UNIT THEME: Rethink, Remix Lesson Title: Inventive Hybrids Media: Collage Teacher: Katielynn Gadow Grade Level: 1-2 Date: 9-27-13 Elements: LINE X COLOR X SHAPE/FORM TEXTURE VALUE X SPACE Principles: X EMPHASIS CONTRAST UNITY X BALANCE RHYTHM/MOVEMENT X PROPORTION (SIZE) REPETITION/PATTERN Number of Sessions: 2 Materials Needed: magazines, glue sticks, paper, scissors, watercolors, brushes, water cups, oil pastels Resources: Donna https://www.etsy.com/shop/animalfancy Etsy shop: Animal Fancy, Donna's anthropomorphic creations Wangechi Mutu http://www.artnet.com/awc/wangechi-mutu.html Hannah Hoche: http://thoughtcatalog.com/2010/hannah-hoch-picture-bookdada-green-box-review/ Lesson Content: The students will view examples of Wangechi Mutu and Hannah Hoche's creative collages and examine the hybrid qualities of the artwork. Students will then collage a creature using magazine pictures. Each body part of the creature will be made up of creative and unexpected images, such as using a model's hair for the face and a spoon for the arm. After creating the hybrid creatures, students will then draw and paint the imagined habitat for their hybrid character. Extension Activity: students will write a story to accompany their collage, giving their character a name and explaining where they live and their hobbies. Materials Needed for Extension Activity: paper, glue, markers, magazine scraps Skills/Objectives: PRODUCTION: The students will construct a hybrid collage using various magazine pictures. Students will cut out different images and paste them on a piece of paper to create their hybrids. They will then draw their hybrid's environment on a separate sheet of paper using oil pastels. Once the background is drawn, students will use watercolor to fill in all of the white background space. They will then paste their collaged hybrid directly onto their painted background. ART HISTORY: The students will examine the collages and mixed media works of Wangechi Mutu, Hannah Hoche, and Donna. AESTHETICS: The students will be asked if collaged work is appealing or not appealing and what components of the collages influenced their answer. ART CRITICISM: The students will look at the artist examples and express their opinions why the artists created hybrids and their intentions for making the artwork. STANDARDS ADDRESSED: VA1-3.3 Discuss the ways that choices of subject matter, symbols, and ideas combine to communicate meaning in his or her works of visual art. VA1-5.1 Identify some of the purposes for the creation of works of visual art. VA2-1.3 Use and combine a variety of materials, techniques, and processes to create works of visual art.
MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES: Day 1 1. The teacher will show the students the works of Celia Hume, Donna, and Wangechi Mutu. The teacher will ask students if they know what hybrids are, then the teacher will provide a definition. Students will be asked a series of questions to spark a discussion about hybrids, collage, and mixing images: How do think these images were made? What are the different parts of this creature that make it a 'hybrid'? What do you think the artist was trying to convey in these works? Why do you think she made them? 2. The teacher will then explain that the students will be making their own creature using magazine pictures. The teacher demonstrates how to cut shapes out of the magazines. After selecting a desired image, tearing the entire page out of the magazine before cutting will make this task easier. The teacher will encourage the students to cut as close to the edges of the shape as possible. The teacher will explain how to be creative about body part choices and choosing unexpected images. Nearly any image can be used to create some part of the hybrid, a spoon can be an arm or leg, or even part of the hybrid's hair. The teacher will demonstrate how to apply details. After a shape is chosen for the head, choose different magazine images for eyes, a nose, and mouth. The students can arrange the parts in different combinations to explore a variety of hybrid choices before gluing. 3. The teacher will then place stacks of magazines on the tables. The teacher will ask students to share the magazines. The students will begin looking through magazines for images as the teacher hands out paper and glue. The teacher will ask the students to put their names on their papers. The students can begin cutting and pasting their hybrids. The teacher will demonstrate how to glue these images onto the paper. 4. The teacher will then explain how the students are going to draw backgrounds for their hybrid creatures. The teacher will show her example and how she developed her story and background for her character. The teacher will ask the students to think of creative backgrounds for their creatures. The teacher will ask, "If this hybrid were real, where might it live, or what would it be doing?" The teacher will demonstrate how to create foreground, middle ground, and background. The teacher will also show examples of textures and how to incorporate them into objects and backgrounds. (The teacher will emphasize that textures must be included in the background) The teacher will also encourage students to add details to the background such as objects or plants. 5. The teacher will distribute new pieces of paper to students who are ready to begin their drawings. Using oil pastels, the students will begin to draw their backgrounds. Before each student is given watercolor, the teacher will approve that there is enough detail and complexity in the composition or request that he/she start painting. 6. When it comes time to clean up for the day, students can put away their glue. The teacher will remind them to make sure the tops are on securely. They can also stack magazines in a pile on the table. All scrap magazine pieces can be thrown away. Students can put their oil pastels in a designated box.
