Embedded Files
Overview
Overview
Goal
Goal
This project is meant to focus on creating an artwork based on a limitation. By limiting yourself as an artist, you are challenging the creative process and idea of what art is in order to create something that is unique.
Materials
Materials
Drawing, Pastel, Charcoal, Watercolor Paper, Canvas Paper or Canvas Boards
Colored Pencils, Drawing Pencils, Charcoal, Oil Pastels, Chalk Pastels, Alcohol Ink, Watercolor, or Acrylic
Any other materials are open and available!
Option 1: Less Choice
Option 1: Less Choice
Create an artwork using only text. Use pen & ink to create the artwork.
Option 2: Moderate Choice
Option 2: Moderate Choice
Create an artwork by challenging yourself to use a non-traditional material.
Option 3: Full Choice
Option 3: Full Choice
Create an artwork of your choice by limiting yourself. You have full choice of materials/medium.
Step 1: Embrace the Shake
Step 1: Embrace the Shake
As a class, watch the Embrace the Shake video by Phil Hansen
Take notes on the different ways he limited himself as an artist.
Discuss what you learned as a class.
Step 2: Explore the Artists
Step 2: Explore the Artists
Pair up with a partner and explore some artists that use limitations or have limitations that cause them to problem solve. You can use the artists below or research your own.
Take notes in your sketchbook about each limitation.
Physical Limitations
Physical Limitations
MFPA Artists
Mouth and Foot Painters
Nerve Damage
Autistic
Bipolar
Missing Lower Arms
A. Erich Stegmann
Missing Arms
Autistic
Paul Smith
Typewriter
Cerebral PalseyTechnical Limitation
Technical Limitation
One Single Line
Lines
Triangles & Circles
Text Limitation
Text Limitation
Michael Volpicelli
Michael Volpicelli
"Voices of Compassion"
Michael saw that you could use words to create a portrait of a person, creating value with different amounts of layering and cross hatching to create the different values in the piece.
Material Limitation
Material Limitation
Toy Soldiers
Sugar on Black Paper
Peanut Butter & Jelly
Toilet Paper Roll Artists
Toilet Paper Roll Artists
Recycled Artists
Recycled Artists
Jane Perkins
Before starting a career in the arts, Jane Perkins was first a nurse for 17 years and then a stay-at-home mom for 10 more. It wasn’t until she started studying textiles at the Somerset College of Arts and Technology in 2006 that she realized how much she enjoyed working with recycled materials and, since 2008, she’s been working exclusively in that vein. Like McCoubrey, Jane feels recycled art is a fun challenge. She particularly enjoys the unexpected surprises she uncovers as she takes inspiration from objects she discovers at recycling centers and junkyards. These days, though, she does a lot less foraging for objects to use in her work—once people in her neighborhood found out what she did, they started leaving bags of their unwanted junk on her doorstep.
Robert Bradford
From robots to race cars, Miguel Rivera’s creations prove that just because a hard drive has crashed doesn’t mean it is completely useless. Unsurprisingly, the artist found his inspiration in his day job as a systems administrator on an overseas U.S. Air Force base, where he came across ample broken hard drives and decided to do something with them. His first creation was a race car made from 33 hard drives. The body was mostly one whole drive, but the wheels took eight discs a piece. As he started making more and more designs, the creations became more and more complex until he created his most detailed creation to date: the massive robot he calls his masterpiece. The robot contains 14 whole laptop hard drives, pieces from 18 other drives, and a few other spare computer parts.
Leo Sewell
While most artists working with recycled materials get into the idea later on in life, Leo Sewell grew up in a dump and was assembling pieces of trash together even as a boy. Since then, he’s actually developed and mastered his own assemblage technique involving nuts, bolts, and screws, enabling his creations to bear striking likenesses to the creatures he models them after while still allowing the bits of trash inside to be easily seen and recognized.
