monday - collage introduction

It was the man who used train tickets, labels, and envelopes that inspired me to make the following triptych piece.

First of three collages I had in the 1979 senior art show at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 6 x 4 inches. Untitled. Mixed media. Karl Marxhausen.

Second of three collages. 6 x 4 inches. Untitled. Mixed media. Karl Marxhausen. 1979

Third of three collages. 6 x 4 inches. Untitled. Mixed media. Karl Marxhausen. 1979

Kurt Schwitter. An art maker in Germany during the 1920s. It was the types of materials he used in his collages that interested me. One sample of his work, below. (courtesy of Google Search, accessed March 14, 2017)

I remember painting tempura on paper. After it dried I experimented with the tearing the edge by hand. I did several collages using torn edges at UN-L.

 24 x 36 inches. Untitled. Tempura on paper. Karl Marxhausen. 1979 

24 x 36 inches. Untitled. Tempura on paper. Karl Marxhausen. 1979 Solo show at Mark Four Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska.

These works were part of the power point I gave to the fifth grade class Monday morning, March 6th, 2017.

 

My wife, Jan Marxhausen, was beginning a lesson in collage and asked me to introduce the subject with her fifth and sixth grade art students. 

In addition to the train tickets of Kurt Schwitters, we looked at the the dried plants of Daniel Griffith. Griffith had searched for items of texture, color, size, and shape around the farm where he lived. Materials were placed next to each other like a chain of color, next to next to next. So, collage required a different kind of thinking. As artists we describe what we look at as THICK and THIN LINES. ROUGH and SMOOTH textures. TRIANGLES and SQUARES and CIRCLES.

During the afternoon session I had volunteers come up and point out the shapes and lines in Griffith's work. Below closeup has wavy lines, red circles next to thick lines, and a white circle in the middle of an orange shape.  

A few years older than myself, Griffith lived in De Witt, Missouri. He has been constructing works like this for years, below.

 

The presentations continued that week to other students in both fifth and sixth grades, respectively. A dozen students in each group. A total of eight classes that week. I made adjustments to keep it fresh for myself. March 6th to 10th. Next day, Tuesday.