Panama Inspired Art

For our first Art project this term we are travelling to the Republic of Panama.  This is a small country situated between North and South America.  It is bordered by Costa Rica in the West, Colombia to the Southeast, the Caribbean to the North and the Pacific Ocean to the South.

Today we looked into the traditions of the Kuna Woman from Panama. The Mola is a traditional outfit.  Two mola panels are incorporated as front and back panels in a blouse.  The full costume traditionally includes a patterned wrapped skirt, a red and yellow headscarf, arm and leg beads, a gold nose ring and earrings.

The mola originated with the tradition of Kuna woman painting their bodies with geometrical designs using the available natural colours.

We looked closely at a number of exciting examples and notices the use of bold, bright colours.  The designs were geometrical and a mixture of complicated and simple designs.

Our challenge for the next few weeks to to create our own mola inspired design.  The class are very excited about this challenge and I just can't wait to see what they design.