Mermaids in Guatemala

We were prepared to be dazzled by colors and textiles in Guatemala, but surprised to come across so many mermaid images. Apparently the sculptor of the main fountain in 'Central Park,' Diego de Porres, was inspired by images in books brought over from Italy via Spain.  The main fountain was built in 1738.  The older kids had gone off for a walking tour of La Antigua, leaving me looking for ways to spend the better part of the day with 5 year old Piper.  What a joy then to discover mermaids on all the fountains, carved into walls, etc.  There are so many good textures and whimsical details, it was really fun to take a few moments to sketch them.  Mermaid 'fountains' would also be a really fun ceramics project, since fired clay could hold water, and you could explore so many different clay techniques--slab, coil, ball, sgraffito, etc.--when creating the mermaids.

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Angelina Quic--Birds Eye View Paintings

We were struck by all of the birds-eye view paintings all over San Juan la Laguna, on Lake Atitlan. It takes a moment to understand what you're seeing--all of the fanciful details and colors and circles and symmetry combine to create a strong abstract effect, until you notice an upturned face, or a hand, or a braid, and it all comes into focus. On a subsequent visit I went up into the mountains north of Antigua and visited another small artist town--and learned a bit more about that style of painting.  An artist named Angelina Quic made the style of painting famous, and her paintings sold so well that other artists were trained by the government to replicate them. On a visit to another town along Lake Atitlan I encountered a small group of rebellious artists whose work challenged this particular perspective. I describe that movement here.
This would be a wonderful project for kids of all ages--anything that challenges their perspective is helpful, as it opens the door for all kinds of experiments with composition, zooming in, zooming out, etc.  You could 'jumpstart' the project by tracing a few circles on a large piece of paper and challenging kids to consider overhead views of different kinds of situations before settling on a final idea, and filling in with marker, colored pencil, paint, oil pastel, etc.  Of course satellite views, googleEarth, and instagram feeds like daily overview would be great inspiration for this as well.