What Happened?

The Things I Have To Do To Maintain Myself
Roxanne Swentzell, United States
1994

Students will examine Roxanne Swentzell’s The Things I Have to Do to Maintain Myself and create a story about the piece.

Intended Age Group
Early childhood (ages 3-5)
Standards Area
Language Arts
Lesson Length
One 30 minute lesson
Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • identify The Things I Have to Do to Maintain Myself;
  • use their imaginations to tell a story; and
  • listen carefully to and work with others.

Lesson

  1. Preparation: Read the About the Art section on The Things I Have to Do to Maintain Myself.
  2. Warm-up: Ask the students to think about stuffed animals or toys they have that have needed to be fixed, or look for broken toys at school. Have them share stories about how the stuffed animals or toys were broken and then fixed. Then ask students about times they were hurt and how they took care of themselves. Did they put on a Band-Aid? Did the go to an adult for help?
  3. Show students pictures of The Things I Have to Do to Maintain Myself. Ask them to imagine how the kosha’s (the character featured in the sculpture is a kosha) ear broke. Call on them to share their ideas, and write them down on the board.
  4. Tell students that you are going to write a story about the piece as a class. Explain that all stories have a beginning, middle, and end, and that your story will too. Ask students to come up with ideas about how the kosha found the needle and thread and how he was able to sew his own ear. Ask them if they think he needed to look in a mirror. You could even have the students look in a mirror and experiment with how they might attempt to sew their ears.
  5. Call on students to share different ideas, and write them down on the board. Make sure to be clear about the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Read over all of the ideas and have students vote on which ones they like best (using thumbs-up or thumbs-down).
  6. Write out the new story and read it to the students.
  7. Tell the students that they get to act out the story. Read it again, allowing students time to do different actions they hear as you read.

Materials

  • About the Art section on The Things I Have to Do to Maintain Myself (included with the lesson plan)
  • Color copies of The Things I Have to Do to Maintain Myself for students to share, or the ability to project the image onto a wall or screen

Standards

CO Standards
  • Visual Arts
    • Observe and Learn to Comprehend
  • Language Arts
    • Oral Expression and Listening
    • Writing and Composition
21st Century Skills
  • Critical Thinking & Reasoning
  • Invention
  • Self-Direction

The Things I Have To Do To Maintain Myself

1994

Height: 15.5 in. Width: 13 in. Depth: 15 in.

Funds from Polly and Mark Addison, 1994.540

Photograph © Denver Art Museum 2009. All Rights Reserved.

About the Artist

Roxanne Swentzell was born in Taos, New Mexico in 1962. Her mother was a potter, writer, and scholar from Santa Clara Pueblo, and her father was a New Jersey native of German descent who was a philosophy professor in Santa Fe. Growing up in Santa Fe, in a household that was filled with clay and artwork, Roxanne took to art-making at an early age. As a child, she struggled to express herself verbally. In order to let others know how she was feeling, she would sculpt small figures that represented her emotions.

Roxanne attributes much of her success to guidance from her family, particularly her mother, Rina, and her uncle, Michael Naranjo, a blind sculptor. From 1978-1980, before graduating high school, she attended the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Today, she spends much of her time at Tower Studio, twelve miles north of Santa Fe. Continuing her interests in nature and preserving the earth, Swentzell founded the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, “a research and education organization that relates to permaculture…a way of looking at the world based on the laws of nature.”

Swentzell believes that it is extremely important for her work to have a direct connection with reality. Her art must be a full expression of herself and her experiences and observations of life. She says, “I learned to listen to myself and not be so influenced by what other people wanted me to make. I am going to present the world through my eyes—and not as somebody told me I was supposed to.” She also aims to communicate with all people through her artwork—both Native and non-Native—about the things we share as humans. “With my sculptures I try to reach people’s emotions so they can remember themselves,” says Swentzell.

What Inspired It

This sculpture is a representation of a clown, called a kosha in Tewa [TAY-wah], the language of Santa Clara Pueblo. In the Pueblo creation story, the kosha were the first to emerge onto the surface of the earth, climbing up from the underworld and out of the womb of Mother Earth. As they surfaced, each was facing one of the four cardinal directions. The people of the earth followed, dispersing to all parts of the world and becoming the different races. Kosha continue to play a part in Santa Clara ceremonies and stories. One of their main roles is to teach lessons about life. Kosha teach by imitating human behaviors; it is then up to us to recognize when those behaviors are flawed.

This kosha sits deep in concentration, mending his broken ear. With this sculpture, Swentzell references the idea that humans are in a constant state of development. An individual makes choices as he/she creates him/herself. Swentzell is also asking us to consider the importance of a seemingly mundane act. “I like to make the mundane significant, because that’s the way we go throughout days. This piece is about all the little things we do to make things possible. It’s an appreciation of something that’s not always acknowledged,” says Swentzell.

Details

Stripes

The black and white stripes on the body of the kosha represent balance, one of the important life lessons that are taught by kosha.

Concentration

The kosha is deep in concentration. Notice how he carefully threads the needle with an extra-thick piece of yarn. His eyes are focused, his lips are pursed, and even his toes are curled tightly together.

Materials

Swentzell makes her sculptures out of clay, using the techniques of a potter. Unlike other potters in her family, she uses purchased clay, in part due to the large amounts that she uses. She uses coils to create the body and makes cuts where she will add limbs, which are made with coils as well. The body and limbs are hollow, while the toes and fingers are solid. She sculpts the face. The figure must dry for about two weeks before it is ready to be fired in a kiln.

Funding for object education resources provided by a grant from the Morgridge Family Foundation. Additional funding provided by the William Randolph Hearst Endowment for Education Programs, and Xcel Energy Foundation. We thank our colleagues at the University of Denver Morgridge College of Education.

The images on this page are intended for classroom use only and may not be reproduced for other reasons without the permission of the Denver Art Museum. This object may not currently be on display at the museum.