Aztec Mural Project

Project Title: Aztec Mural Project
Class: Ms. Interlandi
Date: May 5, 2008
Letter: A
Name: Trenten Smith

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to learn about Aztec culture. In order to learn
abot Aztecs we had to learn a little bit of background knowldege about them. We had to
learn about Aztec marrige, weaving, crime & punishment, sacrifices, motherhood &
childhood, recreation, religion, warfare, education, food, clothing, markers and also
about social classes. To learn all those topics Ms. I provided my class with facts about
each topic. Our job was to pick out the main fatcs in each topic. This is how we learned
about the Aztec life. When we finished learning about the Aztec culture, our group was
starting to think what our mural should be based on. After we thought of what our mural
was going to be based on we started sketching it on to a piece of boucher paper. When we
found the idea of what our mural was going to be based on. We began the process of making the mural. First we had to figure out what size we wanted the canvas to be. Once we figured out the size of the canvas. But before painting the canvas we had to paint the canvas with primer. After we painted the canvas with primer, we had to wait for it to try. After it was dried out my group started sketching the picture on to the canvas. When the sketching part was done we started painting the mural the colors that it needed it to be. I was the color coodinater so I chose the base colors that would look good on the mural. Painting the mural took us some time to paint. Then our group was finally done. The theme of my mural was a book. On the left side of the page it was how the recreation started. On the right side it was war and how the recreation ended. So one side was pieceful and the other side was cruelty and war.

What I Learned: I learned a lot in this project. Some of the things I learned in this project was about how Aztecs got married. In the process of marrige. The person that would like to get married would have to invite their teachers over for a banquet. When the teachers came to the banquet the person that wanted to get married would give an ax to the teachers. If the teachers accepted the ax that indicated that the person that wanted to get married is free from school and is ok for the person that wanted to get married to get married. If they the teachers did not accept the ax then he/she would not be able to marry anyone. The parents would decide who he or she could marry. Another thing I learned about Aztecs is about Crime & Punishment. Some crimes that Aztec did was steal or murder. Some punishments that they would give the starnger would be drowning them or killing them. They would not have a chance to live. Laws in the Aztec Empire as based on religois beliefs. Some other things I learned about Aztec's was about religions. One of the religions would be if an eagle landed on a cactus with a snake in its mouth. That indicated that the Aztec's had a good place to buid their temple. That is some stuff that I learned about Aztecs!

Reflection: I enjoyed this project because it was my first project painting on a big piece of canvas. It was a great experince for me because I never studied about aztec's and I never painted a mural before. I also enjoyed this project because it was really cool what there culture was and how it is so different then our life now. I also liked this project because I learned a lot about Aztec culture. I learned about the recration, marrige, crime & punishment, Clothing, Markets, Social Classes and lots more about Aztec culture. This project was very fun and I hope I do this project again. I learned many things about Aztec life and love to learn more about them.

Artifacts: An artifact I would put on my DP would be a picture of my mural!