A primary goal of substantive art education is to communicate visually--to decipher art for meaning and to construct meaning through images and objects. Strategies available to engage students are the interdisciplinary activities found in performance, visual and written forms of creative expression, and related disciplines such as ethnography, archaeology, and anthropology. A powerful tool to facilitate achievement of this goal is to have students explore outward, locating themselves within the larger sphere of humanity, examining situations and circumstances surrounding various human conditions. With the goal of visual communication and use of interdisciplinary methods in mind, this article describes a process that intertwines the generation of ideas with mastery of formal skills. Formal skills refer to competent use of the elements and principles of design, and the crafting of materials. In the curriculum described, students spent time learning about 2-D drawing problems, and elements and principles applicable to the 3-D version of the project. In addition to practicing relevant skills, these preservice credential students utilized a form of "critical reflection", examining a variety of contemporary issues and topics. Students worked within a broad theme incorporating personal experience, current events, and art history. From there, they generated questions and conducted research while preparing to move into more complex studio activities. The final artwork was 3-D, multi-media, and in the form of figurative tableaux. The curriculum described is ideal for the secondary classroom.