Catie Beth Russo
Teaching portfolio
(under construction)
2D DESIGN 2
2D Design 2 is a course developed to combine the development of both technical and creative problem solving skills. Students look at not only choices related to the elements of art and principles of design, but also design synectics which teaches a variety of approaches to art making. This is a time for students to gather "tools" for their artistic toolbox as they begin to develop a deeper understanding of their personal aesthetic through more open ended prompts in art experiences.
Metaphorical
Self Portraits
As a long winded multi-day icebreaker, students are asked to create a metaphorical self portrait that ends in a class critique, where we all try to figure something out about each other. There are some more obvious readings than others, and some that prove very challenging to unravel! After a brainstorming/reflection based written piece students are asked to show at least 1 of each: a trait they are proud of, and a less desirable trait. This activity is always so exciting and continues to be a class, and teacher favorite!
Chiaroscuro
Self Portraits
Now, a literal self portrait! In a dark room we play with mirrors and lights to take dramatic photographs of one another in the way the artists likes best. Students can then choose what media they want to use, and if they want to even use realistic color, although students must show value appropriately. We talk a lot about an artists style/hand and how a variety of mark-making is considered acceptable, and look at a variety of master artists work that fit the chiraoscuro model.
Collaged Paintings
An adventure in chance occasions! Students are asked to create a memory map of their lives, a memory to represent each grade of school, although not necessarily related to school. Memories can be serious, funny, random, sky is the limit what the the student chooses to explore. From here, students go through magazines to find a "chance" image that represents each of the memories to then collage. The collage serves as a sketching device, that is tweaked and refined through painting processes to create a surreal and uniform composition. Students are asked to consider changing the continuation of elements, changing the scale of elements, reworking parts of the elements, changing color, texture, and style of elements, omitting elements, or adjusting the aesthetic application of paint.
Fractured Still Lifes
To bring flare to the more traditional (but very beneficial) practice of still life artworks, students are asked to collage fragments of various drawing/painting papers to a piece of white drawing paper. After grabbing objects of their choice from the still life closet, or their home, students sketch out their still life. When they begin applying media they must be careful to use the preferred media for the right type of paper. Every time the paper changes, so should the media. It's tricky to complete, but the results are quite beautiful!
Best of Times,
Worst of Times
Students are asked to create two pieces of art that express "the best of times, and the worst of times" in their own personal life. As this could be a sensitive assignment, students are encouraged to only explore what they are comfortable exploring. They can be very literal in their depiction, rely on symbolic or metaphorical reference, abstracted in any way they see fit, cryptic or very obscured memory only they will understand or get, approach is 100% up to the student. They should be unified in some way visually also decided by the student, to acheive a successful pairing.
Issues with Issues
Students are asked to think of a social issue that they have strong feelings about, and create a poster that either brings awareness to their issue, or is a call of action for people to do something about their chosen issue. We study formal aspects of what makes a poster successful by researching and breaking down design choices within popular social issue posters.
Abstract Art
Collaboration
Everyone sits in a circle. Everyone gets a different type of paper, and a different type of media. They are asked to work abstractly as I give a minute or two to respond to a question. A variety of questions are asked, starting with "how are you feeling today?" After responding to the first question, the media gets passed to the right, the paper to the left. This process continues for up to 5 questions. Then we stop and are given a couple minutes to try to complete, obscure, obliterate, or unify the marks already made by the previous artist. We continue with as many passes as necessary to ensure every student has "made their mark" on each paper. The last piece you get is your original piece of paper! (Although I do let them swap for a favorite, thats up to them!)
