Aminah Brenda Lynn Robertson begin drawing when she was just three years old, her father taught her how to draw. Her mother gave her buttons and materials and taught Aminah needlework and weaving. Her family and community were always the center of her world. Aminah believed that her purpose in life was to become an artist and tell the stories of the people that she loved through her art.
I felt that Aminah would be an amazing artist for my middle school students to learn about. My classes could explore her life as an artist on the Columbus Museum of Art website and create digital collages. I then became curious about how my students might create “worlds” of their own by collecting personal items that could tell the story of their lives. I was in my daughter’s bedroom and began looking around at all of her personal treasures and collections of “things” that held memories and stories when an idea came to me…
“My World “is a collection of students’ collages created in the likeness of Aminah Robertson as well as their own collage stories told through a collection of personal objects. I was amazed at what the students chose to use in their collages and learned so much about how they view their own world and what is important to them.
