Nicho Shadow Box

Nicho Shadow Boxes

 

Nichos are a beautiful Latin American folk art which incorporate mixed media in the style of a shadow box and often serve as a religious altar.   

 

For this project, Mrs. Laura Harrison's high school art students were given the opportunity to choose their own theme for their nicho box.  As you can see, most students chose to use more non-traditional subject matter including the secular and humorous.

 

Directions

 

Get cigar box.

Bring in stuff related to your theme.

Paint and decorate.

Time consuming project, but very worth it. (at least 2 weeks)



 

Van Gogh

 





 

Taylor Swift

 

 

Pet Cat

 

 

R & L Shop (Mrs. Harrison's Mom's Dress Shop)

 

Miley Cyrus (not in the display cabinet at school)

 

 

How about some Don McLean's "Starry, Starry Night" (released in 1971)?  Pretty cool video with lyrics and Van Gogh's work. 

 

 

So why did Don McLean write a song about Vincent?

 

From a 2010 phone interview by Helen Brown Don McLean Interview Article, McLean shared the following thoughts.

 

“In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms,” he says. “I was sitting on the veranda one morning, reading a biography of Van Gogh, and suddenly I knew I had to write a song arguing that he wasn’t crazy. He had an illness and so did his brother Theo. This makes it different, in my mind, to the garden variety of 'crazy’ – because he was rejected by a woman [as was commonly thought]. So I sat down with a print of Starry Night and wrote the lyrics out on a paper bag.”

 

1965