Abstracting: taking an idea, thing or concept and translating it into a different form that still demonstrates or communicates the essence of the original idea but in a different way. For this assignment, I was inspired by the artist Roy Lichtenstein. This is ironic because I was thinking of using him as inspiration before I even read his name and the example in our book, Sparks of Genius by Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein, in chapter 5. In a large quantity of Lichtenstein's artwork, he applies a process of making dots to create art. Roy Lichtenstein's Crying Girl. Click the image to go to the website that it was retrieved from. This is closely related to a type of art called pointillism but his end result is different because he creates a comic book style as opposed to solely using dots. I have always been fascinated with pointillism. I’ve done my own projects using this type of art in the past and I’ve taught it to students in my own lesson plans. Once I started reading the abstracting chapter, I almost immediately knew that I wanted to work with Lichtenstein's concept of using dots to create an object within an artwork. I had a couple of different ideas so it was convenient that this assignment required us to communicate our abstraction in two different manners. At the end of chapter 5, Robert and Michele suggest that the reader should "Inspire yourself by collecting examples of abstracting by masters. Imitate." (pg. 90). So, I did. I also wanted to do something similar to what Pablo Picasso did with his bull abstractions. My goal was to abstract something that is concrete and real using dots and pointillism. I decided on a rose. Attempt #1 There is no solid line in the finished project. The rose is made up completely of dots. Once I completed my first rose, I was happy with it and proud of it. However, I realized it was drastically more realistic than abstract - which is the opposite of the goal of this assignment. Abstracting has always been tough for me as an artist. I love drawing and painting realistically. I came to terms with the fact that I spelled the rose out way too cleary and I challenged myself to try again. Attempt #2 This attempt was better but I was still not completely content. In my opinion, the second attempt still spelled it out a little too clearly. I had to try one more time. I decided that if I were to minimize it even more, then I wanted to use red and green colors. Attempt #3 I believe my third attempt has finally met the goals of this project. I do not think my creation spells out rose too clearly and I believe without the colors added then it wouldn't be clear enough. For the second part of the project, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone. I’ve noticed a pattern within my assignments thus far throughout this course: I’ve played around a lot with fine arts. I was determined to challenge myself to make a poem and use words instead of my visual artistic side. Naturally, I had to incorporate some kind of visual aspect into my poem... I just couldn’t help myself! I created a poem that I titled "Dot". Above is a photo of my poem called "Dot" Author’s Note: A few words of advice - back up, stray; my poem is read best from far away. Despite the fact that the poem is made up of a singular, repeated word, it isn’t necessarily simple looking, like our book argues abstracting should be: "[Picasso, Wilson, cummings] reduced complex visual, physical, or emotional ideas to bare, stripped images..." (pg.72). My poem is visually complex when you are close up reading it. It might even hurt your eyes to look at. But from far away you see the extremely simplified abstraction. The audience will recognize that although the poem is overwhelming from close up, from a distance, the colors and words simply form a dot. I suppose some might argue this isn't necessarily a poem since it doesn't really have a specific structure but I thought it was clever and creative. I also liked the fact that my poem is basically mass producing the word "dot", which plays off of the idea that pop art uses mass produced objects to create art, as well. Something I’ve noticed about myself as an art educator is that it can be hard for me to come up with lesson plan ideas sometimes. You would presume that the art teacher would be one of the most creative when it comes to this but I definitely struggle. I look at a lot of other art teacher's ideas for help. I always felt bad about doing this because my conscience told me that teachers should be creating their own lesson plans. This assignment helped me realize that what other art teachers are doing is simply an inspiration and an abstraction from what other famous artists have done throughout history. Now, I would like to use this tool of abstracting and apply it to create a lesson plan for my students that is completely created by myself. References:
Root-Bernstein, Robert & Michele. (1999). Sparks of Genius The 13 Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People. Houghton Mifflin Company. New York, New York. Who is Roy Lichtenstein's Crying Girl? (2019, September 15). Retrieved October 11, 2019, from https://publicdelivery.org/roy-lichtenstein-crying-girl/.
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