This fall the SA foundation arts class participated in an art exchange with the Joshibi School in Tokyo, Japan who recently finished their project. Students were asked to use paper, glue and a cutting tool to learn about positive and negative space. The theme was Japanese and American symbols. Since we Americans don't have a long tradition of symbols like Japan (most American students think of corporate logos I found out one year when we did a similar exchange), I decided that we would look to Native American symbols for inspiration. One SA Chinese student chose to do a symbol based on a Chinese character while one Mexican American student created a piece based on an indigenous symbol from Mexico.
The Japanese students created work based on traditional symbols from their culture. Images such as sumo wrestlers, ogres and koi are just some of images created.