Power-Saw to the People

So I was thinking of what craft item is on the docket for tonight, and nothing came to mind. My brains are feeling a little mushy. It's been a long week of testing at school, and the Winter Carnival decorating crew met today after school (yes, we are getting a early jump on our gym decorations).

That said,  I did finish a sample project today  for art appreciation that I think came out pretty cool. One student was begging for it when I was done with the project ( a good indication of coolness.) Recently in class We've been discussing the Pop Art movement and silk screening and not surprisingly the artist Shepard Fairey was brought up. I find it very interesting how many students love this artist and respond to his art. I usually make a point of showing some of Shepard Fairey's work at the end of my Pop Art Power point and we typically just talk about his process and methods of working. This year I decided to add a project to the Pop Art unit and have students make a Fairey inspired piece.

Shepard Fairey- War by Numbers

Three years ago I had the pleasure of seeing this gentleman's work at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (a big thanks to N. Liss for the suggestion) and initially hadn't realized how involved the original pieces were. Each piece has multiple layers of collage and printing before the final stenciled images are printed on. For example on the portrait of  President Obama has many layers of news print, classing wall paper pattern, and other images embeded into the back ground. Fariey's collages are carefully assembled, and the visiable words reinforce the message he is trying to communicate.All of the prints that resemble wall paper are actually pieces of hand made paper made also made by Fairey.



Below is an interview of the Artist in his studio.

Shepard Fairey- Hope

Shepard Fairey- Big Brother College on Paper

My students are now following this process of creating a collage on a canvas, painting over the canvas with a paint wash, and then either painting a graphically inspired image, or silk screening a final image on top. As of right now most students have finished the collage and the paint wash and will start stenciling tomorrow. Based on the work done so far I am hopeful to have some very nice results. I'll try to get an image of the sample piece I completed up tomorrow, and maybe some finished student pieces up next week.

Stay tuned for more art work!

If you'd like to see more of Shepard Fairey's work
his website can be found here,

As for the rest of my night, I'm planning on playing some FB scrabble, and working on the scarf I posted about a couple days ago while watching Season 5 of Dexter. Murders and knitting what a night!