Management Procedures continued... Day 2 1. The teacher reminds students of the goals of the assignment: Adding complexity, establishing a foreground, middle ground, and background, As the students begin to work on their backgrounds, the teacher might use suggestion questions to help the students think of ideas: -Is your creature interacting with someone else? -Is your creature on some type of adventure? 2. The teacher will ask students to apply creative colors for the environment. If they drew trees, they might consider coloring them blue instead of green to add to the fantasy aspect of the drawing. 3. Once the students have drawn the entire composition, they will use watercolors to paint in their shapes. The teacher will demonstrate how to use watercolors effectively, using a small amount of water and gently brushing their papers. Rubbing the paper too much with the watercolor will create tears in the paper. The teacher will also emphasize to students that they need to fill most of their background with shapes and colors, leaving limited white space. 4. When the students are done with their paintings, they can then glue their hybrids onto their backgrounds. If their papers are too wet, they can start on their extension activity. For the extension activity, the teacher will ask students to write a few sentences about their characters. At the top of a papers the students will write the names of their hybrids, followed by the information they want to include. The teacher will ask them to include where the hybrid lives, what it likes to do, and any other details the students want to include. 5. As the day wraps up, students will place their brushes in the sink. They can put their paintings in a designated area to dry. 6. The teacher will review how images can be remixed to make new images. By changing an image by a small amount, it can change its meaning completely.
Vocabulary/Definitions: Hybrid- of mixed character; composed of mixed parts. Collage- a piece of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric onto a backing. (in this case, magazine clippings) Proportion- adjust or regulate (something) so that it has a particular or suitable relationship to something else. (In this case, we are exaggerating proportion to create more unrealistic qualities) Space- space refers to distances or areas around, between or within components of a piece. Texture- the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or a substance. Realism- the quality of being very much like real life : the quality of seeming to be real complexity- the condition of being made up of many interrelated parts foreground, middle ground, background Assessment/Evaluation: The student clearly defined the foreground, middle ground, and a background The student compiled differing magazine images to create a hybrid creature. There is limited white space left in the background. The student used both oil pastel and watercolor to complete the background. The student drew textures into the background. The student completed the extension activity, including the hybrid's name and story. Five Checks= 5 Four Checks = 4 Three Checks =3 Two Checks =2 1 Check = 1 0 Checks = 0
Artist Biographies: The artists I chose for this particular lesson are Wangechi Mutu and Hannah Hoche. I also focus on a few collages by an artist who sells her prints on Etsy and goes by only Donna. I chose these artists for their extraordinary work with collage and creating hybrid animals which is central to my lesson. Hannah Hoche Hannah Hoch was born in Germany in 1889 and studied glass design and enrolled in the School of Applied Arts in Berlin. After World War I, Hoch found new political consciousness and sense of humanity and began her work with the Red Cross. After also being employed for a major publisher of magazines and newspapers, Hoche and her partner claimed to have started 'photomontage' from cut and pasting images of solders. She began to add other elements to her montages such as lace and found objects. She often employed text with her photographs and often expressed anxieties about women's struggles and rights around the 1920's. Her most important work to my lesson came from her book, Bilderbuch (meaning picture book) in 1945, which was a collection of 19 collaged images accompanied by poems. Her collages were of Hybrid animans in a zoological garden, collaged from black and white photographs and fibers. She used diverse parts united in a single image to create her hybrids, similar to the collage part of my lesson. Her silly poems for each picture gave each named hybrid character life. These delicate rhymes became miniature stories for the fantastical magical world she created in Bilderbuch. 'Brushflurlet', Hannah Hoche
Wangechi Mutu Wangechi Mutu was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1972 and is currently an artist and sculptor in Brooklyn, New York. She began her education in Nairobi and later studied in Wales. She then focused on Fine Arts and earned her BFA and MFA in America. She is best known for her large scale collages and she often focuses her work on the female body and hybrid creatures. Her hybrids have bodies made of a combination of machine, animal, human, and monster parts. These collages are great examples for my lesson as I am also asking students to combine unlikely parts together to form a creature. Since I am teaching six to seven year olds, I will not focus on her strong emphasis on the female body and the burden of historical and cultural politics on females. Her collages are often melancholy and employ sexual undertones in its imagery. Mutu is a highly successful and regarded artist and has been exhibited in galleries around the world. 'Bear', 2008, Wangechi Mutu
Donna (Last name not provided) I have found limited information on Donna, but I find her work very important for my lesson and wanted to include her collages. She started digitally altering photographs and creating collages in 2011 and her print "Ramsey," is currently on display as part of the permanent collection at the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in New Hampshire. She currently works in West Chester, Pennsylvania. She often combines vintage photos with animal prints to create whimsical characters. All of her characters make up the town of 'Fancyville' and she names all of her hybrid characters and gives them background stories and careers. 'Dina', Donna Donna accompanies this collage with the following story: 'Dina is a well educated and talented screenwriter with a particular interest in controversial science, like cloning. She's trying to come up with an idea but seems to have writer's block. Going to the park usually inspires her. We're confident she'll dream up something bigger than life. ' Her stories are particularly relative to my lesson as I want students to imagine and draw a background story for their hybrid characters.