Activity
Create a Color Trip Collage
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School (6-8), High School (9-12), College and Beyond
Activity
Make an Identity Accordion-Zine
Create a zine that resembles a series of panels revealing different facets of your identity, similar to how First Impressions (1981) prompts us to think about the many sides of Filipino American artist Carlos Villa (1936–2013).
View Gallery
10 Photos
Click through the gallery to see the Carlos Villa artworks that inspired this activity, as well as the steps for folding the accordion-zine.
1
10
Introduction:
Thinking about who you are and the experiences that have shaped you, use the provided template to create an Identity Accordion-Zine. Your responses to the prompts on each page can be written, drawn, or doodled!
Materials:
- Zine template (download PDF from sidebar), folded into an accordion. If you don’t have a printer, fold a blank piece of paper and follow the questions on the template to fill out your zine.
- Pen or pencil
- Ink pad or paints for making fingerprints
- Color pens or pencils
Procedure:
- Fold the zine template in half lengthwise, so that the printed questions are visible on both sides.
- Using the lines separating each page, fold back and forth to create an “accordion,” with the “My Fingerprint Art” page as the front cover.
- Think about the questions on each page and then write, draw, or doodle your responses. Feel free to add color to your pages!
- Villa included impressions of his face and hands in his art as a way of solidifying his physical presence and identity. Make your own impression by creating a piece of fingerprint art as the cover image for your zine.
Questions/Prompts:
First Impressions
What are the first impressions people might have of you? What might people assume about you? How do you feel about those assumptions?
My Roots
Where is your family from? What cultural influences have shaped your life and identity?
Worlds in Collision
When have you felt conflicts between the values of your home culture and the values of the larger environment? How have you responded to these conflicts?
Ritual
What family or cultural traditions do you cherish? How does participating in these traditions or rituals make you feel?
Maturing
What’s a moment in your life where you realized you were growing up? How did you feel in that moment? What did you learn in that moment?
Artist’s Feet
What path do you want to take in the future? What obstacles might be on this path? Who might help you along the way?
Lasting Impression:
Carlos Villa left his imprint on the world with his art and his teachings. What mark do you want to make on the world?
Now you have a zine all about who you are and what matters to you! Share your zine with your friends and family or keep it as a private journal to refer to and update as you grow older.
