Recycled Art

I could go on and on about my daughter, but thought I'd better include some posts about my other interests too.

Hurricane Gustav, 2008

Acrylic, newspaper, photos, found objects

The International House of Blues Foundation holds an annual art competition for school age children (grades 5-12). The theme for this year was "A Significant Event that Shapes Your Life and World". The assignment was to create a piece of abstract art out of found objects and recycled material. My students participated in the competition, and one of them won second place!

The piece above was an example I made for my students. It's about Hurricane Gustav. I found newspaper clippings, photos of friends' houses that were damaged, and debris from the storm. Even though you might not see it in this flat image, there are holes in the canvas where the branches come through.

My winning student's piece was about increasing gas prices. It's a drop of oil made from pennies. One of the most common things people say about abstract art is, "I could do that." Taking a concrete idea and turning it into an abstract representation is more difficult than most people think. Even some of my best students have trouble with this concept - This student did a great job for a 5th grader. Here's her piece:




If you've ever thought, "I could do that" when looking at an abstract piece, I challenge you to try this: create an abstract piece of art with the topic "My Dog". Try to create something that makes complete sense to you, but not to everyone else. A representation of your pooch, but not a portrait. Send the results to me at ficklelittlepickle@gmail.com , and if you like, I'll post them to this blog in the future (I won't do so without your permission).