The Forest of Emotions

Artist: Elssie Ansareo
Technique: Sculpture, installation
School: ES Otxarkoaga, Bilbao
Year: 2nd
Tutors: Begoña Larrinaga and Aroa Goiri
Related areas and subjects: Math and Social Studies

Objective:

Expressing emotions through art means becoming aware of them and discovering new ways of sharing and communicating them.

Materials:

Polystyrene cylinders, round paper lanterns, tempera paint, large and small paintbrushes, colored paper, glue, wooden skewers, and Play-Doh.

Project:

A discussion was held in class, resulting in: joy, sadness, surprise, anger and fear. So how do we express each one?
A discussion was held as to what feeling should be represented with each color and sketches were drawn on paper to express emotions.
Reinterpreting the Mexican tradition of trees of life, the schoolchildren created trees to represent their feelings.
Each tree represented an emotion, relating its colors to feelings.
Deciding the color required discussion and agreement in class: joy was yellow, anger red, sadness blue, surprise green, and fear orange.
We glued pieces of paper in all these colors to the polystyrene cylinders.
The trees were finished with Play-Doh and wooden skewers.
The round pieces of paper placed on top of the trunks were painted like treetops.
The final installation represents a forest of emotions full of symbolic colors.