Re-Connecting with Yazzie & Remembering to tell God's Stories in our Art

Mrs. Amy Luce and Elmer Yazzie reconnect about students. 

Over the past few days, as students took time off to be refreshed, teachers have been connecting and re-connecting with other teachers at the Christian Educators Conference. One of my highlights came last Friday when I attended a session by Calvin College graduate and artist Elmer Yazzie.  

I first met Elmer back when I used to teach art at the high school. He was in town for an event at Calvin and called and asked if he could come to shared about his art with my students.  He told us of some of the projects he was working on as well as critique some of their work. He used this opportunity to encourage us to use our art to tell others about God.  He then shared how God uses everyone who is open to his leading to use their gifts to tell His story.   

You see the Navajo people worship many gods and he wants very badly for his people to know the one true God.  It was inspiring to me then and continues to encourage me to see how God works though art to tell others about him. In the Navajo art there are many sacred symbols and specific patterns that the people use in their weavings, pottery, and paintings.  Elmer uses symbols in his art that do not fit with what they have learned and so they ask him, “What does this mean?”  “Why does this go this way instead of the traditional pattern?” He can then tell them about the new symbols of the cross, the bible, and God’s people. 

In the past week in kindergarten art we have been learning about the Navajo Culture and it's people.  We’ve learned how they raise their own sheep, comb the wool with brushes, spin it, dye it with colors from plants, and then weave it. We created some of our own beautiful patterns from natural colors and then printed our own stamps on top to create designs.  This week we will be going back to add the most important parts to the weavings; signs and symbols from our own faith. Students will be able to add crosses, hearts, and their own symbols so that when others ask, they too can tell His Story. 

I love how we learned to hold our paper's

 like a king's platter, serving up our art for our king!

Here you can see the student dipping their tool into the paint to 

gather the color for their weaving. 

I love how we all worked on these together, but there is not 

single one that is like another.  A reminder that God makes us 

all unique creations.  

What strange things to use for a pattern!  

But oh so cool! (A doorstop)

Students used the two finger technique to save room for a new pattern.