Michelle Reader
Since 1997, Michelle Reader has been working to make recycled materials into sculptures, often incorporating mechanical elements such as the working parts of toys and clocks. Her materials come from city dumps, roadsides, and thrift shops, and include both household and industrial waste. “I love the unpredictability of found materials and enjoy the inventiveness necessary to transform them into a sculpture,” she says. “I try wherever possible to use materials that are reclaimed, things with a history that have been discarded and might otherwise end up in landfill.”
Ptolemy Elrington
Parking lots and roadsides everywhere are adorned with damaged and lost hubcaps. But where most of us see garbage, Ptolemy Elrington sees beauty and value. “I believe that things utilitarian, or which give pleasure to the eye have the highest value, he says. “I come across many things which have been abandoned and find something more in them than their intrinsic worthlessness.” He particularly enjoys working with hubcaps because—while they look nice—they really serve very little purpose. “They’re automatically rubbish when on the side of the road," he says. "But with a little effort and imagination I transform them into something which gives people a great deal more pleasure.”
Wim Delvoye
While Belgian artist Wim Delvoye isn’t the first person to create art with used tires, he might just be the most talented name in the niche. That’s because his utterly gorgeous creations manage to maintain the structure of the tires while incorporating elements from nature, such as flowers and vines, so the viewer thinks of the delicate beauty of Mother Earth while never forgetting that they are looking at something totally industrial. The artist uses no mechanical devices during the reworking process to make his masterpieces, and tough car and tractor tires take a very long time to manually carve and sculpt.
Rodney "Rodrigo" McCoubrey
Unlike many artists working with recycled materials, who feel their work carries a serious and somber meaning, the theme of Rodney McCoubrey’s work is “fun”—and it certainly shows. In fact, many of his works look like vivid and beautiful reinterpretations of children’s drawings. While the San Diego resident is happy to gather materials out of dumpsters and next to roadsides in any city, he particularly loves fishing for inspiration around dumpsites in Baja California—a preference that no doubt influences his work.Step 3: Brainstorming Different Limitation Options
Step 3: Brainstorming Different Limitation Options
In your sketchbook, write down at least 3 different ideas for each of the following categories.
Non-Traditional Surface- use a surface that is not typical. Typical would be paper and canvas.
Limited Material- use an unusual material to draw or paint with or limit your use to only 1 single material.
Limited Ability- change the way you typically do something.
Limited Technique- experiment with different ways to make marks on a surface. Limit how something can be done.
**This list is not exhaustive. If you have an idea that is not here, try it! Be creative and different; after all, that is the point!
Step 4: Exploration
Step 4: Exploration
Choose at least 2 of the options from step 3 to experiment with in your sketchbook. Try it out and see what happens.
Step 5: Developing an Idea
Step 5: Developing an Idea
Choose the most successful limitation.
Plan out your artwork in your sketchbook. You must consider the theme and subject matter.
You are responsible for bringing in any necessary materials needed for this project. However, you may use any materials in the room to assist you.
Step 6: Creating the Artwork
Step 6: Creating the Artwork
Prepare the paper for your project. You can use drawing paper, charcoal paper, watercolor paper, canvas paper, canvas boards.
Reflection Questions & Artist Statement
Reflection Questions & Artist Statement
Reflection Questions
Reflection Questions
What was your limitation?
What elements and principles of art stand out?
What parts of your artwork are most successful?
What problems did you encounter while working on this artwork?
Artist Statement Questions
Artist Statement Questions
Use the following questions to write a short paragraph about your artwork:
What did you make?
Why did you make it?
What does your artwork mean?
How did you make your artwork?
Your artist statement can include:
Your inspiration
Themes you explored
Personal connections to your work
Information about the creative process (techniques, materials, etc)
Complete a portfolio that includes:
Title of your artwork
Sketches and planning notes
Progress photos
Written reflections questions
Artist Statement
Rubric
Rubric
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