Contemporary Artists for Inspiration, Art Center of South Florida

In the middle of the frenzied promenade on Lincoln Road in SoBe Miami lies the Art Center of South Florida that offers classes, studios and residencies for Contemporary Artists. Every first Saturday they have open studios where you can discover emerging and established Contemporary Artists. To learn more about the residency program, which has three application deadlines per year, click here.

There were three very different artists whose work I enjoyed and want to share that can easily be introduced in art lessons and the classroom. These artists-in-residence evoke the often taught works of Edward Hopper, David Hockney’s collages and Andy Warhol’s pop art. I think it is important to enhance the teaching of representative artists of their respective movements by exposing students to living, breathing artists that have talent and an engaging aesthetic. Keep your lessons fresh and mix it up; there is a world of practicing artists waiting to be recognized and discovered that are worthy of our attention. Check out these artists and see how they may tie in to your curriculum.

In Search of French Broad Sweets
Oil on Canvas, 60"H x 72"W
This is a scene from Asheville, North Carolina
by John Sanchez

John Sanchez is a talented American artist originally from New Jersey who draws and paints scenes of everyday life like parking lots, interiors of markets and cars on the road (to name a few) in dark umbers and siennas with contrasting light that creates a dramatic effect. His technique has expressionistic strokes with a realistic aesthetic that captures the fleeting moments in life with depth and subtle detail. His artwork can be connected to themes like documenting scenes in everyday life that capture transit and automobiles, travel and landscape, which are all relevant when teaching perspective, various painting techniques and how to use color to a create mood in a composition.

Tom Cocotos’s collage work is unique, beautifully executed and intriguing with its materials and subject matter. I love mixed media and collage work and it isn’t easy to successfully integrate materials and develop an original aesthetic and Mr. Cocotos exceeds with his masterful use of white space that poetically balances his compositions. He does a lot of commission work that involves portraiture and some of his portraits incorporate text that pertains to the person and creates subtle meaning in his work. His recent collages are inspired by the bees that flit about (and unfortunately die) in his studio space in Miami and he is intrigued by the complicated insects that are fuzzy, intricate and strong yet delicate at the same time, like much of his artwork. He incorporates carefully torn pieces of paper and found objects into his bee subjects that lends to abstraction and can be associated to collage artists who have left their mark like Kurt Schwitters, David Hockney and Joseph Cornell. Mr. Cocotos’s collage works have valuable teaching points and could inspire an art lesson that integrates the study of nature and insects with collage techniques that explore materials.

WI-FI in the Afterlife Jim Morrison
Acrylic & Transfer on Wood
47"H x 36"W
by Alejandro Vigilante

Finally, another contemporary artist that is revisualizing the theme of pop art is Alejandro Vigilante. He is a Miami-based multimedia painter who is in the process of developing a new strain of Neo-Pop art, loosely titled "i-Pop" or sometimes referred to as "iArt", as stated on his website. His artwork can be linked to technology and social media and pop culture icons that transcend time. He appropriates images that are saturated with color and have a pixel-like composition that mimics the technology he is borrowing from. Instead of just teaching about Andy Warhol when it comes to Pop Art and iconic images, check out Mr. Vigilante’s creations that take the theme further with today’s social media buzzwords and formats. There are many disciplines Mr. Vigilante’s work can be linked to like learning image-editing software like Adobe Photoshop, the history of Pop Art, and the ins and outs of Copyright Law and Creative Commons Use.

Mixed Media Collage Inspired by Music

Music is a powerful way to convey emotion, tell a story or create an imaginary world that transports us to another place. I love to integrate music into the art making process in variety of ways. Whether it serves as a backdrop to create a mood in the classroom or the song itself is used to inspire a painting or drawing; music touches us all and is a great way to connect with students of all ages. Music can reveal feelings and emotions that are sometimes difficult to put into words and capture poetic sentiments that paint a picture. Teens go through so many changes and face a lot of pressure socially, academically and sometimes struggle to find their identity or express who they are inside. This collage project is conceptual and personal and a great way to evoke personal expression. Students choose a song (it can be a poem or story too) that they want to depict in a 2-D collage that integrates text and image to create a final, unified artwork. This project is a great way to get to know your students on a more intimate level and can reveal much about what is going on inside that student. This project is challenging because not only do they have to integrate text into their composition they have to choose materials wisely and use the elements of art to make connections between their components.  

The basic steps for this project are:

• Students pick a song (it can be a poem or story too) that they are connected to in some way. The song should not be offensive or contain explicit lyrics. Use your discretion as a teacher for what is appropriate depending on your setting. 
• Next, have students print out and write about the lyrics they choose in their sketchbook. Some thought provoking/brainstorming questions to get the creative juices flowing include:
• Who or what is the song about?
• What do you associate with this genre of music?
• What images come to mind when you read the words to this song?
• What images come to mind when you hear the music/melody to this song?
• What is the artist/song trying to convey?
• What mood is created by this song/music?
• What colors come to mind when you hear this song?
• What kind of marks/lines/shapes do you associate when you hear this song?
• Why do you like this song?
• How can you use color to capture the emotion in the song?
• What story does this song tell? 

Now, students can begin to storyboard, draw pictures, and collect images to start the project. Here is a must have for starting the project–Students must create an original substrate or background to jump start their collage. This means they create a background that has color(s), texture(s), and/or shapes instead of just starting with a white piece of paper for the background. This is a whole little mini project in itself and forces students to create something that relates to the song but is abstract or more of a design that they will build on for their collage. 

I like to work along side students to demonstrate the steps and process and emphasize how to integrate the elements, blur edges and layer the images and text. The computer can be a great way to print text and create unique images using image editing software. Below are some examples of high school Studio Art 1 students who completed the project. 

"Mad as Rabbits” song by Panic! at the Disco

“Your Time Has Come” song by Audioslave

"Pocketful Of Sunshine" song by Natasha Bedingfield

“Marvelous Things” song by Eisley

 

 

 

Grde 7: Mixed Media Collage

Students are in the process of creating mixed media collages that are inspired by a special event, place, emotion or interest. This is a great project for students to cultivate their personal expression and give us a glimpse at their view of the world and/or themselves.

Students learned how to use Value, Texture, Repetition and Color to create unity and balance in their collage. We examined the collage works of 20th Century artists who have worked with collage and we analyzed and discussed what Principles and Elements of Art make these works successful. Check out what we reviewed in class below, which is compiled from a variety of web resources and museum websites.

 

Cut Paper Collage Inspired by Music

Grade 6 students recently completed their color collage project that was composed from cut paper. Music was the theme and we looked at the cut-outs of Henri Matisse and examined his color and shapes for inspiration. Students learned to consider background vs. foreground, color palettes, contrast and overall balance in their composition.

Little Red by Lola V., Grade 6

Charlie S., Grade 6

Guitar by David P., Grade 6

Alexis C., Grade 6

Zeke F., Grade 6

Milo R., Grade 6

Eloise T, Grade 6

Kevin L., Grade 6

Tianzi L., Grade 6

Ryan S., Grade 6

Naya W., Grade 6

Danielle S. Grade 6

Danielle C., Grade 6

Jasmine N., Grade 6

 Nathaniel W., Grade 6