Chemical, Physical Reactions & Periodic Table

About the Artist and Artwork

Huffman, David (American, born 1963)

David Huffman’s creation of characters such as his orbiting Traumanaut All-Stars springs from a childhood passion for action figures and anime. Their presence also carries a more personal meaning, he says, “This is how I felt growing up in America as a person of color, like an unidentified flying object.”1 Unanchored in an ambiguous space, Huffman’s stylized figures actively express the artist’s own sense of alienation.

In Huffman’s most recent work, the Traumanauts continue to be the focus and increasingly address the legacy of negative stereotypes in an ever more pointed manner. In the ongoing presence of basketballs and hoops, Huffman acknowledges Romare Bearden, who in 1968 stated that people of color “. . . should have the same interest in artists that they might have in Negro basketball and baseball players—or now in politics and other things. This has to be pushed the same way.”2

Here, the Traumanauts fly like Michael Jordan and climb to low hanging branches. The title of the painting was inspired by the Jimi Hendrix song, Belly Button Window, which revisits an unhappy childhood beginning in the womb. Huffman is drawn by the imagery in the lyrics “Well, I’m looking out my belly button window, / And I see a whole lot of frowns, / And I’m wondering if they don’t want me around.” The brightly colored chrysanthemum star, a motif left over from Huffman’s days as a ceramist, bursts forth like a new life, representing beautiful possibilities, uniqueness, unwritten stories, and challenges ahead.

1. Patricia Sweetow, interview with David Huffman, San Francisco, Calif., 30 May 1999.
2. Henri Ghent, interview with Romare Bearden (1968) in Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, ed. Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz (Berkeley: UC Press, 1996), 216.

Lesson Procedure

Day 1

1. Have students look carefully at the image, Belly Button Window. This image is accessible on Digital Crocker at crockerartmuseum.org, on the Striking Gold CD ROM, and slides and overheads available for purchase through School Services.

2. Ask the students to describe what objects, colors, shapes, textures, and lines they see in Belly Button Window and provide a definition of mixed media.

3. Lead an open class discussion with questions, and record all comments on the board. Ask:

   a. What do you think the artist meant by the word “traumanaut?” What is an unidentified flying object? What areas in the composition appear to be solid objects and what areas appear to be space or air? What is the figure doing in the painting? Why?

     b. Huffman was born in 1963. What action figures and anime do you think he grew up with that he is referencing in the painting? What action figures and anime are popular with the students today? Are there any differences that the students can describe between figures in the 60s and the action figures today? Are different races, genders, etc., available in action figures and anime currently being created?

     c. Huffman’s traumanaut is alone and playing basketball in the painting and represents the artist’s feeling of alienation. Why did he choose basketball? What is a stereotype?   Why do you think the artist felt alienated (what was happening in the 60s with regards to civil rights)?

     d. What does the chrysanthemum shape symbolize?

4. Compare how simulated texture is used in different areas in the painting and how texture (form) is used to convey meaning (content). Break students into groups and have them discuss the following science problems:

     a. Salt is made up of which two elements? What kinds of elements are they (metal, etc.)? Where are they found on the period table?

     b. Tutu’s friends are coming over to watch movies, so she is popping popcorn, baking a cake in the oven, and making punch by mixing a packaged powder into water.   Which of these activities will result in a product with new chemical properties?

     c. Isaac drops a cube of salt into his hamster’s cage, which falls into the water dish and floats. What property does that describe (weight, density, conductivity, mass)?

     d. When the salt is in the shaker, what state of matter is it in and in what molecular motion? Water is made up of which two elements? Where are they found on the period table? When you mix the paint into the water, in what state of matter is the water and in what molecular motion?

Day 2

1. Art production: The title Belly Button Window was inspired by a song. Lead the class in a discussion of song titles, bands/groups or music terminology that relate to chemistry (heavy metal, Metallica, Chemical Brothers, etc.). Discuss how the artist has used color and point out areas that overlap. Discuss how to use colors, textures and shapes to symbolize a chemistry concept by reminding them how Huffman used color, texture, line, and shape.

2. Have students write ideas on a piece of scratch paper for titles and the colors, textures and shapes they will use in their compositions. Students should list at least two different colors, two different shapes, and two textures (smooth and salted).

3. While students are writing down ideas, demonstrate how students will use the salt. Take a piece of watercolor paper and choose two colors, such as green and blue. Paint a large section of the paper green. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle a pinch of salt onto the paint. Let the paint dry. Ask students to describe what happens when salt and water combine. Discuss the difference between a chemical reaction and a physical reaction.

4.  When the green paint is dry, rub the salt off to show the effect. Now use the blue paint to paint a large area of the paper next to the green area and overlap a small section of the green paint. This overlapped area should create a new color – blue green - and is called glazing. Let that dry. Show students the difference between the textured/salted area, the glazed area and the unsalted area.

5. Distribute the watercolor paper, brushes, paint, water, and salt. Remind students to use just pinches of salt when the paint is still wet (but paint should not be in puddles).

6.  When paintings are dry, have students write the song title or group name on the back of the paper. Have students write the elements found in salt.