Family Proclamation Art

We are continuing to talk about The Family Proclamation.  This week, we learned that "All human beings--male and female--are created in the image of God."

About five years ago, when we first started doing Family Proclamation lessons at home, we did a silhouette to go along with this idea.  The collection of silhouettes that we made together are still one of my favorite art displays in our home.

So, I wanted to do another silhouette type of project...with a twist.  

We created these silhouettes which reflect even more of the phrase above, which continues, "Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.  Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."

I really liked the potential for these silhouette "self portraits" to help the children look inward into what makes them special and what they love, and express those characteristics outwardly through this art project.

To make them, first, I took pictures of the children from the side, enlarged the photo digitally, and printed them out on my home printer.  Then I cut their profile pictures out carefully and traced them with pencil onto card stock.

After tracing their profiles in permanent marker, I encouraged each child to fill the inside of their silhouettes with pictures of things that they love.  It was really fun to see them go to work. (This project was done over about two days.)

When they were finished we traced over their drawings in permanent marker and then colored it all in.

The result is as colorful and unique as each child. (I helped Honor, who is 2, with hers!)  

It was fun to take time to contemplate what it is that makes up each one of us, and to know that now matter what, we are each beloved sons and daughters of heavenly parents with a divine nature and destiny.

You can see more examples of this kind of art project here.  And you can access our Family Proclamation lessons here.