Day 1

Chance in art Chance is the act of finding objects and building them together to form unique creations.

Chance and Art chance: something that happens unpredictably without discernible human intention or observable cause. art: the conscious use of skill, taste, and creative imagination in the production of aesthetic objects; also : works so produced

Chance in Art The Dadaists embraced Chance as their avenue to expression in their works of art. A Dada artist we talked about before was Duchamp:

Max Ernst Ernst was trying to find a brand new art technique of the time. He was trying to see the world with “closed eyes” trying to tap into the subconscious. The idea of chance is a key element in Ernst’s collages. The collage is an arrangement of found objects, found meaning randomly collected, and then are assembled in a sort of “chance meeting” Chance is the way which Dadaist attempted to dissolve ties to the material, representative world of the old art.

Max Ernst, 1932 The Postman Cheval collage

Max Ernst. oedipus rex

Max Ernst, Celebes, 1921

Today…Art by chance Today you will be making “art by chance” Let your mind wander and work freely. You will have about 2 minutes to cut out images and words that stand out to you. You will then paste them onto your paper for the last 1 minute and then pass to the person next to you. We will do this several times.

Our Assignment… Inspired by Hollis Sigler Hollis Sigler was a Chicago-based artist whose paintings addressed her life with breast cancer. She died of the disease in 2001, at the age of 53. Sigler’s artwork themes were personal, confronting ideas about body image, heredity, illness, mortality and hope. In 1997 Hollis Sigler commissioned 52 artists nationwide to design a unique deck of playing cards mass-produced to raise money and awareness for the Y-Me National Breast Cancer Organization. The original drawings, exhibited at Printworks from November 1997 to February 1998, sold out before the show even opened.

Some examples of the 52 cards… Antonia Contro Six of Clubs Marian Winsryg Two of clubs

John Buck Four of Diamonds Leslie Wayne Ten of Diamonds

Lou Cabeen Two of Diamonds Hollis Sigler Nine of Diamonds

We will be creating our own set of playing cards Each of us will be making one card in a deck we will call “Life’s Deal”

But First! We will be filling out a questionnaire for our project to get us focused in the right direction. Hollis Sigler was able to make her deck of cards about a cause that was important and close to her heart. What’s your “Life’s Deal?” Let’s find out what is important in our life journey. Challenge

Life’s Deal: Expectations We want our cards to be centered around a SYMBOL (In art, a symbol is usually a solid, recognizable thing—an animal, a plant, an object, etc.—that stands for something that would be hard to show in a picture or a sculpture. A force of nature, for example, or an idea.) Your card should be EVOCATIVE (evoking an emotional response)

Life’s Deal: Expectations AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL art: Art which is made to document or take advantage of events in the artist's life, or which is otherwise especially personal to the artist. EXPRESSIONISM: Expressionist paintings were normally filled with personal emotions. With the main goal being to express oneself.

Life’s Deal: Expectations Think about using METAPHOR in your symbol creation: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action that it does not literally denote in order to imply a resemblance, for example he is a lion in battle How might we show symbol in art?

Life’s Deal Guide How to get started creating your card: First- you need to realize that you are making a piece of art to RESEMBLE a playing card. It does not have to be exact; however it does have to contain a couple key elements from the card which are: The suit (Hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades) The number/ character (2, king, etc.) Everything else you do to the card is up to you, but it should be personal. It should be something about your life. That is why we filled out the questionnaire- to get you thinking about this. To get started: in the space below, come up with 3 symbols from one of your questions answers

Emphasis Points of interest that pull the viewer's eye to important parts

Unity the look of completeness or wholeness A totality that combines all of its parts into one complete, cohesive whole.

Unity

Layering Building up layers in mixed media art creates vivid colors and textures. In this project the more layers you build up on top of your “card” the more you can create your own story. You can cover up images you don’t want and leave or embellish images you would like to keep. layering and chance act as metaphors for the numerous influences and factors that determine our lives--our family, gender, religion, society, geography, etc.

Contrast Opposites - A large difference between two things; for example, hot and cold, green and red, light and shadow, smooth and rough, organic and geometric B L A C K W H I T E

i.e. Q: What is your philosophy on life? Bolt’s A: Something positive can always come out of a negative- especially if it makes you realize something about yourself.

Where you should be today… STEP 7! Step 1: Fill out Questionnaire Step 2: Pick a card Step 3: Fill out yellow sheet (3 sketches) Step 4: Choose a background. Step 5: Apply acrylic glaze to background Step 6: On ½ sheet of paper- Turn one (or two) of your drawings into a sketch- taking into account your randomly selected background Step 7: Color with colored pencils.

My Random Background 2 of my Sketches My Card My Finalized Sketch!

Today: Color your ½ sheet rough draft.

Today: We are starting to (and continuing to) lay down color on our backgrounds. You should have already… Done a ½ sheet sketch Colored it in Sketched in your design to your background. THINK ABOUT HOW YOU WANT TO LAY DOWN COLOR… Background first? Object first? Combining colors helps to cover up your magazine images.