Monday, April 18, 2016

Create > Nature Journal Concentration Series

Create > Nature Journal Concentration Series






Goal:  Create a series of original visual statements based on your nature journal documents.


Concept:  Follow the prompts of each adventure.  Go outside to play, explore, document and be inspired.  After completing the initial outside adventure, make images and complete the writing activity.  Next, mindfully reflect on your experiences with gratitude.  Culminate each adventure by creating an original visual statement.  


Watch > Ben Saunders: Why bother leaving the house? > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jBB5iibKy0
Studio Activities:


Adventure 1:
Hike on a trail…
Make a map of your route with photos…
Tell a journey story…
Create >


Adventure 2:
Hug a big tree…
Document leaves…
Share a secret…
Create >


Adventure 3:
Turn over a rock…
Document what you find…
Describe the smell of the earth…
Create >


Adventure 4:
Find a seed pod…
Document patterns…
Make a prediction about the future…
Create >


Adventure 5:
Walk barefoot…
Document your feet & what is under them…
Write from your feet’s vantage point…
Create >


Adventure 6:
Chase a butterfly or look for bugs…
Make close-up photos of insects…
Pen a poem…
Create >


Adventure 7:
Stare at the stars and moon…
Document the night sky…
Invent a myth…
Create >


Adventure 8:
Find and follow an animal’s tracks…
Document the tracks…
Narrate an animal’s conversation…
Create >


Adventure 9:
Watch a storm…
Expose the darker side of Mother Nature…
Confront your fears…
Create >


Adventure 10:
Find a spider web…
Photograph a spider web…
Weave a captivating mystery…
Create >


Adventure 11:
Imagine things in the clouds…
Capture wide open spaces…
Make up a fairy tale…
Create >


Adventure 12:
Listen to a bird…
Photograph colors, patterns or birds…
Compose a song…
Create >




Friday, April 15, 2016

Create > Object Painting

Create > Object Painting


Goal: Use historically significant art to create an aesthetic object from an abandoned object.

Studio Activity:
Find an interesting object from the garage, attic, flea market, auction, or second-hand store.  
Pick a famous painting to use as the primary camouflage element.
Transform the object by decorating its entire surface with paint using the defining characteristics of a famous art style movement or a specific painting.
Mimic the the color scheme, brush stroke method or application and the use of subject matter.   

Art History:
Study the art style movements: Abstract Expressionism, Baroque, Postmodern, Surrealism, Futurism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Bauhaus, Cubism, Expressionism

Trigger Mechanisms:
Reinterpret, Translate, Disguise, Substitution, Transform

Visual Examples:


Friday, April 8, 2016

Create > Visual Metaphors

Create > Visual Metaphors


Goal:  Develop a visual metaphor diptych for each of the following prompts

Concept: Creating a personal metaphor reminds you of your own greatness and how you can serve and inspire both others and yourself.

A metaphor is defined as a figure of speech, or something that we use to  replace "normal" words  in order to help others understand or enjoy our message.  A visual metaphor is the representation of a person, place, thing, or idea by way of a visual image that suggests a particular association or point of similarity.  Metaphors are ways of thinking and ways of shaping the thoughts of others.  

“In metaphor, you are really taking two different elements and bringing them together to form a third,” said Mr. Lyons, 84. “It’s like Dylan Thomas, his use of the word ‘green’ in one of his poems, where he places it changes the implications of the color.” > http://goo.gl/TmbkBc

1. Read > Your Life Metaphor Matters > http://goo.gl/0OMjzy

Studio Activities: Metaphor Diptychs

Diptych 1:  
Create > Significant Individual Metaphor
  1. Choose a historical or contemporary individual that has inspired you and write their name     
  2. Find a quotation by or about the significant person and copy it.      
  3. What image, object or place comes to mind when you think of this person and the quotation?  
  4. Write your response and make a diptych photograph that captures this
(maybe juxtapose a portrait of the individual or the quote with your original metaphor photograph)
     
Diptych 2:  
Create > Parent, Relative or Friend Metaphor
  1. Choose a relative or friend that has inspired you and write their name    
  2. Write below a quotation, lyric or passage that they chose because it is a favorite of theirs.    
  3. What image, object, or place comes to mind when you think of this person and the quotation?  
  4. Write your response and make a diptych photograph that captures this
(maybe juxtapose a portrait of the individual or the quote with your original metaphor photograph)
          
Diptych 3:  
Create > Musical Lyrics Metaphor
  1. Choose favorite song and write the lyrics below.  
  2. What image, object, or place comes to mind when you think of this?  
  3. Write your response and make a diptych photograph that captures this

Diptych 4:  Personal Metaphor
Develop > Personal Metaphor Statement
Here is how to craft a personal metaphor statement for yourself
  1. Identify a solution or outcome that is desperately needed in the world or your community.
  2. Identify and element or subject in nature that inspires you.
  3. Identify the qualities within that element that inspires you.
  4. Identify who it is that will benefit from your solution.
  5. Identify what they will then be able to do as a result of learning of your solution.
Now put it all together and fill in the blanks with your responses.
Complete the sentence and post it to the community.
I am a __(2)__, who __(3)__, who helps __(4)__ to __(1)__ so that they may __(5)__.
Create > Personal Metaphor
Use the prompts from the other diptych metaphors to help you.  
Also consider:
What hobbies do you have?
What do you spend time doing?
What do you collect?
What events in your life had a profound effect on you?
What things do you feel a special connection with.
Trigger Mechanisms: Comparisons, Analogy, Juxtaposition

A Westosha Art Student’s Personal Metaphor Example:
How can an image of a street be a personal metaphor?
Consider the symbolic nature of an image of the street you live on or a street you travel daily.
Compare streets and life:
  • both evoke thoughts of a journey
  • Both take us somewhere
  • Sometimes we don’t know where they end up (look at the images, is that represented?)
  • You travel roads everyday to get places, you live life everyday to take you places.
  • The road leads to the future just as your life keeps moving forward.
  • What do you think the artist meant by fracturing the image?


Visual Examples:



Create > Creative Finger Photos

Create > Creative Finger Photos


Goal:  Create narrative images using human fingers as main characters.

Concept: Your fingers can take on human characteristics

Studio Activity:
Using your fingers and the themes below, make narrative images telling a story.
Theme 1. Recreate a scene from a movie, the subject matter of a painting or album cover, etc.
Theme 2. Retell a historical myth or event.
Theme 3. Your choice

Trigger Mechanisms: Transfer, Mythologize, Fantasize

Visual Examples: