A Big6 art project: Homage to an artist <page 1, 2>

3. Location and Access

Where can your find these resources?
Use your classroom or home computer to search the Web sites listed for information on your chosen artist. Check with your teacher about other potentially good resources (such as art history books, art magazines, or CD-ROMs) that are available in the classroom or school’s library.

Do you know how to use these resources?
Use the table of contents or index to locate needed information within books and other print resources. When using the Web sites listed to do your research, type your artist’s first and last name into the search tool window available on the site’s homepage to locate any relevant information or images. Some of these sites also have index pages that list all of the artists covered on the site in alphabetical order.

4. Use of Information

How will you record the information you find?
Once you find a valuable source of information on your artist, you can begin taking notes. Using note cards is a good way to do this. To help you organize your notes and remember where you found useful information later on, write down a keyword or question on the top of each note card and the title of the source you use and its location for each note. For example:

What are the central themes in Warhol’s work?

Warhol both celebrated and poked fun at American middle-
class values by erasing the distinction between popular and high culture. (Fact Monster)

Warhol was fascinated by consumer culture, the media, and fame. (National Gallery of Art)

Warhol often used repetition in his work. (National Gallery of Art)

Warhol said “In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” (Lives of the Artists: p. 92)

How will you decide what information to use?
Chances are that you will learn a lot more about your chosen artist than you need to complete this project. What you need to focus on are those things that interest you the most such as the artist’s style, subject matter, or themes.

5. Synthesis

What project will you create to show what you have learned?
The artwork you create should incorporate ideas from your chosen artist’s work as well as your own ideas, interests, and concerns (see below). Think of this project as a collaboration between you and the artist you studied. Although the work you create may take on some of the characteristics of your collaborator’s work, you should not get lost in the mix. Challenge yourself to do something different than you might normally do on your own. For example, you may choose to recreate or update a scene in your chosen artist’s work, but use different characters or media to create your work.

Student artwork inspired by the study of Andy Warhol, University of Florida’s Art Foundations Program

The materials you use for this project will depend on the work of the artist you studied as well as the materials that are available in the classroom. If the artist paints in bold colors, for example, you might use oil pastels to create your own work. If the artist is a photographer, you might use a digital camera to create your work and then enhance the picture using image-editing software. Choose a medium you are comfortable with and that won’t require learning new skills in order to create a finished piece.

Once you have completed your artwork, use a word-processing program to write a one-page “artist statement.” This statement should discuss what your work is about and how it reflects what you learned by studying your chosen artist’s work. This statement will be displayed next to your work for the final critique in class. Be prepared to share what you learned about your chosen artist and the resulting work you created by making a five-minute presentation to the rest of the class.

How much time will you need to finish your project?
You will have five weeks to complete this project in class. If you need additional time, please talk with your teacher about arranging a time to work on your project outside of class.

6. Evaluation

How well did you accomplish what you set out to do?
To receive a grade for this project, you must submit: (1) a finished work of art; (2) an artist statement; (3) the note cards you used to gather information on your artist; and (4) printouts of three works by the artist studied. Use the rubric provided (pdf file) to assess your success in this project.

 

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