Kehinde Wiley Art Project for the Blind

Visually Impaired Middle and High School Students' attempt at portraits in Wiley's style

Kehinde Wiley is one of the great portrait artists of a generation. He takes every day people and elevates them to classical aristocracy of the 18th century. He draws inspiration from Ingres and Jaque-Louis David, and their work. 

The first Wiley paintings I saw was in Detroit

His subjects are graceful and commanding, but they share the viewers attention with the pattern that fills the background. In fact, sometime's the pattern competes to the point that it creeps into the foreground. Even the presidential portrait of Barrack Obama has the leafy background come forward to cover some of Obama's legs. Studying Wiley is a great way to teach students about negative space,  figure-ground relationships, activating the background, and creating figure-ground confusion. These can be tricky concepts even for people with vision, but it's an extra challenge for my students who are are working with little to no vision.

Students started with a drawing of a person. Some used waxy-strings for their drawing to make it tactile.

I traced the Wiki-Stix with hot glue to make a more permanent way to feel where the lines are. Then they painted the background. Some low-vision students asked that I trace the lines with paint so they could see the shapes better and stay in the lines.

Once the background was dry, students picked out a stencil or two and a color of spray paint. They would decide how to space the stencils and then came the magic of activating the background. The figures were then painted in the foreground with as much value as each student could figure out. 

I used painter's tape or paper stencils to help protect the background for some students. A big part of my job is providing accommodations for each child to work as independently as possible.

Bits of pattern coming to the foregroun

The final part of the project was making the back ground a little more busy: adding colors and shapes so that it held more visual weight than simple wall paper. And of course, students had to find a way to bring some of that pattern in front of the figure. Most students used paint pens to add more colors and complexity. I offered simple stencils for those who needed help making pattern by hand.The students were all very happy with the added pizzaz the pattern brought to their paintings and I think they have more respect for Kehinde Wiley's style and message as a result.

Alexa Meade Art Project

Years ago, my sister, Sharon, took family pictures in the style of artist, Alexa Mead. (Sharon's image is to the right.) I was so impressed with the results that I swore if my Art students and I would one day tackle a project like that ourselves.

 

 

One of my beautiful students with the black bar to provide anonymity

Last week, week three of our photography unit, we  did it! I gave each student a t-shirt to paint. They were tasked of making the brushstrokes visible, barely blending several related colors.  Then they painted large pieces of paper to serve as a back drop. Again, the goal was to make it painterly with loose brush strokes.

Finally, we added the most essential element. The students themselves. Each one took a turn painting their own face or having someone else do it. They picked their colors and poses, trying out various backdrops.

Occasionall, a fresh brush stroke or two would be added to the t-shirt or covering or backdrop to help tie the whole piece together.

A lot of learning came out of looking at the finished images and trying to select the strongest ones. The discussions bring about what makes a one composition better than other? How do the colors in the foreground and background go together? What is the mood presented in the expression, pose, and color combination? This student was pleased to see that the yellow stripe that went across her face at eye level, aligned with the yellow stipe in the back drop. She became the sunset that she was hoping to represent.

My new para pro playing with me

a free period gave me a chance to paint my own face

It was a physically exhausting week, running back and forth from sink to wall with the back drops. Fresh tape, swapped back drops, different color paint, twenty minutes at the sink trying to scrub faces clean. In the end, we were all thrilled with the results. I was so obsessed with the finished products that I ran around school showing my coworkers images of our masterpieces. A couple people asked what kind of filter we used. This was an old school way of working with brush and paint to let our colors show. No filter required.

Signed, Sealed, Recycled, He's Ours! Trash Collage of Stevie Wonder

It may not look like diaper box and cookie bag at first glance, but look past the surface of this portrait of a star and you'll see hair made from spiral binding and foam, and sunglasses made from comb binding and plastic bag.  This project was born out of my friend and colleague's environmental science unit. Melanie Thompson wanted to show her students how garbage could be reused or repurposed into art, so she asked me to collaborate.  I had a large box, that I cut to make the background. We decided to do a portrait of Stevie Wonder, because all year Melanie has been sending out flat, paper Stevie dolls to friends who traveled to different countries and send pictures back. This has given students an opportunity to study the geography and environment of each place "Flat Stevie" has been. And he has been everywhere!

I printed a photo of the real Stevie Wonder and traced it onto an overhead sheet to project onto the cardboard.  Two low vision students did the bulk of the work, tracing the projection and painting in the general shapes to make the contrast between shapes easier to see.

Then they filled in each shape with pieces of clean garbage. and enjoyed figuring out what food package or discarded book material would work best for which part. I hope the real Stevie Wonder knows how much we admire him and I hope the students will think twice before throwing away something that could be turned into a piece of art.