Unit 2/ Purposes of Visual Art

Assignment 2: A Persuasive Poster
 

Everyone gets fired up about it!  Should smoking be banned in public places?   Where do you stand on this issue?  What are the most powerful images you can use to get your ideas across? 

Choose one side of this argument and develop a colorful digital image, drawing, or collage that is intended to persuade others to agree with your way of thinking. Your audience consists of people who are neutral on the issue or have an opposite position from yours, so it’s important to get their attention.

Use poster board or drawing paper for your poster. It’s ok if the scale is small enough to fit on your scanner. Remember, the idea is to persuade the viewer by the images you capture or create, not to sway them with words alone. When you are finished, scan the image or take a digital photo of it and upload it to your portfolio to be graded.  Study the portfolio rubric so you’ll understand the grading standards.  

Note:  I created this image on my computer using Gimp, a free image-manipulation program.  My idea began with butterfly wings (for freedom, smoke-free) and similarly-shaped lungs, so I searched image files and started there.  I haven't used Gimp much for layering transparencies so it took a while to figure out the system. This kind of portfolio project would work out just as well by creating a collage with magazine photos and text, and scanning it, or using a word document with an image and varied type sizes.

Unit 2/ Elements of Theatre

Assignment 4: You’re the Playwright

Experiment with the playwright’s craft by writing the first page or two of an original play.  When you’re done you’ll have a title, a list of characters (with descriptions), information about the set and stage directions, and dialogue between two characters.  This assignment isn’t nearly as intimidating as it sounds!  Just launch in, and see what happens.   

These rules will make your job easier:

1. Limit the time covered to one small unit. (ex: an hour, a car-ride home from the airport, a class period, etc.)
2. Do not change the setting. (ex: all action happens at the dinner table, inside a car, etc.)
3. Keep the action moving forward (no flashbacks) and
4. Just let the dialogue lead you through the scene.

Choose one of the following ideas, OR invent your own: 

• two students who both want the same thing
• a coach and a player in conflict over steroid use
• two friends, one of whom has been engaged in some risky activity
• a parent and daughter/son in conflict over values, money, future plans
• a thief or other criminal and his/her victim
• the drivers of two cars, after one has smashed into another
• a soldier returning from Iraq and an anti-war protester
• two people with differing opinions on a controversial political issue

A standard rubric will be used for grading.  Not many of us are born to be playwrights, so making a good effort is the most important route to a good grade on this project.

Here's my attempt:

The Shopper  

This play involves a coincidental meeting of strangers…who have something in common.

CHARACTERS:

Natalia: a Russian-American teenager living in San Francisco.  Everything about her conveys confidence, happiness,  excitement.  She’s dressed in a micro-mini and red leather jacket.

Sasha: another Russian-American teenager, same age as Natalia.  Sasha seems much less confident than Natalia.  She is wearing baggy jeans and a jacket that looks like it came from the Goodwill.

SET:  The women’s dressing room of T.J. Maxx department store.  Natalia is occupying one curtained dressing room and Sasha is in the space next to her.  The audience can see into each of the side-by-side spaces where Natalia has brought in piles of bright clothing and Sasha has one or two simple items.  The girls can hear each other, but they can’t see each other.  It’s obvious from the beginning that the two girls are strangers.

_________________________________________________________

Natalia:  (entering the curtained cubicle, humming, placing clothes on a hook.  She is obviously happy,  and is talking to herself unaware that someone in the next stall can hear her. Her English is great, but she speaks with a strong accent.)

Going to look SOOOO good!  Which to try on first…the little sparkling tee shirt?  The layers of skirt!  (suddenly change and credit cards spill out of Natalia’s bag, scattering everywhere, including into the next curtained booth.)

 NO! Oops!  There goes my moneys! 

(The audience can see Sasha from the front of the dressing stall, but only Sasha’s feet are visible to Natalia. She also speaks in accented English but her voice is much quieter than Natalia’s.)

Sasha:  Here, I help you!  Here some dollabills!  Some credit card coming back your way! (Sasha is now smiling, thinking she has finally made a new friend.  She shoves the money back under the curtain in the direction of Natalia .  They’re both laughing now.)

Natalia:  (loudly, confidently) Spaciba!  Thank so much! 

Sasha: (still talking quietly through the stall)  You going to weekend party?

Natalia:  First date with new guy!  He just ask me out!  Marko his name.

Sasha:  (after a very long silence)  Marko??

Writing the first pages of a play was a really challenge for me; it's not something I've ever tried to do before.  The trick for me was to just sitdown and start writing.  I didn't have a story in mind when I began; I just started a dialogue and let it shape itself, line by line.  It also helped me to keep it uncomplicated, with only two characters and the TJ Maxx dressing room as a setting.

