Dear Beginning IB Visual Art Students:
Ok. It’s been a couple weeks now. I hope you’ve been having fun, enjoying your summer. Admit it, though—it seems like something’s missing, doesn’t it? Well, here it is:
Your Official SUMMER ART ASSIGNMENT
…guaranteed to feed those creative fires and prepare you for the rigorous demands of the IB curriculum. If you start your artistic routine during the summer you will have a much more successful year in IB Art. The following is a necessary summer foundation to prepare you for the first year of IB art class, and involves approximately 16 hours of work. It’s not hard, and will hopefully even be enjoyable.
The first step: All of the art you make in this course over the next one or two years
will start in your sketchbook—or as IB calls it: Investigation Workbook. This is a requirement for IB art, and will become your brain, in book form.
The Investigation Workbook counts for 40% of the your grade in this course and in your final IB assessment. It is not for finished works of art. It is a collector for brainstorming, experimentation, research, exploration, journaling, reflections, and all range and manner of sketches and notes. Like your brain, the Investigation Workbook is always a work in progress and never a finished product, so it doesn’t have to be “beautiful” or “perfect.” And like your brain, you should take your book with you wherever you go, and add to it often.
If you were in my class last year you already have one of these. If not, please buy yourself a good quality sketchbook. It should be a hardcover, permanently bound 8 ½ x 11” sketchbook that contains 80 – 100 sheets of good quality blank white paper. Durability is the key—pages that are perforated or designed to tear out will not last. These are approximately $10 – $15 and are available in art stores like Pearl Art and Craft, Plaza Art, and Michael’s Art and Craft (all of which are located on Rockville Pike. There is also a Plaza Art on Georgia Ave. in downtown Silver Spring).
Your summer project has three parts:
1. Looking at art
2. Reading and thinking about artists with whom you identify
3. Recording your ideas and experiences in an Investigation Workbook
Your work on these summer assignments is due at the end of the first week of school. The assignments will be graded, and will make up a significant portion of your grade for the first marking period.
1. Museum visit: Visit at least one major metropolitan art museum this summer:
In DC: the National Gallery of Art, Hirshhorn, National Museum of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Phillips Collection, and more; in Baltimore: the Baltimore Museum of Art, Walters Art Gallery, or American Visionary Art Museum (or any other large museum or gallery in any major city in the world). Look through the entire collection. In your Investigation Workbook, write about the works that make the strongest impression on you. Why do you like them? Write down what you see in
the order you see it for each work. This will help you become aware of the different elements of design that make up each piece. Most museums will not allow you to take photos, so sketch the works into your books (usually only pencils are allowed). Be sure to include the artist, date, and what materials (media) were used. Describe what each work makes you feel and think about. (Summer expectation: 3 hours work)
2. Research artists: Go to your local bookstore and look in a current issue of an art magazine (Borders and Barnes and Noble have huge sections of these. They include: Art in America, ArtForum, Juxtapoz…) Make a list of five artists whose work really interests you. This may take more than one magazine. Write down their names and the titles of the artworks, and then write a brief explanation of what it is about the work that attracts you. Think about what you are actually seeing, and how it makes you feel. Ask yourself (and answer in your Investigation Workbook) if you would like to make something similar, and how it would relate to your own life or experiences. (Summer expectation: 3 hours work)
3. Draw and think: In your Investigation Workbook, fill at least 20 pages with the images around you. Don’t worry about making these pages “Art.” Instead, just open your senses to shapes, lines, and colors. You should draw people and objects and also collect scraps from the world around you and clippings and images from magazines and newspapers, etc. Again, these pages are not finished works of art—simply collections of your impressions from the summer. Please write and make notes directly on these drawings.
Don’t worry about whether or not you are good at drawing. You are not being graded on your ability at this point, but on your growth and process. As you work on an individual page, remember to step back from it and notice how the words and images (and blank spaces) work together to make things look interesting.
The purpose of this is to begin to notice the information and influences that surround you. In other words, to notice what it is you notice. If you do this assignment periodically throughout the summer, you will probably find it enjoyable and energizing. You will most likely see your approach to how you organize your pages change and evolve. If you do this on the night before it is due, your work will probably not show the change and growth that makes your Investigation Workbook an interesting reflection of your self. (Summer expectation: 10 hours work)
OK. Feel free to contact me with any questions, at secretlab@gmail.com. I’m in school right now, thinking about and making art, and I hope to post my experiences here, so check back if you want to. Do good work, have fun, and I’ll see you in August!
