Art Connects with Math

Transcription

1 Welcome students! Art Connects with Math Self-Guided Tour Activity Johnson County Community College

2 Art Connects with Math: Self-Guided Tour Activity For youth ages 8 and older with adults. Allow approximately 40 minutes to complete. Use a pencil to write your ideas. Welcome to the Nerman Museum at JCCC! This activity features artworks in the museum s collection on campus in the adjacent Regnier Center. The artworks are all identified by wall labels, and you can choose the order you want to follow. JCCC is a college (where adults go to school) and there are people going to class and working, so we need to stay in small groups and use indoor voices in the hallways. We also need to remember it is okay to look closely at the art, but we cannot touch it: let s stay about 3 steps back from the art, walls, and glass cases. A museum collection is a special group of objects, we are responsible for sharing and protecting the artwork, so we want to do our part to keep the artworks clean and safe for years to come. Contemporary art usually means the artist who made it is still alive and may be your parent s age or your grandparents age. Some of the artworks we ll see today may be younger than you! This activity includes 15 of the 400+ artworks from the museum s collection on permanent display at JCCC. These artworks are always on view, even when the museum galleries are closed.

3 REGNIER CENTER 1 st FLOOR: Contemporary Painting - Landscapes Paintings in this collection focus area feature the natural landscape, and we can see different ways artists take inspiration from the land and the environment around them. You can look closely and notice ways artists create the illusion of depth on a 2- dimensional surface. Depth means that there is a sense of distance in the artwork, as if you could step into a painting or drawing, or sometimes parts seem like they are coming off the surface into our own space. Artists might create an illusion of deep space, or they might choose to reinforce the actual flat 2-dimensional surface of the paper or canvas by making patterns and designs. Some of the techniques artists use to create the illusion of space on a flat surface are colors (brighter, warmer, more intense colors tend to look closer) light & dark contrast (lighter areas seem closer, dark shadows recede) overlapping shapes (objects that are closer block our view of what is behind) size contrast (objects that are near to us appear larger) focus (sharper focus and detail tends to look closer) lines, linear perspective (like train tracks, lines merge toward a vanishing point)

4 Lisa Sanditz (American, b. 1973) Casino Queen, 2006 Oil on canvas 77 x 57" What things do you recognize in this painting? This painting has lots of textures. What words would you use to describe the paint surface? The artist used a palette knife to scrape away layers to make the river boat s reflection. Is there more detail in the bottom half or the top half? Besides the detail, what else draws our attention to the top half? How did she make the light-colored dots seem like they are glowing? Lisa Sanditz was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and now she lives and works in New York City. Her paintings explore the geography and landscape of America, and also building projects and casinos (places where adults go to play card games and slot machines and try to win money). Many of her works show these spaces at night, and some are being demolished. This painting is based on a real place near the Gateway Arch: What about the painting looks like real life, and what about it is imaginary? If the original Casino Queen was 400 feet long, and the boat here is about 8 inches, how many times larger was the real boat compared to the painted one?

5 Keith Jacobshagen (American, b. 1941) Slow Melt with Crows, 2002 Oil on canvas 42 x 52 Would you say this is an abstract painting or a representational painting? Where is the focal point in this painting? Where did the artist draw our attention? What percentage of the painting is devoted to the sky? Make a SKETCH of the painting with just a few lines. Draw the horizon line. Draw the tree in the middle, and draw the ground lines as they come out from the horizon line. Lightly sketch the patterns the clouds make. One of the most famous artists from our part of the country, Keith Jacobshagen was born in Wichita, KS, and he taught painting at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, for around 30 years. He paints the landscape around him within a 60-mile radius. Let s see if you can pick out another painting that Keith made how can you tell it s his?

6 William Tinker (American, b. 1936) Extended Rains Southwest Kansas, 2002 Oil on canvas 46 x 75 How can you tell this is a landscape? What elements did Bill repeat to make patterns? Is the sky taking up more of the picture like Keith s painting with the snow melting, or is it the land the artist emphasized? What colors stand out most to you? When artists use complementary colors, or opposites on the color wheel, they make each other pop. This is an optical effect called simultaneous contrast. Is there a foreground, middle ground, and background like the Slow Melt with Crows painting, or is most of it a flat pattern like 55 Trees at Sunset? The size of this painting makes us feel like we could actually be at this place, like we are looking out a big window. Besides the sheer size of this landscape, how does the artist lead your eyes back into deep space? He used a lot of curving and diagonal lines that lead your eyes into the space. Do you think this is an imaginary landscape, or was it based on a photograph? Bill Tinker lives right here in Overland Park. He has a painting studio in his house that he shares with his wife Susan, who is also an artist. He travels and photographs places and then paints using the photographs and his memory. He carefully maps out his canvas with lines and words so he knows where he is going to put each color. Here he emphasizes the light and shadow in a farmer s rows after a rainstorm, and the colors are brighter than reality for an expressive effect.

