Choice Based Art

BASA Art Class Week 9

Following the interest level of the class, I decided to continue talking about pop art and tie it in with the kids' love of cartooning.  I showed the class images created by Roy Lichtenstein.

Roy Lichtenstein "Maybe"

Roy Lichtenstein "Mickey"

A few of the students were fortunate to see the Lichtenstein exhibit at the Art Institute over the summer.  We had a great conversation about the way Lichtenstein elevated cartooning to "high" art.  We also discussed his use of ben-day dots to mimic old printing techniques.

After my five minutes of talking, the class set off to work.  Some of them went straight to cartooning, while others explored their own ideas.

Choice Based Art

BASA Art Class Week 8

Love is in the air!  Our class this week was on Valentines Day.  I chose three pop artists for us to explore.  These three artists, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Jim Dine, all used hearts in their artwork.  We discussed what "pop art" means and how a simple heart, mass produced in popular culture, can be elevated to "high art".

It was interesting to discuss Andy Warhol's heart print with the class.  Our conversation diverged into careers that an artist can have, such as scientific illustrator.

"Graffiti Heart" Keith Haring

Heart print - Andy Warhol

Heart print - Jim Dine

Choice Based Art

BASA Art Class Week 7

I continued our discussion about collage from the previous week.  I decided to show some examples that used simple materials that we have plenty of in our art centers.

We looked at works by Romare Bearden.  Most of the students in the class play instruments and the music theme was one of the first things the students noticed about Bearden's work.

"Three Folk Musicians" Romare Bearden

While looking for collage examples, I found the artist Denise Fiedler.  I really like her simple collages that utilize old pages of text. 

"Lion" Denise Fiedler

As happens every week, a few of the students are interested in pursuing a project based on the "five minute discussion" and others are motivated by their own ideas.