Time for a landscape. But not the get-out-there-and-paint-what-you-see kind of landscape. Nope, no way. Instead, we collage images taken from magazines, old books, etc., to inspire a landscape painting. Once again, we are coaxed from our comfort zone, and the purpose is to help us think about composition, content and form. What emerges is a landscape that shows the different seasons of the year. There a boy ventures out into the world; a path undecided as his journey unfolds before watchful eyes. Despite my own imagined narrative, the viewer decides the story.
We begin with something made from paper, (our reference has to be small enough to hold in our hand, and from our everyday life). Then, we are to make it life-size, and build it to scale. I decide to make a super-size box of President’s Choice Mac and Cheese. Listening to the radio, I learn that Canadians consume more prepared mac and cheese than Americans. It's a cheap, convenient and conventional meal of choice. After some quick calculations, I construct and paint a REALLY BIG BOX using pieces of cardboard, and it's a lengthy process. Frankly, I never imagined building an oversized box of Mac and Cheese. When done, we take a photo of our work, installed somewhere on campus. In doing so, the idea is to assign it new meaning — a take on the work of artist Marcel Duchamp (who famously calls a urinal Fountain, and presents it as art). At the time, that's hailed as unconventional; today, not so much. Above is a photo of my box standing next to a sign with the word "conventional" (by the way, I crop out the "un" part of that word). It's a blustery day when I take this photo and to keep the box from taking flight, Jack holds it steady (he's unseen, but definitely present). Thanks Jack.
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May 2018
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