Bensonhurst Senior Center Blog 3 06/02/22 Portrait Book

Bensonhurst Senior Center

Blog 3 06/02/22

Portrait Book

The Kitchens at Bensonhurst Senior Center were busy today making zongzi in celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival. Many hands were on deck to cook the sticky rice and wrap it in bamboo leaves. Spica and I were given 2, supplemented by another from Lao Yu. Along with So Sim’s zongzi from last week we will be eating delicious, tasty nutty treats for the next week! Thank you so much!!

As we focused on portrait collages today, we warmed up with a movement and improvisation game. Each person thought of something they were good at which they could mime. “Action” began their movement and “1, 2, 3 camera” allowed them to pose in mid action as though they were having their photo taken enacting the movement. Some of the variety of activities were sewing, doing Tai Chi, exercising, singing, dancing, and looking after the baby. As each person did their action, the rest of the class did their own movement for the chosen activity. 

Spica and I modeled examples of Portrait tissue paper collages, highlighting the overlapping of colors to create depth and the use of different sized collage pieces to aid in telling a story about yourself. Using the tissue paper collaging skills they developed in the last lesson, our students tore, layered, and glued the colored tissue they had selected last week which reflected their personality. It was fascinating to see the art develop, each person’s creation uniquely their own. 

Miu used pastels, Julissa serrated edged strips of lilac, Jing Wei tore bold geometric slabs of color, Hui Fen added a smiley face, Steven cut large different shaped blocks of color, while May and Hui Juan helped each other decide where on the collage to place their portrait. So Sim began with a rising sun and developed her collage from there, Lao Yu made floral bursts, Cen placed her image within a border of red, Pun surrounded her portrait with cool colors, lapping onto her torso, bright colors emerged from behind Sook Fong’s portrait, which she grounded with scalloped edged gold tissue, and Susanna created a serene background comprised of strips of lilac interspersed with bright orange. 

Ah Fen returned and completed tracing her portrait. She will be able to use this to create her collage next week. 

Fortunately, we could use a long table in the dining area to lay out magazine images in different categories, including people, scenery, animals, scenery/landscapes, trees and plants and food. Thinking of the 3 words they chose which best describes their personality, they selected images which spoke to them. After looking at our examples in which we pointed out techniques such as layering, contrasting colors and images and the element of surprise, they tore their images into desired shapes, avoiding using scissors to create more interesting and organic shapes. Next, they experimented with layout, layering images to see what effects they could create. All images were carefully stored in their zipped folders for our next class.

We wish everyone a happy and safe Dragon Boat Festival - 端午节; 端午節