Sepia Stories

Project Title: Sepia Stories

Artistic Noise Year: 2006

Description: This project provided specific guidelines for collage work in mixed media, teaching youth artists how to build a visually unified and compelling image. The project allowed for great freedom in thematic exploration. A wide range of themes can be explored, with this particular group choosing to address issues of poverty, beauty, social acceptance, racism, suffering, and forgiveness, among others.

Objectives and Goals: This project provides specific guidelines for collage work in mixed media, while also allowing for great freedom in thematic exploration.

Creative/Technical Skills: Youth artists learn how to build a visually unified collage and become familiar with wet and dry media (acrylic matte medium, acrylic paint, shellac glazing, and charcoal). Youth artists learn how to layer imagery and how to create space through over/underlapping and change in scale.

Critical/Conceptual Skills: Youth artists consider their own choice of imagery and learn how to manipulate multiple images to tell a story. They are encouraged to express a particular idea, emotion or experience through their imagery. Youth artists are asked to consider compositional issues: placement on page, activating edges, etc, and how the composition can reinforce their ideas visually. They then write and speak about their work, and other’s work, developing their ability to think critically.

Materials: Black and White Xeroxed copies, MANY of them, divided into the following categories: portraits (faces), landscapes, patterns (designs, decorations),

miscellaneous (all kinds of things, objects, etc.), examples of art (from all periods/places: ancient, Renaissance, African, modern), descriptive words (in different fonts). Bristol board paper, 11 x 14. Acrylic Matte Medium to be used as glue. Black and White Acrylic Paint. Various brushes of different sizes. Large chip brushes. Charcoal. Scissors. Paper cups. Small can of Shellac.

Process: 1) Prep work - Ask the youth artists to choose 3 images from each pile (for example: 3 portraits, 3 landscapes, 3 designs, etc.).

- Have them cut these images into interesting shapes.

- Explain how collaging works – you take images that are already “made” and arrange them in a new and unique way that creates something entirely new and different. Encourage them not to use just one face, but perhaps to piece together several faces, to get a new personality or expression.

2) Artmaking - Ask the youth artists to put down the larger pieces, arranging them on the Bristol paper that breaks up the space in an interesting way.

- Then they can add smaller imagery, words, details, etc. The basic idea is to work from large to small.

- Encourage the youth artists to paint with acrylic (black and white) on their collages, or to draw with charcoal. They can also paint with the acrylic on top of the shellac, once it is dry, bringing back some brighter whites if things have gotten too dark.

- After the work is complete, have the youth artists shellac their pieces. Make sure that only one brush is used for shellacking, it should be done in thin layers with the chip brush.

3) Wrap-up - Ask the youth artists what theme they chose and ask them to write about it.

(What does your piece mean? What do the images in the piece symbolize?)

- Put all the images up on the wall, and have a group critique/discussion. (Ask them to choose a piece that they like and to talk about it. What do they like about it? What is interesting about it? Does it tell a story? Does it express an idea or mood?)

- Optional questions: Should art always have a message? Is there any art that you like that does not have a message? What do you like about it?

Example:

Youth Artist: Danielle Title: Despite My Flaws My piece is talking about all the different patterns and pieces of someone. They are still beautiful, no matter how mixed they are.