Using found objects to make art is a great way to stretch your imagination. It involves taking materials designed for one purpose and using them for another. One of the most famous examples is Pablo Picasso’s Bull’s Head, made from a bicycle saddle and handlebars. It’s such a simple and humorous idea, but someone had to think of it. The challenge here is to make a robot sculpture using only found objects in metal. Let the games begin!
Filed under Pablo Picasso, recycling, sculpture
Image: http://justin.elven.ca
The illustrator and cartoonist Michael Mathias Prechtl made this poster for the G. Schirmer music store in New York, back in 1974. When I recently saw it in an old graphic design book, I realized it was time to spice up the traditional self portrait. If Beethoven could have his head exploding with women and music, children could also have things they enjoy tumbling out of their head. Imagine the possibilities.
Filed under drawing
Baigneuse et Profil by Pablo Picasso, 1930. Photo:http://picasso-paris.videomuseum.fr
When you consider Picasso’s body of work, three dimensional pieces in sand don’t usually come to mind. So this turned out to be a surprising discovery I made when visiting the Musée National Picasso in Paris a few years ago. Click on the link and select ‘oeuvre en 3 dimensions’ to have a look at the other seven works in this series, and for inspiration to make your own version. Here’s a quote from Picasso which nicely explains why we shouldn’t be surprised by his explorations:
“When you come to think of it, I am probably a painter without style. ‘Style’ is often something that ties the artist down and makes him look at things in one particular way, the same technique, the same formulas, year after year, sometimes for a whole lifetime. You recognize him immediately, for he is always in the same suit, or a suit of the same cut. There are, of course, great painters who have a certain style. However, I always thrash about rather wildly. I am a bit of a tramp. You can see me at this moment, but I have already changed, I am already somewhere else. I can never be tied down, and that is why I have no style,” Picasso wrote. (http://www.abcgallery.com/P/picasso/picassobio.html)
Filed under Artists, Pablo Picasso
Charlene by Robert Rauschenberg, 1954. Photo from: http://sauer-thompson.com
This type of collage is referred to as assemblage or ‘combine’ and involves combining objects not normally used as art materials, on painted canvas surfaces. If you look carefully at the image above by American artist Robert Rauschenberg, you will notice pieces of cloth, newspapers, and even a flattened umbrella.
Now it’s your turn to look around your environment, and think about what you might like to combine on a canvas. As the title of this post implies, anything goes!
Filed under assemblage, collage
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