Do Now: Draw or describe what you can see:

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Contemporary African American artist Kara Walker Contemporary African American artist

Kara Walker is a contemporary African-American artist Kara Walker is a contemporary African-American artist. She was born in 1969 in California. Her father was an artist. Both her mother and father supported her decision to become an artist. Walker studied painting and printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design and went on to earn her Master of Fine Arts degree at Atlanta College of Art.

She is probably the most accomplished African-American artist that is still alive—her artwork has been shown around the world. Walker is renown for her life-size image of black cut paper silhouettes.

Her art is based on stories and history of African Americans from the South, particularly women. To create the stories, she makes a collage of life-size silhouettes out of black paper. A collage is an image made of cut paper; a silhouette is the shape of a person in shadow, where you can’t see anything but the person’s shape. Even though Walker uses images of people in shadow, she shines a light on the lives and stories of the past. Some of the stories are historical, some are fictional stories.

Write down the title of the image,and 3 things you see in the image.

Tyler School of Art, Temple University John Dowell Stanley Whitney Two professors from Tyler School of Art, Temple University

John Dowell’s art relates to jazz because of the random lines. Both John Dowell and Stanley Whitney are professors at Tyler School of Art. They both create art that relates to jazz. John Dowell’s art relates to jazz because of the random lines. Stanley Whitney’s art relates to jazz because of the bright colors.