Chapter 5: Lesson 1: The Process of Art Making and Acts of Appropriation

Soul making (Art Making)

Art making is a fun and rewarding way for people to express themselves and to learn a broad range of skills and
concepts. In making art students explore the materials and techniques used by artist and architects and
experience the decision-making practices that artist have used over the centuries.
When students make art, they have the opportunity to express their feeling, fantasize, tell stories and give their
ideas concrete form. They can reflect and draw upon their everyday experiences and observations. Students find
relationships between objects, consider alternatives and make choices. They identify with ideas and feelings
explored and expressed by well-known artists.
Working in groups offers opportunities for shared risk taking and completing works through team-works,
cooperation and the exchange of ideas.
THE ART MAKING PROCESS
In the art making process students receive guided instruction on how to start and finish a typical art project
using efficiency and best practices.
Phase One – begins with sketching, grid lining, drawing or filling in under paintings. In this phase students
learn about introductory best practices on techniques and approaches and understanding the art concepts.
Phase Two- including adding multiple layers of tone, color or paint within an artwork. Here, students are
required to problem solve are encouraged in their art to explore, manipulate and master technique-based art
applications.
Phase Three- ends with students adding final detail and craftmanship showcasing their finished projects. This
includes demonstrating the understanding of the art elements, habits of mind and effort, communication skills,
habits of work, composition concepts and execution into a well-crafted project.
STAGES OF ART MAKING
Art doesn't just happen. Whether it's a simple line drawing or an involved, realistic painting, there is a definite
trajectory to the creative process. Beginning with the spark of inspiration and finishing with the completion of a
work, this illustrated guide portrays the five stages of creating art.
Here are five stages of creating art…
1. Inspiration - This is one of the most exciting moments in the process or creating art: that beautiful
moment when inspiration strikes. Where does inspiration come from? Well, that's a subject that has
baffled and mystified people for centuries.
Perhaps it's a film or piece of fine art that inspires you, perhaps it's something from nature or an event that
has occurred in your life. Sometimes, an idea seems to come out of nowhere. Wherever ideas come from,
they have an uncanny way of striking at the oddest moments while waiting for the bus, in the middle of rush
hour, or while you're in the bath.
2. Percolation - While it’s not the most glamorous part of the creative process, the percolation period is
vital to creating art. Basically, this is the time that elapses after you’ve had your idea, but before you
start making art. It can transpire in many different ways. Sometimes this involves refining your idea by
making sketches and tossing out just as many or playing around with ideas visually.
 Other times, it’s just a matter of giving an idea space to germinate. Sometimes, you may have an idea year
before you create the piece of artwork it inspired. It doesn’t t mean you've been resting on your laurels that
entire time, though. There's part of you that is always processing and refining your idea.
3. Preparation - Preparation can be confused with the "percolation” period, but it is a more active and
focused time. You've settled on your inspiration and how you'd like to proceed. Now, it's a matter of
figuring out how to make it happen.
Preparation includes the time spent obtaining and organizing your supplies, plus creating a blueprint for
what your piece will be. Maybe that means making roughs or creating a dummy outline for a book project.
4. Creation - Finally, it's time to make it happen! Creation is the time during which you are solidly on
your path. You have your pen to paper, your brush to canvas. You are creating. The process of creation
can vary depending on your personal temperament, your artistic style and your medium.
For some, the process of creation is actually quite short and much of the work has been done in the previous
phases for instance, a simple line drawing. While it might take minutes to complete the drawing the thought
and time developing that idea was the more time-consuming part of that project. For a detailed painting, it
might be just the opposite - you might spend hours, days or weeks refining the perfect light on a realistically
painted flower petal in oil.
5. Reflection - After you create a piece of art, there might be a slight tizzy of activity: sharing it with
family and friends, delivering it to a client or hanging it on the wall. But regardless of the end point of
the art, its completion often leads to a period of reflection.
This reflection will be different for everyone. For some artists, there's a sort of low-grade post-creative
depression that occurs, making them feel a little empty and "spent”.
For others, there's relief: "it's done! I can move on to the next thing!" For others, there are regrets: "I wish I
had made this line longer, I wish I had made that part of the composition blue." Regardless of how it feels to
create a piece, though, its completion is a milestone. But your creative work isn't done forever: it won't be
too long before the entire cycle begins again!
Seven Da Vincian Principle
One of the biggest questions about innovation is “how do we maintain it over time?" After all, there are lots of
one hit wonders, but only a few people can continue to come up with innovative ideas on an ongoing basis.
While it would be impossible to do justice to this genius in one blog post, hereunder is the Seven Da Vincian
Principles that help define da Vinci's approach to life and as such innovation (Gelb, 1998). Those seven
principles are:
1. Curiosita (Curiosity): An insatiable curious approach to life and unrelenting quest for continuous learning.
Da Vinci was most curious person. Higher the curiosity is higher is the chance of becoming successful.
2. Dimonstrazione (Demonstration): A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence and a
willingness to learn from past mistakes. Da Vinci used to test or experience any knowledge learned. Practical
knowledge is better than theory. This will create more ideas.