Unit 4 Renaissance Arts/ Music

Assignment 3.  Form a Renaissance Band

After viewing and listening to the Renaissance instruments, choose three that you think would work together in a band.  Create text for an album cover to describe your band.  Cover as many of these points as you can:

--name your band
--name the three instruments
--describe the way each instrument looks
--tell what instrument family each belongs to (woodwind, brass, string, percussion)
--tell what contemporary instrument is similar
--describe the way each instrument sounds
--explain why you selected the instruments you did, using at least three elements of music you studied in Unit 2. (ex: rhythm, tempo, melody, harmony, timbre)

Make your text lively and fun, since this will be an advertisement for your band.

The

Second

Psaltery

The Second Psaltery is band that rocks Renaissance with two psalteries, one transverse flute, and a gamba. The lead instrument, a transverse flute, stirs up the melodic line.  This wind instrument will be new to your eyes and ears as well. It has a clear, reedy timbre and its six holes that can span two octaves. The flute is backed up by two psalteries.  These medium-sized sound boxes look a lot like dulcimers, and when the second psaltery is added, some serious harmony starts to happen. When they're plucked by hand their guitar-like sound makes a perfect contrast to the opening flute.  The back-up instrument, a gamba, looks like a small cello. It sneaks in a mellow rhythm to round off an amazing sound.

Note: This assignment was easy and fun, and sort of a hands-on way to learn about a few Renaissance instruments.  I just took a few minutes to re-read the descriptions of all the instruments and picked three that might work together.  I liked having the option of of naming the band and picking out a type font that worked with the Renaissance theme.  The description felt like it needed an image, so I did an image search for "psaltery" and added that. The most difficult part of this assignment for me was remembering to work in some of the elements of music.                                

Unit 4 Renaissance Arts/ Theatre

Assignment 3:  Response to the Play

Take on the persona of an Elizabethan theater-goer who has just seen the premiere performance of Mr. Shakespeare's new play (either Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet).

You may choose to be either a member of the nobility (e.g., a lord or a lady, a duke or duchess) or a groundling. Choose one of the following:

1. Write a letter to a friend about the play and your experience. Your letter should be at least 200 words in length.
2. Create a short video or audio (ok, so you've moved from the Renaissance into the 21st century) featuring a two-person dialog. Ask a family member or friend to help. Chat with this person about your experience and your opinion of the play. (You might set up a conversation between friends or an interview program.) Your video should be about two minutes in length.

Your letter or recorded conversation must include the following:

1. The action in the galleries (the stadium-style seats inside an Elizabethan era theatre) and yard (the bare ground in front of the stage where people stood to watch the performance).
2. Your opinion about the play. Feel free to praise or criticize the production. Your letter must include examples of dialog or action from the video clip. (However, remember that the production you see, as an Elizabethan era theater-goer, will not have much in the way of scenery or lighting.) You may wish to include references to other playwrights popular in the Elizabethan era.
3. Some sore of insights the play gives you into our own emotions and/or experiences or those of your friends or family members. For example, like Romeo, do you tend to fall in love with someone you barely know? Are you worried about your best friend because, like Hamlet, she questions the purpose of her own life?

And here's what I came up with:

My Dear Friend,

This day has been an amazing one!  My friends and I walked to the new Globe Theatre, on the banks of the Thames, to see Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  The day was a beautiful one, perfect for an open-air performance in a real theatre, not just a bear-baiting pit as before!  We walked through miles of mud to arrive at The Globe, and I was astonished to see how many people were in attendance.  Most, like me, were standing in line to pay a penny to watch from the ground, but there were many noble men in attendance also, and they had fine seats.  Some of the women who attended with noblemen were actually wearing masks themselves!  Was it so they would not be recognized??!  The play was magnificent!  I had heard parts of the story of star-crossed lovers before, but this version was a bold mix of comedy and sadness.  My favorite part was when Romeo drew near to the Capulet household, climbed to Juliet’s tower and then heard her speaking aloud to him.  I felt Romeo’s excitement when he heard Juliet say that she no longer wished to be a Capulet if her family name would prevent her from being with him.  Juliet was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, and it gave me a great shock to learn that her part was played by a man! There was much noise from the crowd, and the sights and smells of the crowd were a bit unpleasant, but it was in good fun, and all in all a most spectacular experience!  Your loving friend,  Beatrice

Note:  With this assignment I realized that it's not easy to get into character!  As on the other writing assignments I just launched in and hoped that some ideas would come to me.  As I edited this writing I tried to bring in as many specific details as possible (groundlings, details about the theatre and play, etc.) so the letter would have some substance.

Unit 4 Renaissance Arts/ Visual Art

Assignment 2: Perspective in Raphael's School of Athens


Before moving on to Michelangelo, try this experiment.  Print a copy of The School of Athens.  Using a marker and ruler, locate the rays, the vanishing point, and the horizon line. Point out the figures in the painting that overlap and increase the feeling of depth.  Put this in your portfolio for grading.

