A legacy project tied to contemporary artist Loui Jover
Click image above to see more of Loui Jover's collage artworks which were the inspiration for this lesson.
Every year I have my advanced classes, Art 3 and 4 create a legacy project. This usually takes the form of a mural for our school. As we explored our building, we noted that the hallway for our history rooms was bare and boring so we decided to take that are on this year.
Our history classes hallway
Every location has challenges, and in this one, it is narrow but has heavy traffic. A mural would get scratched up, but individually framed artworks might work, and we envisioned this as a gallery of sorts. What better subject than historical figures? Rather than focus on "dead white guys," I wanted students to reflect on heroes tied to their own cultural backgrounds and genders so that the "heroes" would reflect our own diverse urban school population. Whenever possible, I wanted them to first select individuals deserving of recognition right in our home state of North Carolina, but if that proved too challenging, they could expand beyond that.
I created this worksheet to research ideas before we began sketching.
I created this worksheet to research ideas before we began sketching.
| historical_heros.pdf |
This lesson was actually inspired y the work of Loui Jover and their deconstructed series. I created a slide show of the artist's work and we explored what the artist was doing visually to unify their work, and identify techniques they were using. I printed a hand-out with samples we would reference as we worked to stay true to the artist's style yet still have the freedom to not be trapped by the style.
Students created a Google Document and began to fill it with images they found from the internet on their subject, symbols, portraits, etc that would be shared with me to print in black and white. (They can be printed in color thought too.) Some students used images from Magazines as well. I printed them on standard paper and then enlarged them on a copier to 11 x 17 images (tabloid paper) We used Mod Podge and acrylic medium to transfer images to our 18 x 24 inch canvases. Their are many tutorials on YouTube for this technique.
We did not glue anything down before doing a group critique and partner pair & share comparing the images to Loui Jover's work and asking how the artist might organize and embellish the images.
Our process:
Acrylic wash on the background
Placement of images around the canvas
Partner and Group feedback before gluing
We photographed completed collages before embellishing
We practice embellishing on color print-outs
Peer and group critiqued these
Used paint pens to embellish
Stenciled names of our subjects
Added a QR Code to an academic resource (not Wikipedia)
Glazed the whole work with an acrylic coating to protect it.
These will be framed by administration and hung with bolts to the walls above where backpacks might scratch them. We also wrote about our process and subject and these were glued to the back of the works as a kind of time capsule.
Students created a Google Document and began to fill it with images they found from the internet on their subject, symbols, portraits, etc that would be shared with me to print in black and white. (They can be printed in color thought too.) Some students used images from Magazines as well. I printed them on standard paper and then enlarged them on a copier to 11 x 17 images (tabloid paper) We used Mod Podge and acrylic medium to transfer images to our 18 x 24 inch canvases. Their are many tutorials on YouTube for this technique.
We did not glue anything down before doing a group critique and partner pair & share comparing the images to Loui Jover's work and asking how the artist might organize and embellish the images.
Our process:
Acrylic wash on the background
Placement of images around the canvas
Partner and Group feedback before gluing
We photographed completed collages before embellishing
We practice embellishing on color print-outs
Peer and group critiqued these
Used paint pens to embellish
Stenciled names of our subjects
Added a QR Code to an academic resource (not Wikipedia)
Glazed the whole work with an acrylic coating to protect it.
These will be framed by administration and hung with bolts to the walls above where backpacks might scratch them. We also wrote about our process and subject and these were glued to the back of the works as a kind of time capsule.
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