Extra Credit: Gratitude

Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away! To earn extra credit points:

Reflect on your life. What are you most thankful for?

Sketch it for additional points.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 22nd

If you missed class on Monday, November 22nd you need to do the following:

1. See Ms. Burnell about your grade.

2. Complete missing assignments and turn in.

3. Make sure you are on track to turn in two final projects by the hard deadlines.

4. Make sure you have all handouts and worksheets. Get the worksheets from the graded pile. Remember: You will not be able to re-take the test this time. So study, study, study!

Thank you!

Artist ~ Elizabeth Catlett

Photo of Elizabeth Catlett from book on African American artists by Fern H. Logan, an assistant professor of photography at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. See the article at http://news.siu.edu/news/January01/loganphotos.html


Elizabeth Catlett
Mexican (born United States), born 1915

Sharecropper, 1957 (printed 1970)
Color linocut on cream Japanese paper
54.4 x 51.3 cm
Restricted gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Hartman, 1992.182
The Art Institute of Chicago®

"In a career spanning more than 70 years, Elizabeth Catlett has created sculptures that celebrate the heroic strength and endurance of African-American and Mexican working-class women. With simple, clear shapes she evokes both the physical and spiritual essence of her subjects. Her hardy laborers and nurturing mothers radiate both power and a timeless dignity and calm. Whether working in wood, stone, bronze, or clay, Catlett reveals an extraordinary technical virtuosity, a natural ability to meld her curving female forms with the grain, whorls, color, or luster of her chosen medium. The beauty of her subjects is matched by the beauty she reveals in her sculptural materials.

Throughout her career, Catlett has been a political progressive committed to improving the lives of African-American and Mexican women, and she has often used her art explicitly to advance their cause. She has also protested, picketed, and even been arrested in her quest to win justice for those she describes as "my people." Moving from the United States to Mexico in 1946, she was eventually identified as an "undesirable alien" by the U.S. State Department. For nearly a decade she was barred from visiting the United States.

Despite these struggles, Catlett's art reveals no trace of bitterness or despair. Indeed, she has remained true to the universal, life-affirming themes that first animated her sculpture in the 1940s—the beauty of the human form and the nobility of the human condition. At age 95, she continues to create, guided by those unshakeable ideals."

Jeff Harrison
Chief Curator
Chrysler Museum of Art


To learn more about Elizabeth Catlett, please visit these websites:

http://www.elizabethcatlett.net/

http://www.nmwa.org/collection/profile.asp?LinkID=129

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/arts/catlett.html

Miz Art ~ Honor & Respect

This semester we have created some symbolic self portraits and we have also learned about the artist Elizabeth Catlett. Catlett represents her subjects as dignified, strong and resilient.

This is your Miz Art:

Who, in your life, has shown you either compassion, dignity or strength. Please describe the characteristics of this person. If you could make an artwork about this person, what would it look like? Please use your art vocabulary when describing the artwork.

Miz Art ~ Personal Quote

Almost every day this semester we have had a new quote on the chalkboard. Many of these quotes have been motivational or inspirational. Some are just full of common sense.

This is your Miz Art:

1. What has your favorite quote been so far, and why?

2. Pick a quote that you feel applies to your life. Explain why it is important to you.

Miz Art ~ Art Proposal

Your final art project for the semester:

1. What medium will you use? Acrylics? Colored Pencil? Linocut? Pen and Ink?

2. What is your concept/idea?

3. What will your subject/focal point be?

4. What will your composition look like?

5. How will you use texture, value, line, shape, form and symbolism?

Miz Art ~ Negative and Positive Space

1. Type the definitions of both negative and positive space (should be in your notes).

2. Add an image of a linocut print by any artist to your paper.

3. Label the negative and positive space (use arrows).

Thank you!