Book of Home project at LaGuardia Senior Center.15 8/03/2021

 

LMCC - Creative Learning Grant

Accordion Book

 Blog 15 8/03/2021

We used the silhouette form in today’s class because the everyday object’s identity is “erased” because of its mundanity. We want to show how we use these objects repetitively. As a warmup theater game Spica and I modeled a dialogue that was inspired by an everyday object, such as a knife and fork. “What’s for dinner?’ “You decide!” Spica held up a pair of small, pointed scissors to which Lily replied, “Spica’s doing arts and crafts!”. Next Lily held up a magnifying glass, “Guess who’s an older adult now”. Situ held a glue stick, “Where should I glue, what colors?” Hilping held a metal pot lifter which she uses every day and said, “So hot, so hot!”. 

It’s always rewarding sharing our students' work and they have excelled with this project. Alice’s headshot made her think of “looking forward” and this inspired her composition. She surrounded her portrait with a red blast of color. Underneath she arranged stripes of bright colors pointing upwards. Hilpings’ photo was taken when she was on a cruise where she enjoyed watching the sunrises and sunsets and the water gave her a feeling of calm. She placed her headshot off center with circles of red and intersected the blue background with a contrasting blue wave. Lily needed a photo for work, so her husband suggested it be taken outside. She enjoyed the warmth of the day and chose bright colors to reflect confidence, possibilities. The placement of a triangle of green in the top corner intersected by a square of yellow on a blue background creates an uplifting feeling. Situ’s photo was taken at her daughter’s graduation ceremony to become a teacher. Her headshot is encircled by bright colors and above she added a variety of scalloped colors including textured paper to suggest the many and varied students her daughter teaches. She added a flourish of a blossom over her head. Chi chose a photo of her mountain climbing and was inspired by, “walk forward”. Her hand points to triangles of green like mountains while overhead is a fluffy white cloud shape, and she added a few birds in flight. 

Students chose a photo of an everyday object which would make a clear silhouette. Next, they selected 4 pieces of colored paper and placed the photo on top and cut out the shape. They experimented with how to combine the silhouettes and then selected another color as a background. Finally, to break up the composition the grid paper was introduced, another form of repetition, to create the total composition. Using the grid paper, students wrote in pencil their thoughts or dialogue and went over it in black sharpie. We encouraged them to write in different forms or even shapes in Chinese and add the English translation if so desired. Let’s see what unique creations await us!!