Abstract Paintings Inspired by Jacqueline Humphries

During an "Artist Exchange" field trip at The Contemporary Arts Center, middle school students came to look at work by artists Jacqueline Humphries and James Hoff. After being lead through the galleries and practicing artistic observation and analysis, groups of students went to various arts classes including theater, creative writing, and visual arts. In the visual arts class, we did a sort of "Simon Says" of abstract painting inspired by Jacqueline Humphries' work. Supplied with oil pastels, acrylic paint, and various scratching tools, students were directed to make various types of marks and lines. They experimented with drawing while very close to the page, splattering paint on like Pollock, using stencils of dots and lines, and building up/scratching away layers. The final pieces are magic when your eyeballs dive into them.