Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Rizzi for Realz.

'Scuse the lame-o blog title, but that's all I got folks.  Super pumped about my next artist, as my good friend (and colleague) and I will be discussing this artist's work in March at the National Art Education Convention.  Super stoked about this trip to Cali!

James Rizzi was an American pop artist who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.  I fell in love with his work when I traveled to Germany a few years back and saw his Braunschweig Happy Haus.

This dude was THE original hipster.  He dug art, women, and cigarettes (I didn't share those last two facts with my students).


His work is often compared to a cross between Hanna Barbera cartoons and Picasso.  My students were intrigued by the personality of his buildings and his poppy colors.  Rizzi's work is so kid-friendly, the art kiddos couldn't get enough.  This awesome artist drove a personalized VW bug.  Plus, Rizzi's personal style is outstanding.   I mean, for reals dude.  His Converse match his shirt, and that fedora is killin' me Smalls!



Materials:
  • scissors
  • glue
  • pencils
  • tempera paint (cool colors for sky and black)
  • splatter box to create "lightning" in the sky effects
  • brushes -- thick (background) and thin (outlining the buildings)
  • acrylic-painted laminating scrap papers (leftovers from a previous project I'll blog about later)
  • encyclopedia pages
Objective:

Students are to create a Rizzi-inspired skyline using overlapping and incorporating the elements of foreground, background, and mid-ground by using recycled materials to effectively utilize the positive and negative space.






Beautiful little bluebird just chillin'

This student tried to glue on her buildings while the background was still wet.  This "oops" resulted in a cool textured effect on the buildings.

I love how eerie this one is with the figureheads leering out of the windows.


The Rizzi skylines were on display with some 3rd grade Matisse collages for the 3rd/4th grade Fine Arts Jazz Night.  It sure was JAZZY!


 



For the love of Rizzi, have fun young artists!

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