After viewing Janice Rahns Composition in the Shape of a Pod: surrounded by

exquisite detail, Art 20 students will be asked to do three assignments that allow them to
explore multiple mediums through found item compositions, drawing, and sculpture.
These assignments will be developed with thought towards the theme Cabinet of
Curiosities and will emphasize the relationship between multiple mediums and
materials and how this relationship can be used to tell a narrative.
Students will be asked to pay careful attention to the materials and items they gather in
the first assignment as this will set the base of the narrative within their cabinet of
curiosities. They will also need to be attentive to compositional properties of this
assignment. How much thought is put into gathering and arranging the items will
determine the success of the relationships between the items and thereby the narrative.
This assignment will develop students compositional skills and their ability to work
favorably with spontaneity.
They will then be asked to draw studies of these items in such a way that allows them to
emphasize details that highlight their items unique qualities that contribute to the
narrative they wish to portray. Students will investigate the effects of perspective,
proportion, and points of view and how they change the narrative and drawing
investigation.
Finally, students will be asked to bring life to one of the details from the second
assignment that embodies their narrative in a sculpture. This assignment is heavily
reliant on students ability to deeply investigate the details of their first composition. This
final assignment is an opportunity to distort two dimensional images into a physical
form.
By asking the students to study multiple mediums, they practice skills that may be
unfamiliar or completely unknown to them, thereby broadening their artistic capacities.
We have included the narrative requirement so students may explore more deeply how
relationships between items and pieces may function in total unison. The assignments
scaffold upon themselves, further emphasizing the importance of relationships. Because
such strong relationship exist between the three assignments, students will be asked in
a future unit to investigate the art of displaying their pieces as a whole in an art gallery.

Assignment 1. Shadow box

Students will be asked to collect five to twenty items to fit within a provided shadow box. After
investigating relationships between these items, they will arrange them in the shadow box so
that a narrative emerges. Consideration to negative and positive form and composition will be
key to effectively communicating their narrative and relationships between items selected. They
will be shown works by Joseph Cornell, Mickalene Thomas, and Julian Schnabel for inspiration
and discussion.

Step 1.
Collect a variety of objects that will fit in a shadow box
A minimum of 5 objects, maximum of 20
Step 2.
Create or determine a narrative/ relationship of the objects you selected
Step3.
Design and create a display of the objects
Consider the negative space between objects as well as the positive forms
Assignment 2. Observational studies
Students will be shown works by Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol and asked to
make five to seven thumb-nail sketches in their sketchbooks of their compositions from
Assignment 1. These sketches should study details that highlight the relationships that
contribute to the overall narrative of their composition.
They will then choose three of these thumbnail sketches and draw them as 4x4 studies on a
single sheet of drawing paper.

Step 1.
Students will be asked to do 5-7 thumbnail sketches form segments of their shadow box in their
sketch books
Step 2.
Students will be asked to pick their 3 favorite thumbnail sketches to draw as a collection of three
4x4 studies on the same sheet of paper

Assignment 3. Sculpture
After a viewing and class discussion of the works of Jeff Koons, Damian Ortega, Andrea Kraft,
students will be asked to select one of the studies from Assignment 2 and create a sculpture
that reflects the study. Students may use any medium they chose for the sculpture other than
found objects.

Step 1.
Select one your final drawings to sculpt
Determine if it will be realistic or abstract, explain why
Size and medium is open (ceramic, plaster, wire, papier-mch, textiles