Note: This was a straightforward assignment and the only problem I had was that the image provided was too small to work with.  I easily found another one on Wikipedia. I used a transparent marker to define the lines and circle the overlapping figures.

Unit 5 Arts of the Baroque Age/ Overview

Assignment 3:  You are the Designer

Too early for HGTV, but in the seventeenth century there was a definite interest in interior design, and the wealthy paid artists to help them get just the right look.  A perfectly decorated estate should reflect the spirit of the times with ornamentation, lavish texture, contrast, movement, and high drama.

Your assignment is to design a piece of decorative art for the interior of a 17th-century nobleman's estate.  This piece should reflect the decorative qualities of the era which are underlined in the passage above.  You may complete the assignment in either of two ways:

Plan 1:  Write a detailed description of the item to give to the nobleman.  This should include the name of the item and all significant details, such as scale, materials, finish. etc.

Plan 2:   Make a drawing (black and white or color, if appropriate) of the item.  Make notes in the margin explaining your details.

For Both: Write a paragraph "artist's statement" explaining your own intention as an artist and why your work will be impressive to the nobleman's peers.

I went for plan 2 and tried to design a large Baroque mirror.

Artist's Statement:

This is a design for a large (5 ft. x 8 ft.) mirror to be hung in the hallway of a nobleman's house.  Its energy, boldly curving lines, and extravagant materials are sure to turn heads of anyone who visits the estate.  It is a masterpiece of fanciful ornamentation, lavish texture, and contrasting materials.

Note:  I began with pencil and graph paper, and it took several tries to come up with an asymmetrical design that had a lot of motion and texture.  All my experiments seemed over-the-top (read: gaudy!) but I guess that's what Baroque's all about. I think the design does capture some of the energy of the era, but it's not quite a masterpiece.

 

Unit 5 Arts of the Baroque Age/ Dance

Assignment 2:  Five Positions

Five Positions a' GaGa

Using the artistic style of your choice (comic cartoon, stick figure, realistic drawing, digital camera), sketch or photograph figures demonstrating each of the five positions of ballet.  If you like you can attach explanatory notes.  Keep in mind that your five sketches should (1) be accurate and (2) reflect a reasonable investment of time on your part.


Note:  I knew from the beginning I wanted to have fun with this one and use Lady Gaga's feet to demonstrate the positions. My first try was feet only--big, decorative platform shoes, but that didn't work because the arm positions are important as well.  So-- I did stick figures as a preliminary drawing, then looked up some images of Gaga for the style.  I sketched on grid paper, then traced that to watercolor paper and dabbed on a little dimestore watercolor paint.  When the watercolor dried I outlined the figures with a Pilot pen. 

Unit 6 Arts of the Neoclassical Era/ Context

Assignment 4:  A Study of Symmetry

Whether you call it the Age of Reason, Enlightenment, or Neoclassical Era, the 18th century was a time when the pendulum was swinging back toward classical values.  One of the concepts which appears in theatre, visual art, music, and architecture of the time is symmetry.  Your portfolio assignment is to create a design that is based on the concept of symmetry.

Your design may take any form you like.  You may use reflectional symmetry in which one half of an object mirrors the other half (ex. a mask) or rotational symmetry, in which all sides are the same (ex. a starfish).

Here are three examples to get you started:

(1) An elaborate cut-paper design

(2) A colored "floor plan" or bird's eye view of a formal Neoclassical garden, with pathways, and beds in perfect rotational or reflectional symmetry around a central sculpture or fountain.

(3) Most challenging:  word-based symmetry.  This might be an experimental work using palindromes (see Wikipedia for examples), or a ballad in which there is a symmetrical pattern of stanzas and repeated verses, or even an outline or reproduction of a symmetrical object using letters, numbers, and figures.

Anything goes, in fact, as long as it's clear that you fully understand symmetry and know how to use it. 

Note: I took the first option, and made this cut-paper design of reflectional symmetry.  I began with several sheets of construction paper, folded each (separately) down the middle, and began cutting patterns.  When I had experimented with several sheets of paper I placed them on top of each other (matching folds) to see what kind of color and pattern would emerge.  It didn't work right on the first try, so I enlarged some of the cut patterns and revised the papers until the stacked pattern looked good to me.  This was a pretty quick process; it would have been much more challenging if I had tried to use rotational symmetry.

