Identity
Artist: Henri Matisse
- Studio: Mini-Compositions: Collage
Artist: Chuck Close
Studio: Self-Portraiture: Crayon and Sharpie
Artist: William Wegman
- Studio: Artful Personifications: Mixed Media
unit 1: Identity reflection
Our first unit was identity and we focused on ways to express "you". I really enjoyed this unit because I was able to show my identity by being creative and thinking in different ways. I hope to use some of these studio techniques in my classroom someday.
The first studio we studied the artist Henri Matisse. In his art he uses cutouts of construction paper and collages them together. We used his techniques to capture the essence of our own identity. In our first studio we used magazines as a resource to find what we most thought represented us. Once we chose our images we arranged them in a juxtaposed manner and glued them together.
The second studio we studied the artist Chuck Close. In his art he paints hyperrealistic portraits that closely capture the identifying marks of the subject. In our studio we took Close's ideas about identity and we twisted it with disney characters. We had to choose a character that appealed to us physically, then we researched their qualities and characteristics. I chose Meg from "Hercules" because she had the most similar traits to me. We are both sassy, independent, and smart woman, but love a good romance. This was my favorite studio because i was able to tell a story through pictures. According to Pink "Story is high concept because it sharpens our understanding of one thing by showing it in the context of something else" (p. 103). I think it would be an easy way for kids to express their identity by using story telling through their art.
The third studio we studied William Wegman. In his art he photographs his dogs but adds human characteristics to them, so usually just their head is used with a human body. We connected Wegman's work by choosing a fable or a fairytale and depicting it using clippings of magazines and and animals. I chose the fable "The Princess and the Pea." I cut out pictures of four different beds and i used the comforters to give the visual of the princess sleeping on multiple matresses. I portrayed the princess by using a woman in a white ball gown as the body, but i used an owl face for the head. I chose the owl because the point of the fable was to find the princess by her not being able to sleep because of the pea, and owls don't sleep, thus the term night owl.
I hope to share this unit with my students one day. I consider myself a left brain person, and I really thought that I explored my creative, right brain during this unit. Pink(2005) says "The left hemisphere knows how to handle logic and the right hemisphere knows about the world. Put the two together and one gets a powerful thinking machine" (p. 25-26). I believe this statement is an overcasting theme that i want to be able to teach my students. I want my students to be able to use their brains and succeed.
The first studio we studied the artist Henri Matisse. In his art he uses cutouts of construction paper and collages them together. We used his techniques to capture the essence of our own identity. In our first studio we used magazines as a resource to find what we most thought represented us. Once we chose our images we arranged them in a juxtaposed manner and glued them together.
The second studio we studied the artist Chuck Close. In his art he paints hyperrealistic portraits that closely capture the identifying marks of the subject. In our studio we took Close's ideas about identity and we twisted it with disney characters. We had to choose a character that appealed to us physically, then we researched their qualities and characteristics. I chose Meg from "Hercules" because she had the most similar traits to me. We are both sassy, independent, and smart woman, but love a good romance. This was my favorite studio because i was able to tell a story through pictures. According to Pink "Story is high concept because it sharpens our understanding of one thing by showing it in the context of something else" (p. 103). I think it would be an easy way for kids to express their identity by using story telling through their art.
The third studio we studied William Wegman. In his art he photographs his dogs but adds human characteristics to them, so usually just their head is used with a human body. We connected Wegman's work by choosing a fable or a fairytale and depicting it using clippings of magazines and and animals. I chose the fable "The Princess and the Pea." I cut out pictures of four different beds and i used the comforters to give the visual of the princess sleeping on multiple matresses. I portrayed the princess by using a woman in a white ball gown as the body, but i used an owl face for the head. I chose the owl because the point of the fable was to find the princess by her not being able to sleep because of the pea, and owls don't sleep, thus the term night owl.
I hope to share this unit with my students one day. I consider myself a left brain person, and I really thought that I explored my creative, right brain during this unit. Pink(2005) says "The left hemisphere knows how to handle logic and the right hemisphere knows about the world. Put the two together and one gets a powerful thinking machine" (p. 25-26). I believe this statement is an overcasting theme that i want to be able to teach my students. I want my students to be able to use their brains and succeed.