3. Sensazione (Sensation): Continual refinement of the senses as the means to enliven experience. To be
innovative we must be aware of what is going on around us. To be innovative we must be aware of what is
going on around us for example active listening.
 4. Sfumato (Going Up in Smoke): The literal translation for this term is going up in smoke. It is about our
willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox and uncertainty. As the old saying goes, the only two things that are
certain in business are uncertainty and change.
5. Arte/Scienza (Art and Science): Developing a balance between logic and imagination. After all,
imagination without logic is day dreaming, and logic without imagination is boring. Da Vinci gave equal
importance to both Art and Science.
6. Corporalita (Of the Body): This is about maintaining a healthy body as well as a healthy mind. This is
about maintaining a healthy body as well as a healthy mind. No person with only healthy mind can be creative.
7. Connessione (Connection): This is the simple recognition of the interconnectedness of all things and
phenomena. As we talked about early on, it isn't always just an issue of coming up with something totally new
sometimes it is about seeing the links between how to use old things in new ways.
Acts of Cultural Appropriation
Cultural Appropriation it is when someone adopts something from a culture that is not his or her own – a
hairstyle, a piece of clothing, a manner of speaking, even a type of exercise.
Cultural appropriation is a concept in sociology dealing with the adoption or the elements of a minority
culture by members of the dominant culture (Young 2010). It is distinguished from equal cultural exchange due
to the presence of a colonial element and imbalance of power.
We live in a culture that overflows with images and objects. From television to the Internet, from the mall to the
junkyard, we are surrounded by words, images, and objects that are cheap, or free and throwaway. It is not
surprising that artists today incorporate this stuff into their creative expression.
Appropriation is the practice of creating new work by taking a preexisting image from another source - art
history books, advertisements, the media - and transforming or combining it with new ones. The three-
dimensional version of appropriation is the use of found objects in art. A found object is an existing object often
a mundane manufactured product-given a new identity as an artwork or part of an artwork.
Cultural appropriation can involve the use of ideas, symbols, artifacts, or other aspects of human-made visual or
non-visual culture (Schneider, 2003). Cultural appropriation is often portrayed as harmful in contemporary
cultures, and is claimed to be a violation of the collective intellectual property rights of the originating, minority
cultures, notably indigenous cultures and those living under colonial rule.
Often unavoidable when multiple cultures come together, cultural appropriation can include using other
cultures cultural and religious traditions, fashion, symbols, language, and songs Often, the original meaning of
these cultural elements is lost or distorted, and such displays are often viewed as disrespectful, or even as a form
of desecration, by members of the originating culture.
The differences between types of appropriation are crucial in determining whether and how an instance of
appropriation is objectionable. There are at least five quite different sorts of activity called cultural
appropriation:
1. Object Appropriation - This appropriation occurs when the possession of a tangible object (such as a
sculpture) is transferred from members of one culture to members of another culture. The removal of the
decorations from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin is often regarded as a case of material appropriation. The
transfer of a totem pole from the site of a Haida village to a museum is another case of material
appropriation.
2. Content Appropriation - This form of appropriation involves the reproduction, by a member of one
culture, of non-tangible works of art (such as stories, musical compositions or dramatic works) produced by
some other culture. A musician who sings the songs of another culture has engaged in non-material
appropriation, as has the writer who retells stories produced by a culture other than his own. The
Lettermen's rendition of Dahil Sa Iyo could be an instance of content appropriation.
3. Stylistic Appropriation - Sometimes artists do not reproduce works produced by another culture, but
still take something from that culture. In such cases, artists produce works with stylistic elements in
common with the works of another culture. White musicians who compose jazz or blues music are often
said to have engaged in appropriation in this sense. Similarly, white Australians who paint in the style of the
aboriginal peoples would be engaged in stylistic appropriation. The use of coat and tie by Filipinos is
another example.
4. Motif Appropriation - This form is related to stylistic appropriation. Sometimes artists are influenced by
the art of a culture other than their own without creating works in the same style. Picasso, for example, was
influenced by African carving, but his works are not in an African style. Similarly, Ravel was influenced by
the jazz of African-Americans, but his compositions are not in a jazz idiom. Rather than appropriating an
entire style, such artists have appropriated only basic ideas or motifs.
5. Subject appropriation - This occurs when someone from one culture represents members or aspects of
another culture. Many of Joseph Conrad's novels involve subject appropriation, since Conrad frequently
wrote about cultures other than his own. W. P. Kinsella's stories about the Hobbema Indian reserve are often
cited as examples of objectionable subject appropriation.
Many people who have written on cultural appropriation have not been sensitive to the difference between
the various types of appropriation. Reasons may exist for thinking that instances of one sort of appropriation
are objectionable. The same reasons may be unable to show that another sort of appropriation is in the least
problematic.
Nevertheless, artists do make ethical decisions in such areas as the appropriation of others work, what
materials they use in their work and how they use them, the digital manipulation of their work, and what
role they play as observers of the events they capture in their art. And, as we have seen, museums and other
places in which art is exhibited play distinct roles and have responsibilities in how art is preserved,
interpreted, and displayed