Due: One week
Context:
Artists often use their art to express their thoughts and feelings. We have just been through a long, divisive election season (In fact, we're still in it!), and emotions are high. Yours might be too right now.
Project:
Create an artwork that expresses your ideas and feelings about the election. You can approach this as a personally expressive art statement or as an editorial illustration.
Medium: Collage (Color clippings from magazines)
Size: 11 x 14" or larger
Objectives:
Things to Think About:
Steps:
1. RESEARCH/LOOK - Before settling on your technique, study the mixed media collages of Romare Bearden, the photomontages of David Hockney, and the photomanipulations of Yasumasa Morimura. (Look them up online.). View the magazine covers of The New Yorker from recent weeks. View the social/political paintings of Jack Levine and George Grosz. Look at other political art.
2. WRITE - In your sketchbook/journal or in a Google Doc, write a paragraph or two about either the election, about the media, about where we are as a country right now, or about the future of the country (You will turn this in with your artwork.). Spend some time on this. Dig deep. How do you REALLY feel? There is no right or wrong answer.
Some possibilities for content:
3. PLAN your art -- Use that written reflection in developing an artwork that expresses those ideas and emotions. Visually brainstorm in your sketchbook, then draft your composition by drawing a series of thumbnail sketches. Develop further your best sketch. (Turn in your sketches.)
4. COLLECT MATERIALS - Collect color from magazines. You will "paint" your image by using a color collage technique. Collect variations of all the colors you'll need, but keep them organized (Use envelopes to collect them by color.)
5. MIXED MEDIA - Complete a mixed media artwork (cut-paper collage; See student examples of technique) based on your best thumbnail sketch that expresses some of the ideas/feelings you wrote about.
TURN IN YOUR WRITING, SKETCHES, and A REFINED, "PORTFOLIO-WORTHY" FINISHED COLLAGE via Google Classroom.
Grading Criteria:
Studio Habits of Mind
References:
For technique, look to the approach of Romare Bearden (1911 - 1988), a Social Realist of the Harlem Renaissance.
Context:
Artists often use their art to express their thoughts and feelings. We have just been through a long, divisive election season (In fact, we're still in it!), and emotions are high. Yours might be too right now.
Project:
Create an artwork that expresses your ideas and feelings about the election. You can approach this as a personally expressive art statement or as an editorial illustration.
Medium: Collage (Color clippings from magazines)
Size: 11 x 14" or larger
Objectives:
- Expressiveness
- Strong Composition
- Experimentation with and Refinement of Media (Materials and Techniques)
Things to Think About:
- This is a collage, but it can include other media as well.
- Be as expressive as you can. Say something!
- Consider using visual metaphor rather than being literal.
- It should have a strong composition. Apply what you know about the Principles of Design: Contrast, Balance, Emphasis, Repetition, Movement, Variety and HARMONY.
- You should develop the composition through thumbnail sketches.
- It can't have any words. Show, don't tell.
Steps:
1. RESEARCH/LOOK - Before settling on your technique, study the mixed media collages of Romare Bearden, the photomontages of David Hockney, and the photomanipulations of Yasumasa Morimura. (Look them up online.). View the magazine covers of The New Yorker from recent weeks. View the social/political paintings of Jack Levine and George Grosz. Look at other political art.
2. WRITE - In your sketchbook/journal or in a Google Doc, write a paragraph or two about either the election, about the media, about where we are as a country right now, or about the future of the country (You will turn this in with your artwork.). Spend some time on this. Dig deep. How do you REALLY feel? There is no right or wrong answer.
Some possibilities for content:
- How might you describe your experience of the political process over the past year?
- How might you describe media coverage over the past few months?
- How do you feel at this moment?
- What are your hopes and dreams for the future of the country?
- How do we come together as a country?
- What are different ways we might relate to one another? What do you feel are some important Ways of Being?
- What do YOU need?
3. PLAN your art -- Use that written reflection in developing an artwork that expresses those ideas and emotions. Visually brainstorm in your sketchbook, then draft your composition by drawing a series of thumbnail sketches. Develop further your best sketch. (Turn in your sketches.)
4. COLLECT MATERIALS - Collect color from magazines. You will "paint" your image by using a color collage technique. Collect variations of all the colors you'll need, but keep them organized (Use envelopes to collect them by color.)
5. MIXED MEDIA - Complete a mixed media artwork (cut-paper collage; See student examples of technique) based on your best thumbnail sketch that expresses some of the ideas/feelings you wrote about.
TURN IN YOUR WRITING, SKETCHES, and A REFINED, "PORTFOLIO-WORTHY" FINISHED COLLAGE via Google Classroom.
Grading Criteria:
Studio Habits of Mind
References:
For technique, look to the approach of Romare Bearden (1911 - 1988), a Social Realist of the Harlem Renaissance.
For an editorial illustration approach, here are some recent covers from The New Yorker, a weekly politics and culture magazine.
For style and composition, look at the work of the Italian Futurists (early 20th century) as one approach:
Or, for a darker view, the social/political paintings of Georges Grosz (Germany) and Jack Levine (American) from the first half of the 20th century:
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