F302i SESSION 02

SESSION 02
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
LESSON 02 / MASTERPIECE TRANSLATION

DOWNLOAD COURSE GUIDE SECTION

GOALS /
__ learn about ways collage has been used by other artists
__ learn a bit of the history of collage
__ create a collage translation of your favorite artwork
__ develop skills and confidence with collage

READ THE FOLLOWING ESSAY /
Bearden’s Musée Imaginaire, by Sarah Kennel

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION /
now that we have collected materials and played around a bit with them, we are going to look back at some of the greats — your favorites — and translate their work into collage. select a piece from any artist you love. any piece that really moves you (maybe for the sake of this assignment, pick something that is not already collage). it should be a piece that you can come back to time and time again. one that feeds your mind, body and soul. search books, magazines, the interwebs, films/documentaries — whatever you have handy. once you’ve selected the work you want to work from, keep it close by. print it if possible… or save it on your device for easy referencing. make it your desktop image. look at it again and again. try to familiarize yourself with it. as you stare, start trying to break down the shapes and consider how you might build your collage. spend some time contemplating this in your sketchbook.

next, attempt to figure out the ratio of the piece as best you can. make your substrate as close to this ratio as possible. once your surface is set, you will want to think again about how the piece will be “built” — and how you might consider layering pieces to build your translation. refer to your notes. write more notes. most likely you’ll want to start with the background, but there may be good reasons why that isn’t so.

also, you’ll want to consider the dimensionality of the piece. collage is a relief of sorts. one of minute structure — made slightly deeper with cardboard or more dimensional materials — but a subtle relief none-the-less. though not necessary, think about how you might build structure into your piece. no matter how you start, you want to remain as dedicated to the original source image as you can. that said, remember you are translating the medium, not simply doing a straight transcription (with similar media) so there will be quite a bit of room to play and experiment. have fun with it. play with color, texture and edge (tearing vs cutting) all while being true to the source image.

as with last lesson, play without gluing first. arrange and rearrange and arrange again. take photos of your process if you’d like. they will be nice to go back to for reference.

once you are happy with your composition and layout, finish the piece by adhering everything down to the substrate.

post your image in the classroom and tell us a bit about your journey. also, feel free to post a few in-process images if it makes sense to. all work must be submitted by thursday @ 12noon (nyc time) and all students must check back and comment on at least one other student’s work by 2p (nyc time).