This course is a creative and expressive exploration of multiple art media, including but not limited to drawing, painting and design elements. It is an introduction to the art making process with weekly interactive lectures and hands on studio sections.
My role as a TA was to lead the studio sessions. This involved developing art activities addressing the weekly theme and art medium being explored. Aside from those parameter's, I had a lot of freedom to insert myself to the course. This was really helpful as I navigated my experience as a first year grad student as I was given week after week, class after to class to reinvent myself as a teacher. I felt like a stone in a rock polisher. Speed Date Style: Blind, Continuous, Contour Drawings |
Haiku Poems and Mark Rothko
The students were told to write a haiku poem and then make a Rothko inspired painting to depict their poem.
Angel Otero "Skin" Paintings
After watching a recorded studio visit of artist Angel Otero, the students mimicked his technique using plastic wrap. The plastic wrap is taped to the table and they paint a mirrored image on top of it. They lay paper over top of it, flip it over and distorted the image by manipulating the saran wrap. They then could decide to leave it to dry or remove the wrap.
One student finished painting early so I suggested he make a sculpture painting. He didn't know what that meant and nor did I. He investigated with the material and ended up collecting dried up paint from tubes and pumps and assembling them into a sculpture with wire and hot glue. He was pretty proud of the result.
Printmaking and Narrative
This project combined the theme of narrative with our first week of printmaking and carried into the following week which was memorial. To begin with I read them a poem titled Where I'm From by Georgia Ella Lyon. After hearing the poem, the students wrote down a stream of consciousness writing beginning with "Where I'm From..."I thought it would be fun to explore Toile de Jouy wallpaper designs to incorporate narrative into a traditional repeat pattern but in a new modern way. I showed them traditional examples as well as modern examples from interior design houses like Studio Printworks and Timorous Beasties.
For the following week, I had the students design their own memorial for whatever, or whoever, they wanted. It could be serious or goofy. They used sheets of styrofoam to create stamps to make a few prints.
I also had them generate symbols for words that had meaning to them similar to the way Zarina has done. We took those symbols and created a paper stencil to then makeshift screen print onto fabric.
I also had them generate symbols for words that had meaning to them similar to the way Zarina has done. We took those symbols and created a paper stencil to then makeshift screen print onto fabric.
Masks
During the following two weeks we would be focusing on collage, mixed media and play. I thought it would be fun to look at Wayne White and his cardboard masks, used in parades, films, and installations.
Other Collage and Mixed Media
Group Photos!
I revealed to my students that they had actually been producing art that would be put to use in a photoshoot! The worked in groups to create sets using their wallpaper and other props and they could wear their masks to create some kind of a narrative or editorial shot.
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