Friday, August 25, 2017

Trump (Shared Spaces)

Shared Spaces is an annual art show run and set up at Nazareth College. Local Art Teachers pair up with seniors at their respective schools, and produce a piece of art work. Sometimes these pieces will have a common theme or media, sometimes, they won't.

The artist/senior that I picked was Matt Burns. He was taking my CGA (Computer Generated Art) class and a colleague thought he would be a good fit. After talking with Matt we decided to come up with a theme to work from in order to make our work cohesive. During the '16 election it was very well known that Matt was a Trump supporter and I was not. So I thought the theme of "Trump"--one piece from a "positive" viewpoint, and one from the "negative".

I started my piece showing Mr. Trump as a clown, yelling in a cartoon-ish manner while also showing some realism. I opted to use colored pencils on a large 24"x24" piece of wood. I also added a map in the background--scrounged from a dumpster, a little gold leaf, and some inkjet transfer.

Up until this point the last time I had used colored pencils was in my 8th grade Studio Art class. I never liked the painstaking precision of colored pencils, or the slow application of layer after layer. I decided to give them a try for the first time in forever and give them a second chance.

Matt, on the other hand, struggled with his side of the "Trump" theme. He started and re-started with no real passion for his idea. Then with about a week to go he showed me the start of his idea on a large 24"x24" piece of plywood! He too was using colored pencils, and instead of Trump, he went with Hillary adding a spin from a 1980's cult classic They Live.

(Matt will be attending Cleveland Institute of Art in the fall)














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