Lines and shapes that repeat

Brief

This lesson asks you to use lines and shapes in your art to say something, and to explain how lines and shapes carry meaning in your work and in the work of others. The museum offers two examples of patterns that repeat; your class brings its own drawings and materials. ¹

Which lines and shapes do you see?

Name the kinds of line (straight, curved, wavy) and the shapes that you can find. Ask which ones come back and how often.

What does a repeated shape make you feel?

Look at a pattern and say what it makes you think of. Ask what would change if you made the shapes bigger, smaller or closer together.

Go deeper

Look for a pattern of leaves that grow on a stalk. It is called an arabesque. A big reference book, the Encyclopaedia of Islam, says that in an arabesque the stalk sometimes almost vanishes under abundant leaves and at other times dominates the pattern. That makes one part of the pattern look different from another. ² The book says the leaves grow out of stalks. ³

Think about it

Look at a pattern where leaves hide the stalk and at one where the stalk stands out. Which one do you look at longer, and why?

Into the museum

Arabesque: leaves that grow from stalks, and where the pattern is found.
Islamic geometric patterns: a short record about stars, polygons and grids that repeat on buildings.

Try this

Read the card on Islamic geometric patterns and the card on the arabesque. Draw a pattern with one repeated shape, then add a second kind of line, and explain your choices to a partner.