steel, and marble

This imposing sculpture can be found on the trails of Crystal Bridges. To the artist, it represents not only the cycle of life, but also her mother and her family. Maman means "Mom" in French.

“I came from a family of repairers,” she said. “The spider is a repairer. If you bash into the web of a spider, she doesn’t get mad. She weaves and repairs it.”

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What was your first impression when seeing this sculpture?

That is the question I would ask my students. I would expect answers along the lines of:

Scary

Intimidating

Creepy

After learning about the true meaning behind the sculpture, how does it change your perception?

This question will invite a discussion of first impressions vs. deeper meanings. This is a great segway into learning about all surface level meanings in art, literature, music, etc., to understanding the nuance.

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As an English teacher, I wish to make a strong impact on my students. Ideally, this will be a lesson on not only impressions, but also empathy.

Not only can we learn a lot from the sculpture, but we can also learn from books like "Flowers for Algernon" or "To Kill A Mockingbird", or all kinds of poems that will also touch on the topic of impressions and empathy.

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Title - "Car Horn"

Artist - Nancy Grossman

Material - Leather, metal, rubber, wood, and paint assemblage on canvas mounted on plywood

This piece can be found within the exhibit of Crystal Bridges. Nancy Gossman wanted to make a commentary about American Consumerism, so she made this piece out of junk to refer to the human body.

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Title - "Dress Impression with Wrinkled Cowl"

Artist - Karen LaMonte

Material - Glass

“Clothing both protects and projects. It is armor and costume, plumage and camouflage.”

While this piece is both elegant and beautiful, it also contains a ghostly essence to it, as the glass garment is wrapped around an invisible woman figure in a fluid motion.

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What different parts do you recognize?

Some answers could be bike wheels, horns, gears, and random scrap metal.

Now, what does it look like as a whole?

This question is like the Rorschach test, so there are no right answers. However, this art could activate the imagination to discover, once again, deeper meanings in the whole piece from its parts.

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Once again, I would want my students to think both critically and creatively about what they see.

"Car Horn" can help with conveying metaphor and symbolism. One thing the students can do is writing a creative prose or poetry from the perspective of this piece, tapping into its message about human experience, without making the message too clearly stated.

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This piece could help with students visual analysis. Either the class visits in person, or I can can display images of the sculpture and ask students to write a detailed visual analysis.

What does the absence of the body suggest?

How does the empty dress convey ideas of identity or societal expectations?

Again, there is no right answer, but it can really get the mind working with sculptures like these.

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Students can journal about how clothing affects their own identity. Do our garments show or hide aspects of our personality?

This could be a good opportunity on a personal reflection on the relationship between self and societal expectations.