7 REGNIER CENTER 2 nd FLOOR: Contemporary American Indian Art Wendy Red Star (American Indian, Crow, b. 1981) Untitled (Silver) Jingle Dress, 2011 Fabric and tin jingles 34 x 32 x 12 This is about the right size for an actual person to wear, isn t it? What different textures do you see? How did the artist unify the various materials? What makes all the parts match? This artwork is a contemporary version of a Jingle Dress. What about it looks oldfashioned: What about it looks futuristic: This was one of several dresses Wendy made for an exhibition in Minneapolis. Here is a picture of the artist wearing the dress as a character in an imaginary setting. Wendy placed the characters in front of sci-fi settings. First she photographed herself in her bedroom, then she used Photoshop to create fantastical landscapes. Look at the photo of a historic jingle dress, and contemporary jingle dresses worn in a 2009 Lakota pow-wow: Traditionally, hundreds of cones were sewn onto the dress, with a prayer put into each cone. These make a soft ringing sound when shaken (PASS AROUND the bunch of jingle beads on twine). The dance goes back 100 years and it is considered a healing dance: the energy coming from the tinkling sound has the power to reach helpful spirits. Wendy Red Star was born in Montana with a Caucasian (Irish-American) mother and an American Indian father.

8 American Indian artists living today explore their own personal artistic language. The pottery and other clay works in this hallway demonstrate how artists from the Southwest Pueblo cultures use traditional techniques in making their art. LOOK closely and DISCOVER! When you think about actual animals, plants and people, which pots have decorations that are natural proportions? Which images are oversized? Which images are miniature? Frequently Asked Questions Why were pots made in the Pueblo cultures? Pottery was and is enjoyed by a sedentary culture, with both ceremonial and sacred purposes. Clay is a product of Mother Earth, and not all American Indians of the Pueblo cultures make pottery. It is a specialized art that many people do not have the desire or ability to pursue. What were pots used for? Pots are made for decoration, aesthetic beauty, tradition and self-expression. Pottery to this day is not normally glazed and should not be used to hold water without inner coating. How was the clay prepared? Clay is dug and gathered near the home, and it looks like hard packed mud. Some sources are secret, deep and dangerous. The clay is broken and ground into powder, soaked in water, and mixed with a powder of older pottery shards. The mixed clay soaks for a week. How are they built? Artists build the smaller pots by hand (like pinch pots) and larger pots are built using flat coils. Once the piece dries, the artists polish the surface and scrape it smooth using a piece of gourd. They smooth it with water, and polish it with a wet pebble. How are they decorated? Fine, watery clay slip is applied all over the surface with a rag and then the surface is polished again with the stone. Paints are mixed with ground mineral stones and plants. Artists use paint brushes made from a strip of yucca. How are they fired? Traditional pots are fired outdoors: several pots are laid out on a sheet of metal or a layer of old pottery shards. The mound is covered with dried cow or sheep dung, and tinder is set along the bottom to start the fire.

9 Choose one pot with geometric designs, and DRAW some of the patterns you see.

10 Walk to the West hallway to find the Latino artwork made by artists from Mexico and Central America. Juan Quezada (Mexican, b. 1940) Red on Black Jar, 1999 Polychromed clay, 12 x " Look at Juan s pot from different angles. He used the same 3 designs around his pot, but can you see all 3 designs from one angle, or do you have to walk around? Where do you see squares? What types of squares do you see? SKETCH some of the square patterns Juan used:

11 Irvin Trujillo (American, b. 1955) Bumblebee, 2006 Natural dyed wool and silk weft and warp 84 x 54" Irvin earned a degree in civil engineering before he became a full time artist. Although he uses traditional geometric designs, his woven artworks sometimes tell personal stories. A lot of times I ll have to look in books, magazines, movies, any kind of media, visual media, that I might get an idea from. Then maybe I ll combine different ideas together in one piece... I ve studied everything from Japanese anime to Walt Disney movies. Ideas just can come from anywhere. Which elements are symmetrical? DESCRIBE the shapes and colors:

12 Most of the pottery in this hallway has geometric designs, but this one is a narrative scene with recognizable natural subjects: animals in an outdoor setting. SKETCH what you see on the other half of this pot: Leonel Lopez Saenz (Mexican) Sgraffito Pot, 2006, Clay and clay slip

13 Eli Navarrete Ortiz (Mexican, b. 1974) Mata Ortiz Pot, 2008 Polychromed clay with graphite Here we see many animals intertwined: red lizards, black rabbits, brown birds and geometric fish (the artist used simple triangles and circles). SKETCH one of the fish:

14 FIND a second pot by Leonel Lopez: go all the way down the west hall. LIST the characters you see: DESCRIBE the setting: Leonel López Sáenz (Mexican) Sgraffito olla, c White clay and red slips WRITE a six-word story inspired by this artwork.

15 At another time you might explore the outdoor sculptures, or the Clay, Works on Paper, or Painting collection focus areas in other buildings on campus. Visit the Nerman Museum to see more of our permanent collection and also exhibitions that change every few months. The museum is FREE and you do not need to make an appointment to visit unless you have more than 10 people with your group. We have fun art-making classes for youth on Saturdays throughout the school year and weekdays in the summer. Check out our website or call for more information. Thank you for visiting, and we hope to see you again soon! Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, JCCC DRAFT* Prepared by Karen Gerety Folk, Curator of Education, 2018