I started the class at The Mansion with the question… “Who knows what Abstract art is?”
Everyone had heard of it, but there was some uncertainty about what it was. I opened the book I brought with pictures of Abstract paintings and sculptures. We talked about the colors and shapes we saw. Claudia saw a television in one piece. People found the colors of another was soothing.
I was a little surprised at how much everyone seemed to enjoy looking at pictures of art in the book and talking about it. It’s not something I’ve done with the class before. But it makes me think I should do it more often.
After that we got to work.
I brought in paper that was already masked off with painters tape to create six boxes. (thanks to Veronica for the idea).
The first thing we did was scribble across the whole paper using two different colored markers.
Then we outlined the boxes with black marker and continued to use the black marker to make lines inside the boxes.
Some of them correlated with the lines already there. Others were more random.
After that we used highlighters to add more colors over all the other marks we’d already made.
Then Claudia inspired us all.
She added another part to the process when she wrote down the words “Walk Way For People” on her drawing. When I asked her why she chose those words she said they just came to her.
Claudia took her piece to another lever by listening to and adding the words.
I was surprised at how much each person was engaged in making these drawings.
And because Claudia found words while drawing it made me think that her creativity was sparked by the the work she was doing.
Peeling the blue painters tape off the paper was supposed to be the last step in the process. It was like opening a gift. The drawings looked completely different without the tape.
But when Claudia added words to her drawing she inspired others to name their pieces too. And that became the final step.
Each person thought about what their drawings reminded them of and put words to their abstract art.
