Portfolio Class Update

I think we had a very enlightening Portfolio day and I look forward to reading your reflection papers.

Below are some important dates (they will also be found on the calendar link):

Wednesday, 11/26/08: New or updated project proposal due. Must be word-processed and follow the format.

Monday, 12/1/08: National Portfolio Day reflection paper due. Must be word-processed and approximately one page in length.

Tuesday, 12/9/08: Community Connection #1 due. Must be word-processed and follow the format.

Tuesday, 1/6/09: Community Connection #2 due. Must be word-processed and follow the format.

Thursday, 1/15/09: Sketchbooks due.

Tuesday, 1/20/09: Portfolio Self-Assessment papers due. Must be word-processed. Do not forget to state the grade you think you deserve and rationalize your logic.

National Portfolio Day

Philadelphia Portfolio day

National Portfolio Day Association

All of my Portfolio students are required to attend the National Portfolio Day in Philadelphia on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008.  Note: this is a requirement regardless of your feelings about majoring in art in college. If you do not wish to get feedback on your work that is fine, but you are still required to attend and to report on the experience in a paper.

Due: Monday, December 1, 2008 – Reflection paper about your experience at the event 

Where: Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch St,. Philadelphia, 19107

When: Sunday 23, 2008

Time: 12:00 – 4:00

What: Many accredited colleges of art and colleges with strong art departments will have admissions representatives available to review portfolios, give advice and to describe their programs of study.

Tips: Don’t take more than 20 -25 pieces, but make sure it is your best work. It is better to have fewer pieces of quality work. Arrive early and consider who you want to visit first. Popular schools will have long lines. Be prepared to wait – bring your iPods, sketchbooks or something to keep you occupied.

Information Distribution Systems: Cubism as Visual Language

Note: This assignment has been revised as of Wednesday, 11/19/08.

George Braque: Violin and Candlestick (1910)

Prompt Paper question (due Monday, 11/17/08 ): How was Cubism viewed as a “new visual language, fragmented, simultaneously disintegrating & re-forming*”? What were two influences on this development? Compare and contrast the two primary manifestations of this language.

*Atkins, R. (1993). Artspoke: A guide to modern ideas, movements & buzzwords, 1848 – 1944. (p.83).

Assignment (due: Thursday, 12/4/08): Students will complete one work of art and be prepared to discuss and rationalize evidence of Analytic and/or Synthetic Cubism.

The still life as viewed through the lens of Cubism.

• Oil pastel, chalk pastel, acrylic paint, collage
• No smaller than 24″x36″ for double period students or 18″x24″ for single period students

Rationale paper (due: Thursday, 12/4/08) Must be word-processed.

Pablo Picasso: Pipe, Glass, Bottle of Vieux Marc (1914)

It is helpful to have historical context to understand how events and discoveries influence each other. Cubism was developed at a time in which many changes were occurring in the world at a very rapid pace. Cubism was a brand new visual language that abandoned the five-hundred-year-old system of perspective and the related conventions for representing reality that had become synonymous with painting in the west. Illusionism – the convincing depiction of nature – was jettisoned for a more conceptual approach that regarded painting less as a window onto the world than as a subjective response to the world. Picasso and Braque considered their work “realistic” (that is intellectually and emotionally truthful) and rejected complete abstracyion as a solution to the problem of visually communicating the essence of modern life.

*Atkins, R. (1993). Artspoke: A guide to modern ideas, movements & buzzwords, 1848 – 1944. (p.83).