Baseball HOF 2019 Induction Trip

In honor of Edgar Martinez making it into the Baseball Hall of Fame's Class of 2019, I was able to attend the induction events and experience family bonding with my two brothers. This involved flying into Detroit, Michigan, spending the night with my older brother at his home near E. Lansing, then driving back to Detroit to retrieve my younger brother and beginning our road trip to Cooperstown, NY. Turns out that my  Michigan brother and his wife have plenty of artwork of horses and dogs, not to mention my brother's extensive collection of baseball memorabilia.

These two watercolor portraits of Whippets are amazing! The two Whippets in motion is very futuristic and reminiscent of oil paintings by Marcel Duchamp.

On our road trip, we also visited some wineries. This photo is a great example of positive-negative space. Notice how the sky creates a negative space emulating leaves.

This heron sculpture was pretty impressive as well.

Once we arrived at the HOF Museum, I headed directly to the Frank and Peggy Steele gallery. "Art of Baseball", included works by the HOF resident artist, Justyn Farano. I was able to purchase a couple of his lithographs, such as the Class of 2019 & this KGJ work.

“Casey at the Bat”, c. 1975 (1938-2005)

“Tough Call” (1948)

Here are a couple of classics by Robert Heindel (left) and Norman Rockwell (right). In my 5th-grade classes, I like to use Rockwell's "The Dugout" to teach about perspective.

"Smokey Joe Williams" (1985) 

"The Hall of Famer" (1996)

Deryl Daniel Mackie's painting (left) reminds me of those of Kehinde Wiley whose portraits had been on display at the Seattle Art Museum. You may also recognize the painting (right) by Leroy Neiman.

There is so much more I want to show, including a silkscreen of NY Mets Pitcher, Tom Seaver, by Andy Warhol, and a collage-style picture by LaVern Brock (2006) made up of thousands of baseball cards depicting Phil Niekro's jersey.

Collage Portraits with Seniors

I often do a lesson with my 5th-graders that I like to call, 'wrapping paper self-portraits'. It was inspired by artists, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gilbert Stuart, and Amedeo Modigliani's "Girl With Braids". 

Rauschenberg collages

by Vera De-Gernier

For my recent class with seniors, I decided that we would explore collage portraits using a variety of styles and methods. As the inspiration, I used Robert Rauschenberg's collages of JFK  as inspiration. I also found a mixed-media collage of Marilyn Monroe.

My own example (left) is inspired by the Baseball HOF induction of Edgar Martinez following my recent trip to Cooperstown, NY. Tissue paper is very easy to apply using liquid starch as the adhesive. Simply brush the surface of the paper with a little starch, then carefully lay cut or torn pieces of tissue where you want it and coat lightly with more starch. You don't need much starch. The less you use the quicker it will dry. As there is a tendency to use too much starch, your paper may curl and need to be lightly ironed later to flatten. Instead of regular white construction paper, we used an old pad of stiffer watercolor paper.

Here are some more examples I found on the Internet that were used to further inspire my senior students to create their own collages.

I am pleased to say that everyone went outside the box and created something completely their own. We even went high-tech with a monitor for displaying examples.

I'm excited to show the amazing results from a very successful collage portraits class. In addition to using tissue paper for the chicken (left), the artwork on the right made use of floral napkins in her collage.

This 'Gardener' (left) reminds me of the character Wilson from the old Tim Allen show, "Home Improvement". Mary's version is probably an homage to Mrs. Wilson.

The collage (right) makes use of a National Geographic photo of an archaeological dig. The artist made a collage surrounded by rocks to form a beautiful canyon setting for her landscape. The torn paper edges and range of values contribute to a balanced composition pleasing to the eye.

Judy challenged herself to make her collage from a family portrait. She placed a photo under a piece of clear acetate and began to draw the facial features using a silver Sharpie, then she pasted both torn and cut out pieces of patterned paper on as details. I suggested adding cardstock behind the decorated acetate to stabilize the work. She added the frame in a contrasting color. A truly beautiful result!!

The final portrait is very lively, complete with wonderful textures and colors. This artist found the hat (I'm guessing) in a magazine, along with several other great patterned papers. Notice the hair is actually fishes swimming in blue water. This work may look simple, but it was very well-planned and executed using contrasting colors and a variety of value and texture. The simple background makes the old man stand out. Well done!