
Artists make statements; WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SAY?
OBJECTIVES
This project will serve to teach/review/improve upon your understanding of :
- Color and color theory. Review what you learned in Art I and through the color-matching exercises with colored pencil and paint. Use color in a more sophisticated manner than before, considering not only color theory but color symbolism as well.
- Composition. Always critical to a good work of art, composition is especially key as it affects and supports the artist's intent/content. YOU are the artist, YOU are trying to say something, YOU have control over the composition.... choose it carefully and with purpose.
- Acrylic painting techniques. There are many different ways to paint. This project will require you to use a variety of styles, both direct and indirect. You have already developed some of the skills needed for painting through drawing practice (observation, value) and by studying color theory and basic painting in Art I (hue, value, saturation, local, optical, arbitrary color, counterchange, etc). Take this opportunity to practice and elevate your painting skills. You'll be so glad you did and you'll be prepped and ready for oil painting in Art 3.
- Art History. Artists have always been "saying things" - that's what art IS.... for this project, you will look at specific styles of art, the reasons why they developed, and some of the major artists associated with those styles. Learn from them - and use their work to support and inspire your own.
DIRECTIONS
- Create a well-composed collage that juxtaposes disparate, appropriated, photographic, and other images/patterns (including those that you create yourself) AND communicates a message of personal/historical/social importance, etc. Consider doing as Audrey Flack did by creating a self-portrait using re-contextualized art history! You've already done some brainstorming in your sketchbook about that - maybe you want to push the idea further and complete it for this project??
- Transfer the collage to the painting paper using mechanical and other means, just as the Photorealists, Pop, and Neo-Pop artists did (and still do): grid, projection, trace, stencil, print, etc. (free-hand it when you need to!).
- Begin painting! Remember that one element of your work must accurately match the local colors of the collage, while the rest of the colors can be arbitrary.
- DO NOT FORGET the REQUIRED COMPONENTS:
- Appropriated imagery (what already exists that can support your content?)(consider how pastiche is a type of appropriation...)
- Disparate images (it’s the juxtaposition that makes the statement)
- A painted, photorealistic element (which part? think smart)
- Text, numbers, and/or symbols (how will this/these be applied?)
- Layers (what kind?)
- Mixed media, including at least one form of printmaking/image transfer (choices!)
- Counterchange (what will this look like? consider the overlap)
ARTISTS TO KNOW
Rosenquist, Jeff Koons, Jaune Quick-To-See-Smith, David Salle, Takashi Murakami, Ryan McGinness
RESOURCES
What is Neo-Pop?
What is postmodernism?
8 Artists Who Harness the Power of Art