Summer Studio 2011
Posted on June 28th, 2011 by steve
‘What I did on my summer vacation’
Last week, I spent four full days with a handful of some really cool teens.
I found myself saying, ‘Yes, I’ll do it. What is it?’ to teaching a week-long Summer Studio workshop at Ai Sacramento.
I called the whole thing ‘Designer Mashup’ – and set about having my students mix contemporary designers with historical luminaries.
Design history, research, handmade collages, form studies and handing work off to other students (to reinterpret) were part of the process.
Pictured, some of the final pieces.
Designers studied included Paula Scher, Georges Braque, Josef Albers, El Lisstizky, Rick Griffin, Jessica Hische, Raoul Hausmann, Marian Bantjes, Hannah Höch, Alvin Lustig, Shepard Fairey and David Carson.
Wow! I can’t believe these teens were able to really ‘get it’ and interpret the designers’ work and place in history in such an apt and beautiful way.
LOVE the first one, and it might be my favorite, although the Albers is spot-on, and the deconstructed one is so perfect! The Rebel piece is absolutely gorgeous (I want it for my wall) and the Carson interpretation is right-on. I love the bomb cracking through rejection, and both the mixed-media collages are lovely. The painted area of the flyng eyeball one is so cool. I’m even drawn to the destruction one with the fire — I think its because the composition is so great. And how much do I love Fairey re-interpreted as almost a modernist-looking website? Nice.
They had a great teacher.
Thanks Susan. They really took to it like moths to felt.
And when I did my form/composition discussion they got it immediately; actually faster than my usual students do (pretend you didn’t hear that).
The next generation can work really quick. It was fun to watch them in action. :)