Using your plaster face cast as a base, create a mask or headdress that fully engages the three dimensional space around your head. There can be planar elements, but you are making a sculpture that is fully in the round, so it should be visually interesting from every angle. Consider engaging one of the five main categories that masks often fall within, but you may also conceive of something completely new.
Rites of Passage
Can your mask represent movement away from, or towards a new stage in life?
Festivals of Renewal
Can putting on or shedding your mask be renewing, restoring, or awakening?
Is it symbolic of what you need | desire, re-imagine, or re-define?
Men as Women | Women as Men | Humans as Animals
Consider your identity, gender or nature… instinct
Theater | Performance
Take on a new persona or character as an actor… consider the notion of catharsis
Offense | Defense
Consider the concepts of protection | safety… danger
Here is a pdf with more historical masks for your contemplation. Come to class Tuesday prepared with ideas, sketches, and materials to work.



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