Unit 8 Realism and Impressionism/ Overview

Assignment 2:  Whitman's Realism

Whitman by Mathew Brady

Experiment with Walt Whitman's style of realism by choosing your favorite place or urban setting and listing its qualities in a realistic way.  Use free verse (unrhymed lines) to give your writing the same sense of natural conversation that Whitman's has.  Revise at least once to use the best images and most interesting--and realistic--language possible.  Here is a section of Whitman's I Hear America Singing, if you need to take another look at his style:

from Whitman:

I HEAR America singing, the varied carols I hear;
Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;
The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work;
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck;
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands;
The wood-cutter’s song—the ploughboy’s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;

Here's my try at a poem, conversational, listing qualities of an urban setting:

Downtown

Walking in the heat I see a sign, spelled wrong,

"no parking in allyway," the Goodwill Store, the warehouse, once

Lewis Lumber.  Last summer this street was home to a bent

man with a lisp, he sold tomatoes,

cantaloupes, and corn

Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Now he's moved to Boca Raton,

his job taken over by the Amish woman waiting with

her grandson, straightening

baskets of green beans, red and yellow

peppers, rough-ruby beets, celery, bright white onions all

out of her garden, picked in blistering sun but soon you learn

they were actually trucked in last week

from Arkansas.

Note: I got this idea from a photo of "no parking in allyway" I took in my home town in Western Kentucky. I began with the first line and the rest of the lines just came to me as I wrote the poem and remembered another conversation I'd had later with an Amish woman.  It's really just three or four sentences.  When I edited this poem I worked on word choice and played around with spacing in order to add some musical rhythms and give some phrases more importance.

Unit 9 Cornerstones of Modernism/Overview

Assignment 4: Create a brochure or magazine ad for African or Latin American arts.

You've learned that art reflects the society in which it is created, and one reason American arts today are so vibrant and exciting is that they have been enriched by the cultures of many diverse peoples, across many centuries. Your task is to create a magazine ad or brochure that highlights one of the native arts of Africa or Latin America.  The purpose of the work is to make people aware of the country itself, and its rich artistic traditions.

(1) Here are some countries you can choose from:

African countries:  Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Mali, Ivory Coast, Cameroon

Latin American countries:  Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, Panama, Cuba

(2) When you have chosen a country, do a some research for the text box of your page.

Where is the country located? What does the landscape look like? And, very important...what native art forms most interest you and would appeal to a visitor?

(3) Now put it all together on a word document, collage, digital composition...your choice. Begin with a striking arts photo you've scooped off the web.  Add a descriptive text box from the questions above, and top it off with a catchy title.  Voila! You'll have a magazine page that will transport us into the music, dance, theatre, or visual arts of Africa or Latin America.

Note: I launched into this assignment by selecting a country I thought would be interesting, then learning a little about the geography in step-by-step fashion as the instructions suggest.  I knew I'd need an image to anchor the page, so I started searching through Google, Wikipedia, etc.  Once I got the image, I came up with a headline, learned a little about the art, and laid it all out on a word document. Finally I scanned the document.  I wasn't terribly enthusiastic about the project but got into the assignment as I worked on it. I was limited on images because I needed one without copyright restrictions (since I'm blogging)and I was a little disappointed in the print quality of the scanned page. I'd give myself about a C on this one!

Unit 10 The Early Modern Era/ Overview

Assignment:  Create a digital exhibit of important events in the twentieth century. Go online to find ten photographs, two for each of the five events of the first half of the twentieth century.

With each photo, write a short explanation that explains the connection between the photo and the era it represents.

• The Progressive Era 
• World War I 
• The Jazz Age 
• The Great Depression 
• World War II



Progressive Era protests were all about improving
the lives of the poor.

Teddy Roosevelt brought in the Progressive Era
with reforms, national parks, women's suffrage.

The USA was drawn into a European conflict.

WW1 was a war with unimagined horrors.

20s styles showed the frivolity of the era.

20s Chaplain showed poverty in his movies.

Great Depression of 30s: economic collapse
and then the Dust Bowl.

Depression Era, the homeless and jobless.

WW2 Bombers asserted power of the USA.

Bombing of Hiroshima ended WW 2 but is still questioned today.

Note: As the instructions suggested I previewed this assignment before I watched the video clips of the five eras.  After I watched each video clip I Google'd "Images of (that era)" and saved my favorite images in order in a folder on my computer. Approaching all the last assignments together made the process go smoothly and I thought the photographs were amazing. 

Unit 12/ Visual Arts

What's on YOUR plate today??

Conceptual art is about ideas, and this play on words relates to the idea that we are all multi-tasking all the time.  I picked the best plates I could find to provide a backdrop for wire, sanding block, paint, and washers and a set-up with tools that resembles  flatware.  This is to provide a little irony...what's on our plate today may not be so beautiful.

Note:  My first idea was to do a play on words using a plate with nuts (almonds) and bolts.  I quickly discovered that I had no bolts around the house so I regrouped with "What's on your plate today?" and assembled the tools and hardware that I could find. It took just a few minutes to set this up once I got going.  The most time-consuming part was ironing the blue tablecloth--the arrangement needed a color that would "pop" against the red.