thursday - collage introduction

## On Thursday: I had a new set slides ready to challenge the group. Wall patterns I had photographed Wednesday afternoon downtown. I had students come up and trace the outline of shapes with their hand.

One student came up and pointed to all the orange-red shapes, above.

One gal traced the white shapes, above. Collage deals more with abstract shapes.

One guy pointed to the rectangles of blue and orange. When asked to do so, he located the line that ran across the top and pointed it out as well.

One girl came up and found the white shape. The dark shape. The shape hanging down from the top. And the wild pattern everywhere else.

Then, I broke the group into three teams, three tables. I gave them a hands-on collage to look up close, talk about, and figure out the shape next to shape or color next to color. They had two minutes. GO! START! A buzz of chattering, what they were going to say. Soon, I counted back from 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, they caught on and joined in, 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 0. Stop.
 
Chosen teams stood in a line facing the rest of the class and reported. Each describing a shape by a shape or color by a color of something they saw. Then I had the group go thru one more time finding something else to add. They returned to their table. And I picked another group to get up and begin.

A gal reported a turquoise around two dark circles in a clear shape.

A guy stated that dark paint around the knit glove made its shape pop out.

The torn white edge reminded one of the mountains she had visited and the blue - white - and red brought to her mind the color of the American flag.

One said: "I see a red by a blue." Another said: "I see silver by a red circle."

From home I brought an worn out curtain we had taken down to discard. I had cut slits with a scissors along the edge. I asked for a strong volunteer. They had no idea what I had in mind. The ones I called on came up, took the cloth, faced the class and with both hands pulled apart where the slit had been cut. A loud rip sounded. 

Glee filled each pair of eyes. Hands shot up. And everyone got a turn ripping strips from the curtain. It was a BIG HIT with both classes. I believe it secured a muscle memory in each for COLLAGES. Students were asking me: "Can I do THAT again??!!"

Carefully I took the yellow patch around to the tables to be seen. I asked for a show of hands. How many would use the clean side for their collage? Six did. One said she like the raised pattern on it. Another liked its shape. Five hands preferred the dirty side. One group enjoyed the different colors and the texture it had.

Six hands wanted to use the clean side of the patch.

Five hands raised to use the dirty side of the patch.

After the class left I added crumpled color to the room.

On March 20th, students in Mrs. Marxhausen's art class began to make their own collage. Next.