5th
Art Obama
As a drawing instructor at UNLV, I typically teach a group twenty, mostly young students the basics of drawing. We begin with renderings in charcoal of geometrically shaped forms, then progress to bottles and various objects. Throughout the term my students grapple with the challenge of making a believable three-dimensional world in two-dimensions. Towards the end of the semester I always sense my students need a change of pace, so I task them with finding photographs of objects and people that interest them, then cutting and pasting them into a collage on which a final drawing is based. This assignment usually elicits an enthusiasm often in short supply the rest of the term. But this past semester that would be an understatement because it happened to coincide with the historic election of Barack Obama. The day after the election my students could barely contain their joy. You could see it in their faces and feel the electricity in the room. Young people like my students were involved in this election to an unprecedented degree and felt they had a stake in its outcome. How serendipitous that they were free to express artistically their pride and elation at this momentous time. They tirelessly combed through magazines and newspapers to find pictures of Obama and even members of his family which they incorporated into their collages.
Art happens when something a person feels deeply, often unconsciously finds expression through his or her chosen medium and touches another person’s soul. I’d love to share with you some photos of my students and their drawings in progress. Although they are not technically proficient, I think you can feel the love. What do you think?
