Global Collaboration

In the second unit of If These Walls Could Talk, which is an art history elective I learned about murals in the 20th and 21st centuries and how different materials were used to create the artwork. I also learned about different artist that lived during those years and how materials changed over time. Specifically, I learned a lot about contemporary artists like JR and Shepard Fairey, who are two of my favorite artists. For the second Action Project, we were put in a groups and had to come up with an idea of a mural that will be installed in our school’s new space. We experimented with different artistic media and techniques to create materials swatches to help us determine which would work best in creating our final mural. In the end, we chose wheatpaste and mosaic because we all like how they looked on the swatches. I enjoyed creating my swatches and working with the technique I chose. However, working in my group was challenging because we all had disagreements and we had a hard time working with each other. But at the end, we all came together and found what we wanted.

Created by JV, RD, GN, MV, DR, 2015*

Name:JV
Title: Global Collaboration
Date: 12/10/15
Measurement: 3.4 by 11 and 3.4 by 11

The image that my group and I created is a series of three faces created using the facial features from the members of my group. In the background, we incorporated parts of the globe to show how we are from all over the world. This is a tribute mural that represents us as students at GCE, how we are a community and to show us as global citizens. We wanted to create something interesting yet eye-catching. We chose to use JR’s Face2Face idea, which is to print out black and white faces and wheat paste them to a canvas. The swatches that we did all came out good in fact, they came out better than I expected. I worked with wheatpaste also known as flour paste, which is like a gel adhesive made from flour or starch and water. It has been used to create all different types of artwork. It is really easy to work with, all I had to do was apply paste to the surface, put down image over paste. Apply paste over the image this seals the image and protects it. Wheatpaste is my favorite type of medium to work with because of how simple it is to make and how inexpensive it is. I appreciate being able to make it myself with simply water and flour and the glossy finish it leaves on the printed images. 

After completing all of our swatches, my group chose to use wheatpaste and mosaic in our final mural. My group chose to work with wheat paste and mosaic, we choose these two because we liked how the swatches came out and we think the final piece will look good with our combined faces wheat pasted on the canvas and having a mosaic design around the face representing parts of the globe. I think our final mural is going to come really cool and I can’t wait to see it in our new space.

Created by MV, Mosaic.

Created by JV, Wheatpaste, 2015*

Wicker

My elective term class is called, If Theses Walls Could Talk. Which is a art class that I am taking to learn more art history; and learning about murals, to help us build our new school space and add murals in our building. We learned about Prehistory, Egyptian, Greek, and Renaissance art to better understand how art came about and how it changed over time. The first Action Project we had to create our own mural based on an neighborhood in Chicago, we had to create a mural that show what we think that neighborhood needs. I picked Wicker Park because I really like that area, and I wanted to do a tribute mural for it showing all cools pieces of art that I have seen and putting all of them together to make one mural. What I struggled with this project was staying trying to stick with one topic. What I enjoyed was making my mural. 

JV

11/2015
Wicker 11” x 14”
Photoshop. 

Wicker Park is a Chicago neighborhood located northwest of the Loop, south of Bucktown and west of Pulaski Park. Wicker Park is named after two real-life people. The first actual “hipsters” because they created the coolest part of Chicago and this area became well known because of Charles and Joel Wicker were two Chicago businessmen, who helped build the city during the late 1800’s. The two brothers bought 80 acres of land off Milwaukee Ave around 1868. And they donated 4 acres to Chicago Public Park. But in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed some of the area. After the fire, the neighborhood started building new houses and created many jobs that helped European immigrants.

Today, Wicker Park continues to grow as a community. Not only does Wicker Park have cool murals all around the neighborhood. Art is also a big theme in the area, I feel like art brings the community together, and brings life and color. Many artist live in Wicker Park but they don’t get recognized for the amazing work they are doing. Wicker Park is filled with the coolest hipsters that stay up-to-date with fashion and have cool looking styles, which brings a unique life to the area I think it brings youth together instead of going against each other. Since Wicker Park has clothing stores more teenagers tend to shop in that area, and by that many meet new people which is the culture of the neighborhood. Wicker Park also has really good restaurants, which brings more people to come check out the neighborhood and also bring more business. Wicker Park is becoming a big tourist spot. Wicker Park was named the #4 hippest neighborhood in the country. The total population in Wicker Park is 52,131. Every year in July the Wicker Park Fest is held, which brings people from all around to enjoy music, food, and good vibes.

The mural I chose to do is a tribute because I want to show my love for Wicker Park, I also want to make Wicker Park more known. I feel like a lot of people in Chicago don’t know about this area and a lot don’t know about why murals are made and what the purpose of art in a neighborhood. I like how Wicker Park has such good vibes and feels like a community so many people are just walking around and talking. I want to show how I feel in Wicker Park and how I see it as such a cool part of my city. My mural is going to be created using photoshop. I will be putting all the murals that I have seen in Wicker Park to create my own and to show the work of the ones who created these murals in their neighborhood . I think this will be cool because I will be using the purpose of the Renaissance as inspiration for why I am creating this piece of artwork. The Renaissance was a new era of life because before art was just flat, it had no depth everything was the same size. Paintings became more cool by adding depth and a horizon line, creating a art piece that is appealing to the eye with colors, depth, and style. I want to use a lot elements like that in my mural, I plan to use colors I want to use these sets of eyes, that are to show everything I see in Wicker Park. I want to repeat images to create depth and make it look unique. Im also going to use this art piece of this little character that I see all around the neighborhood. I think he look really cool and I only see him in Wicker Park. I added "We Can Donut" because my favorite donut shop is in Wicker Park, and I also added a girl in the confer to represent fashion. I really like creating my mural and I think it looks pretty cool.