UNIT 2: Relationships
Studio 1: Mary Cassatt- Print Making
Studio 2: Rene Magritte Surreal Journey Postcard- Puppy Latte
Studio 3: Do Ho Suh- Pop Up Homes
Relationships thrive when each member of the dyad expresses empathy. Pink (2005) discusses empathy as “…the ability to stand in others’ shoes, to see with their eyes, and to feel with their hearts.” (p. 159). As I was creating my artwork during this second unit, I wanted my viewers to be able to empathize with my pieces of art, which described specific relationships in my life. The first image portrays my relationship with my sister through a print-making twist on Mary Cassatt’s portraits. Although I did not use real-life pictures of my sister and me, I found old-time black-and-white images of sisters. I wanted to pictures to be silly because I feel as though my favorite moments with my own sister occurred when we were laughing hysterically. I wanted to pictures to be black-and-white because I wanted to use bright and warm surrounding colors to portray our exciting relationship. I also wanted to use curly swirls because they portray a softness. According to Bang (1991) “Curved shapes embrace us and protect us” (p. 71). This is exactly how I feel when I am with my sister—embraced and safe. My second piece of artwork is whimsical and fun. It is based on Rene Magritte’s surrealist art, however, I used collage. When making this, I could not help but think of my pet dog and pet cat growing up. Since I had so many fun memories with them, I decided to write both a letter on the back of the surrealist post cards. The letters went like this:
Dear Taz,
I miss you dearly. How is heaven? I hope you’re running and leaping and happy and free. I made this surrealist post card for you because the images remind me of you when you were a puppy. You were always full of energy as if you were always hyped-up on caffeine! I put the coffee and puppy together to make a puppy latte in honor of you. Thanks for being such a wonderful dog!
Your friend, Kaiti
Dear Mac,
You are such a lazy kitty. You lay around all day and do not do anything substantial. Sometimes I envy you because your life is so relaxing. I created this surrealist postcard of you leaning on a pile of books because I thought it captured your personality and lifestyle perfectly. Thank you for being a very kind cat.
Your friend, Kaiti
The last piece of art I created mimicked the pop up homes of South Korean artist, Do Ho Suh. I created an image portraying what home means to me. Home is all about who I am with and the feelings I have when I am with those people. I feel most at home when I am among those I love--like my family. They bring me feelings of happiness and security. There is a little cat in the window because whenever I return home, I can count on my cat to greet me while sitting on the window-sill. I also tried to use warm and bright colors to create a sense of warm happiness.
All of these ideas can be used in my future classroom. I especially enjoyed thinking about what home means to me. For my future class, I would like my students to create home “pockets” or images of homes, which can open up to reveal images or words that represent home to them (i.e. family, pets, a city, a favorite toy, etc.). I would like to have my students write about these special features of a home. I think it is important for my students to see that a home is much less a structure and more about relationships.
References
Bang, M. (1991). Picture This: How Pictures Work. Boston: Bullfinch Press/Little, Brown and
Company.
Pink, H. D. (2005). A Whole New Mind. New York, New York: The Penguin Group Inc.
Dear Taz,
I miss you dearly. How is heaven? I hope you’re running and leaping and happy and free. I made this surrealist post card for you because the images remind me of you when you were a puppy. You were always full of energy as if you were always hyped-up on caffeine! I put the coffee and puppy together to make a puppy latte in honor of you. Thanks for being such a wonderful dog!
Your friend, Kaiti
Dear Mac,
You are such a lazy kitty. You lay around all day and do not do anything substantial. Sometimes I envy you because your life is so relaxing. I created this surrealist postcard of you leaning on a pile of books because I thought it captured your personality and lifestyle perfectly. Thank you for being a very kind cat.
Your friend, Kaiti
The last piece of art I created mimicked the pop up homes of South Korean artist, Do Ho Suh. I created an image portraying what home means to me. Home is all about who I am with and the feelings I have when I am with those people. I feel most at home when I am among those I love--like my family. They bring me feelings of happiness and security. There is a little cat in the window because whenever I return home, I can count on my cat to greet me while sitting on the window-sill. I also tried to use warm and bright colors to create a sense of warm happiness.
All of these ideas can be used in my future classroom. I especially enjoyed thinking about what home means to me. For my future class, I would like my students to create home “pockets” or images of homes, which can open up to reveal images or words that represent home to them (i.e. family, pets, a city, a favorite toy, etc.). I would like to have my students write about these special features of a home. I think it is important for my students to see that a home is much less a structure and more about relationships.
References
Bang, M. (1991). Picture This: How Pictures Work. Boston: Bullfinch Press/Little, Brown and
Company.
Pink, H. D. (2005). A Whole New Mind. New York, New York: The Penguin Group Inc.