Taking the New Year’s plunge

Yup. That's the approach of my favourite (and so far only) ECUAD teacher as we plunged right into my second semester art class, "Basic Form and Composition." Among many things I like about this teacher is her way of developing class camaraderie. Our right-off-the-bat classroom project was typical of her methods:--

It was totally fun for me to work companionably with a young woman who is honing her skills to be a tattoo artist and -- take a bow -- our composition garnered some favourable reviews in the class critique that followed. A point of focus for all of us was the importance of making the negative shapes (background) as interesting as the positive shapes themselves.

Onward, then, to a bigger and better group-generated composition. As we gathered around a large sheet of white paper on a black table-top, we were each given a handful of black paper squares of several sizes. Someone was nudged to place the first black square and then, more or less as the spirit moved us, we would each place another square with the aim of developing an engaging composition.

Our homework assignment was to do roughly the same thing --make that FOUR things -- within specifications. First, we were to prepare black paper cut-outs of a single shape (square, circle, triangle, etc.) and create a STATIC composition. You know: regular, balanced, predictable, somewhat boring. Cautioned that diagonals inherently work against "boring," I nonetheless wanted to see what I could accomplish with triangles.

Then, we were to use more cut-outs of this shape for a DYNAMIC composition full of energy and movement.

Part 2: Variations on a theme:-- Using cut-outs of several shapes, create a STATIC composition:

Then, for the fourth piece, use similar cut-outs to create a DYNAMIC composition. Here, I decided to set myself a little puzzle and cut a duplicate set of the assorted shapes -- so each composition used the same shapes to different ends.  I couldn't help but think of this twosome as "before and after the earthquake."

It's a funny thing. If you're into this kind of stuff, playing around to get the "perfect" composition can be addictive. There was something not quite right, so I added an extra piece:

And still... it wasn't quite right. So I added a second additional piece.

And then I called a firm halt -- this could have gone on for hours. Back in class, we all displayed our work and received feedback. The verdict? Not that we actually received grades, but you could consider mine to be a bunch of F's.

F = Fail, for the upper left (single shape, static). Waaaaaay too dynamic!
F = "Fantastic," (direct quote from my teacher) for the upper right
F = Flawed, lower left -- too much negative space surrounding the blocks; needs a little more F-for-Fiddling.
F = Frivolous but promising, for the lower right

Nonetheless, I had lots of F-for-Fun. Give me a piece of paper, a marker or pair of scissors, and I'm happy.