32 Silouettes Commissioned for the Spring Ceremonies and Fundraising Events at Fisher Island for the Fisher Island Day School





Above is a selection of four of my favorites from the first grade - the ones below are fifth graders. All the names have been changed to protect the patronage - all children of the founding families - a collaboration whereby a print was given to each child to decorate by including all of their favorite things from the inaugural year of this private school. Well attended and a success the work was then distributed among the families for safekeeping. A record of the silouettes remains with the artist. For projects like this and others about Art in Education please contact Perez-Rubio directly. References provided upon request.



A silhouette is a view of an object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior. The word is an an eponym named after Etienne de Silhouette, a finance minister of Louis XV who in 1759 imposed such harsh economic demands upon the French people that his name became synonymous with anything done or made cheaply. Reminiscent of little house on the prairie values of a singleroom frontier schoolhouse..jk.reflects the austerity found on the island. Nevertheless, a precious reminder of their youth - their likes and dislikes.


Above are examples from the workof theolder students. The content of the imagery is equivalent with their development. Although the younger children were "sloppier" their silouttes contained discernible imagery. For the very expressive, we ended up cutting out the silouettes and mounting them on other sheets of paper;) It's what they fill their portraits with that is truly revealing. Following is a quote from the Tao te ching I found helpful in writing the lesson plan. Below that, is a diagram explaining the setup. Materials - paper, pencil ,and a lightbulb.

"We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, but it is the empitness inside that holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for the house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use." Tao Te Ching V18 trans. Robert Mitchell






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