art exercises

On Friday, we did a few quick exercises in our collage class.

The first exercise, I was completely oblivious with what was happening. I think that I didn’t have enough coffee. I made it through the steps, but not until Katie came around the room did I realize that I missed the point of all of the sample “windows” in the informal grid.

The second exercise was to create draw an image and then create a collage with a notable silohuette. I think that this is where my fascination began. I instantly thought of a heart, but I was a little resistant. A heart is a little cliche. But then I couldn’t think of anything else. So I went with it. And for some reason, I loved it. This is at least our fifteenth exercise in class. I am not sure why this one struck. For some reason, the lack of permanency frees you.

I decided to sneak a picture with my iPhone before we cleared the page for the final exercise.

This last exercise involved creating a range of browns. Mine ended up a lot closer to mauve and pink. The yellow ochre looks more like baby poo. But at least I wasn’t the only one struggling with creating color. I think that I got it while watching Katie demo again.

We had to paint five of the little wooden pieces. Then we created a 3D sculpture. We could glue this one down. The hot glue gun was warming up in the corner.

I made my little pile of blocks. I felt like I had rediscovered Lincoln Logs. I got a sense of what I wanted to do and made my way to the glue gun. Since the class was sharing, I worked diligently to reconfigure my vision and just kept gluing. Other than accidentally laying the tip of the gun on the edge of the board, I was pretty excited with my little playground. The little sculpture reminds me a lot of Noguchi’s playgrounds, blurring the line between art, sculpture and play.

I went back to add a few touches of paint to the different pieces. In the end, I was so excited. I typically have a conceptual idea to go along with my art. This exercise was a nice relaxing chance for me to play. I loved it!

I carried it around with me, like it was my prized new toy. I left it on my lap while riding the bus. I also kept it on the counter while working at Paper Source. I didn’t want anyone to accidentally put their bag on it in the back office. Plus I wanted to share it with everyone.

So now going to Michael’s is on the top of my errand list. I can’t wait to buy more of these little wooden pieces and play a little more.