Making the ordinary special.

Making the ordinary special. Repetition in our society might suggest monotony and boredom, yetthere have been artists who have skillfully painted the mundane. GeorgeTooker (b. 1920), for one, painted people seemingly similar inappearance, going in and out of cubicles, doors and other confiningspaces, much like automatons following a preordained, mechanical dance.Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American painter and printmaker. His works represented light as it is reflected off of familiar objects. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in (1882-1967) also staged wonderful sets showing peopletogether, yet isolated, in the same environment. One artist who also used repetition in his work, but showed farfrom the "ordinary" was California figurative artist, WayneThiebaud Wayne Thiebaud (born Mesa, Arizona, November 23, 1920) is an American painter whose most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, toys and lipsticks. His last name is pronounced "Tee-bo. (b. 1920). Thiebaud's work has depicted the everyday: foodas seen in a dinette's glass cases; pies and cakes in rows;lipsticks in a variety of shades. These subjects have led people toconsider him a Pop artist because he took his subjects from our popularculture, from the available, from the usual. The distinction with Thiebaud is his painterly paint��er��ly?adj.1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a painter; artistic.2. a. Having qualities unique to the art of painting.b. technique, his useof color not of the white race; - commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed.See also: Color , his incredible shadows, luscious with color, and his skillful skill��ful?adj.1. Possessing or exercising skill; expert. See Synonyms at proficient.2. Characterized by, exhibiting, or requiring skill. handling and manipulation of paint. I have appreciated his work for manyyears and, in honor of his work, I had my beginning painters consider"ordinary" subjects and how they might glorify what we see inpassing--what we usually take for granted, never considering it asviable subject matter. I brought in a book on Thiebaud so my students could see his work.We then set out on our journey in finding something that could be oursubjects. We brainstormed as a group, and several of the students cameup with great ideas. I had thought this out earlier myself, in mytraditional summer-planning stages, and had considered a display ofwigs, bottles and spools of thread for my own choices. It was the spools of thread I finally decided on. My sewing kit,which is a harvest gold plastic number (unused relic of the 1970s), hasa variety of threads. Some old wooden spools are tall and thin, whileothers are quite small and made out of Styrofoam[R]. There's a fewmid-sized wooden ones and some very small black-plastic spools that hadcome in a plastic travel pouch, now long lost. I painted a watercolor sketch to show my students how I had goneabout composing the space of my composition, and then I started a largeoil in class to show them my planning and thought-process stages, andhow the painting might materialize. Like Thiebaud, I applied a thick, scumbled background over thesurface (in this case, corrugated cardboard that had been gessoedfirst). I then started painting the spools. My students saw my choice ofspools, the material they were made of and the colors of the threadshimmering shim��mer?intr.v. shim��mered, shim��mer��ing, shim��mers1. To shine with a subdued flickering light. See Synonyms at flash.2. on them. They watched my preliminary demo, then set to work on their ownpaintings. Several chose food-related objects, like Thiebaud who paintedpies and cakes, sliced or whole. But my clever students searched throughmagazines for specialty desserts, Popsicles[R] and taffy TaffyWelshman who “stole a piece of beef.” [Nurs. Rhyme: Baring Gould, 72–73]See : Thievery apples. Onestudent chose Hershey[R] kisses, while another chose lollipops. One ofmy favorites--not edible at all--is an array of colored pastel sticks.Still another still life consisted of lipsticks. In all, they did a wonderful job of painting some interestingsubjects with nice applications of paint. Their subjects were"ordinary" yet uniquely handled, with interesting castshadows. They employed great color within the shadows, rather than aboring dark hole in the table's surface to suggest shadow. Their compositions are colorful and uniquely individual. We learneda little about another artist and how he worked. We learned to add ascumbling technique as another way of suggesting texture and employedthe term impasto impasto(ĭmpăs`tō, –pä`stō), thickly applied paint that projects from the picture surface. Such works as Childe Hassam's Allies Day (1917; National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C. with our thick build-up of paint--two vocabulary wordsthat are on our 80-term list. We'll certainly remember the meaningsof these words because we now understand their application. I was delighted with our Thiebaud-esque compositions. Passersbyhave appreciated our paintings, exhibited in my lighted displaycabinets. They stop, stare and drool over the luscious, frosting-likeapplication of paint. It's almost as though people are looking intoa bakery window or, like Thiebaud, scanning the dinette's glasscases, trying to choose a tasty treat. Our paintings have taken theordinary and have made them extraordinary. A feast for the eye. Yum! Now retired from teaching, Arts & Activities ContributingEditor Geri Greenman wrote this article when she was art-department headat Willow-brook High School in Villa Park, Ill.