yes

 

Working it out...

I feel inspired by the Secondary Art Show this week at the Centre, and Kat's 'painted black' work, and your very diverse strengths and insights:

I want to ask you to each imagine yourself either jumping, rolling, falling, flying or trying to get up... 

Sketchbooks: Please each take another random poetry moment to come up with some(10?) random words while thinking about  yourself in an action above  - then use some of these words to lead you into creating imagery and visual ideas in your sketchbooks.

Scale, proportion and even symmetry are at our discretion...big mouths and tiny eye(s)...a giant nostril....a beak(?)...all allowed for a portrait fyi. Our imagery relates to movement...things really don't look 'normal' when they're moving...

We will do large paper partial  tracings to get ourselves started on our paper...then complete our compositions through our own ideas over the next 2-3 weeks...as needed to finish. 

My Prompts inspired by your previous work:

• A person's name, or all their thoughts as a giant graffiti tag where their body is the
  thought bubble or even the body trace is the actual thought jumping out of the tag.
• Different colours blocked out to form giant or misplaced features or features created as silhouettes of favourite objects or people (like Kyles big face painting)...perhaps a kind of falling into place?
• A sculpted(bandage or paper tape) arm and hand trying to push out from the paper/board or canvas, trying to get up.
• A GIANT close up face falling towards you(out of) your canvas/paper... 

We want to be able to look at our finished work and see that the artist has communicated that this is a body in motion....and we want to discuss how each work is in some way a self-portrait. As artists we stand up(and fall down) by what we try to do and what we succeed in creating. Our portrait does not have to be truthful or accurate, profound, literal, or even singular in it's presentation... but it does need to be an honest attempt at communicating our idea's of 'ourself' in the above context of action*** using at least 2 artistic techniques and materials!

I will link out to a few artists that this work brings to mind to give you permission artistically - not to impersonate:)

Random Sketch of Very Creative People

I am looking at and thinking about our last few weeks of working together. There have been a lot of hands and shoes, amazing patterns, working out of 'eyes', personal symbols reapperaing, and really awesome and unique approaches to creating your work. We've worked well with collage, splatter, acrylic paint and charcoal, and you all seem more comfortable in representational and abstract drawing, as well as laying things out on a page with purpose. Think about using your recent drawings of faces, some ideas about colour blocking(laying out areas of colour to give value), and incorporating your own inventive patterns, your own previous work, just images of parts of you, and/or tracings, into a self-portrait. If you start with these as a base - literally and tehcnically - it can help you start to visualize(give you a way into) working out how you want to do your portrait. Use your sketchbook as a tool to help you explore ideas for a mixed media(draw/paint collage) portrait on canvas. Start playing with what the different bases might look like, combining them, and trying to imagine how you would like to see things - by sketching them out in your books.  I think each of you have interesting and exciting ideas, and unique creative approaches to working out a self portrait project. We can work some of this out on Wednesday.

Graffiti Break and Spring Flowers!

Tanya will send me some links, info(names and organization) and pictures of your Graffiti Sessions in the courtyard.  That was fun, thanks for including me on Wednesday - there was definitely some good technique to learn, and some very stylish work to see!
I noticed how the colours happened in blocks (per spray can I guess), starting with base colours, then outlines to build letter shapes and 3-d, then more fill-in colour, then outline again, then there was still room for detail, and  "corrections".  There was also a good conversation about  conventions ie: knowing that adding an  'Arrow" to letters can relate to offense or defense meaning in a tag. I am wondering how much not knowing the conventions of Graffiti work actually gives the work it's power to intrigue us - and how much not knowing also lets us enjoy it more easily because it just looks so cool. Like anything created by a culture, it requires respect through it's own conventions, some of which are 'illegal' and I'm just wondering how these conventions relate to the ways we can celebrate it. Very interesting morning.

So, a huge Thank - You to everyone who made giant, gorgeous tissue paper flowers for the TT Dance-a-thon - the entire gym looked great! Thank you Tanya and Erika for thinking to do it!