Art Journal

Lately I have been really interested in the idea of art journalling.  I think this would be a great way to start the year to really give your students a chance to build their creative muscles first and then slowly begin to insert meaning into their work.  I want to stress that I really began this project as an exploration into creativity-the pressure should be off especially in the beginning.  The students should just feel free to create because they can alway add and alter their work later.

I created this book out of two sort of "signatures" which each consist of 4 double sided pages (I will give directions below on how to fold papers in this way) which were sewn down the middle.  This created 7 pages on the inside to fill with loads of creativity.  The first step to this project is creating the book.  It looks complicated but its really not...here we go!

Step 1:  Paint Background

Create a painted background on two seperate 18"x24" papers with a similar color story.  I really wanted this to be very explorativea, applying the paint with some non-traditional materials such as a old credit card, marker lids, bubble wrap, the list could go on and on.

Here are my two painted papers:

Now, let your painted papers completely dry.

Step 2:  Created 2 Folded Signatures

Fold each paper into a 4 page "signature."  This looks complicated but once you get the hang of it, it is really easy.

1.  Fold paper in half:

2.  Fold in half again:

3.  Fold in half one more time:

When you open it up, you will have 8 sections, like this:

4.  Cut down the horizontal line from the first intersecting point to the third intersecting point.

We want to have a cut that goes down the horizontal folded line from the first intersection to the third intersection.  To accomplish this, I like to fold it on the vertical middle line and cut from the middle of the page to the first and third intersecting point (which should line up when the page is folded on the middle vertical line.)

If you have done this correctly, your page should look like it has a mouth.

5.  Fold paper in half horizontally allowing the middle cut line to push the middle of the page into a diamond shape.

6. Push diamond shape together and align the middle and you should have 4 double sided pages.  Flatten it out and fold it around and you will have a nifty little 4 double sided page book.

7.  Repeat this step until you have two books.

8.  Open them both up to the middle and stack one on top of another.  These are your two signatures.

9.  Sew them together down the middle.

Great Job!  You made a book and now we are ready to turn it into an art journal.  Aside from the cover and back of the book you will have seven pages to work with.  Lets get started in our creativity pratices.

Day one:  Introduce Zentangle.

Zentangle is just a form of doodling.  It is really good for the students because they don't have to go into the design process with a plan, they are just doodling and adding to their work as they go along.  If they mess up, they have created a creative problem to solve and that will most likely make their work even better.  I like to start out with a youtube video or two demostrating zentangle.

Day 2:  Introduce Collage.

Again, the students don't have to have a plan.  I would just encourage them to look for words or images that grab their attention and glue them onto the second page in an interesting way.

Once you have introduced collage, students can add collaged images to their zentangle page and zentangle patterns to their collage page.

Notice the collage elements I added.

See the doodles I added?

Day 3:  Introduce color in the form of paint, pastel, colored pencils, etc.

I painted this on Day 3 and I also added some paint to a few pages that I would be working on in the future.  Also, it's always fine to go back and add paint to the first two pages.  The great thing about this book is that the pages don't really fall flat together so they don't dry stuck together.

Day 4:  Add to the painted page with sharpie, collage, whatever you want

Day 5:  Introduce meaning by having students design a page with text from a song, a quote, some words that they identify with.  They can also go back and add to any of the pages they have already done.

Day six:  Add black and white paper from book page or newspaper and add to it what you want.

Day 7:  Design whatever you want using any of the mediums we have previously played with.

Day 8:  Make the last Page about you.  You must include a picture of you.  From there, You can do what you want-collage, sharpie, paint, text...whatever you want.

Here's the finished Product of all my pages:

Cover

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

modern day totem poles

I find the verticality and the narrative quality of Native American Totem Poles to be very inspiring.  Using David Welch as inspiration as well as historical Totem Poles I have created the challenge of expressing some part of the student's identity through the medium of assemblage and photography.  My totem assemblages mostly represent my family members which is an enormous part of my identity.

Self Reflective Art and Text

There's something about simplifying the elements involved in a work that makes the artist be very intentional in the message he or she wants to send.  To extend our thinking about art and text, we look at another Shepard Fairey work that is quite successful in its ability to convey a message through text.  Compared to his "Andre the Giant has a Posse" sticker campaign, the Obama "Hope" poster sends a message through the use of simple text and a very simple color scheme.  

I think this poster allows for great opportunity to discuss issues of appropriation and propoganda.  I think there is great opportunity for critical thinking about sending messages through artwork and realizing that they are recieving messages all the time in the media.  

So, here's how it works:

1.  Take a picture using your device

2.   Using Pixlr Express (I love it because it's free :)) import the image and crop and edit the picture appropriately to achieve a simple color scheme with a simple one word text to convey some meaning about you.  I was holding my daughter in this picture and the way I feel when I look at the picture is that I was thinking about how much I love her and how good it feels to hold her close.  So, I chose the word "Love."

Here's an additional poster I made using an image of only me:

**I think that it is very important especially when using such simple elements, to include artist's statements with works and that would be an important last step to the project.  

I think an interesting spin on the project would be to juxtapose two differing messages using the same original image.  The only thing that would change would be the word and some of the visual elements including the color scheme.

Art and Text goes viral

I feel like my students use more text in their artmaking than ever before.  This lesson explores the power of words as well as making a large impact in a small space.  The students will design 5 magnets on recycled bottle caps using powerful words they find in magazines.  The magnets can then be placed on all kinds of magnetic surfaces in our world.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/AndreTheGiantSticker.gif

I was inspired by this image from Shepard Fairey.  This was a viral sticker campaign that showed up mostly on skateboards on college campuses.  Shepard Fairey is very good at using text to make an image more powerful.

The two magnets below have been placed on my car.

Step 1:  Create background using words and images.  Remind students to think about creating a large impact in a small space.  Make sure to let all the glue completely dry!

Step 2:  Pour Model Magic Dimensional Magic in bottle caps right over dried backgrounds.

It will look like this for a day.  Put it in a safe place!  Try not to move it around too much!