gideon rubin inspired self portrait pillows

Have I mentioned what a huge fan I am of the work of Contemporary Artist Gideon Rubin?

This will be the second time I have introduced his work to children at the studio. The first time was with this printmaking project.

This time I had the young artist who were participating in the Contemporary Art themed camp focus on creating a self portrait inspired by Rubin. Also after hearing loud and clear from the campers in the Textile and Paint camp that they would love to do more work on pillows and such to put on their bed, I had the children create their inspired Rubin self portraits on canvas bags that I then turned into pillows.

I always find it interesting how children respond to his work. The idea that the facial features are left off the piece is difficult for some of them to accept, for others there is a great relief knowing they won't have to face the challenge of getting their eyes, nose and mouth correctly in the portrait.

Each child created a sketch on paper and once they were happy with their sketch, we transferred it onto the canvas bag using graphite paper. They then began adding acrylic paint that was watered down slightly, to help it move easier, onto the bag.

The results were lovely and caught the essence of each child perfectly.

9 year old

If you knew this young girl, you would be amazed at how accurately she captured the posture of how she holds her shoulders and the essence of her hair. There is no doubt who this portrait belongs to when you know the child.

7 year old

10 year old

The same can be said for these two young artist also.

7 year old

Of course some children needed to add their own twist to their portraits! Like these bunny ears added to this sweet portrait. And yes, her hair is that long and thick! 

9 year old

And then there were the two young artist who could not deal with not having facial features. I think he captured his feelings about my encouraging words to capture their portraits without facial features. 

He was not amused.

6 year old

The youngest artist did not want a pillow. She was quite excited to have a bag to carry to school. And no, I have not reversed the image. I am always impressed when children write their names so easily backwards! I don't know what possesses them to do it but she did that freehand and I think that is no easy task to do. She has this beautiful head of curly locks and I just smile at the way she decided to interpret this feature in paint.

I hope the kids enjoy these pillows for years to come. It was a lot of fun watching the kids create them.

Gideon Rubin inspired portraits and other gelatin prints

I have been fascinated by the work of Gideon Rubin for some time now and when the curator of Seymour Art Gallery gifted me some photographs from her family collection of people no one no longer remembers, a project was born.

I am fascinated by old photographs, especially ones found in thrift stores and flea markets where the people no longer have names but just reference a moment in time. That is probably why I find Gideon Rubin's work so appealing, faceless portraits from another time.

class of 1947, Gideon Rubin

When I pulled out the photographs for the preteen class to look at, they were fascinated by the story about no one remembering the people within the photos. They spent a lot of time looking at them and made a connection that many of the photos were of the same two people throughout their lifetime. The girls decided they were brother and sister.  

Two of the students settled in on a couple of photos they wanted to use to create a gelatin monoprint inspired by the work of Rubin while the others focused in on creating some animal mono prints.

work in progress, 11 year old

These gelatin plates are something I made last fall and I cannot believe after all the projects throughout the year that they are still holding up great. They have been such a great addition to the studio and I cannot recommend adding them enough to your supply list. They are so easy to make too.

Believe it or not, the 11 year old was not very happy with this work of the little girl she created. She felt she ended up looking "fat" and not nearly as cute as the picture that had won over her heart.

11 year old

She was so frustrated in fact that once she pulled the print, I had her move on to an animal portrait in order for her to end the project on a positive note.

11 year old

Personally I loved her portrait inspired by Gideon Rubin, but at the end of the day it is not about what I like and so I am quite pleased she is so happy with her final animal print and hope one day she looks back on the portrait and realizes it is quite wonderful too.

On the other hand, this 10 year old artist was beyond pleased with her final Gideon Rubin inspired portrait.

10 year old

She chose this portrait of a woman because she really liked the hairstyle. I think she got such a wonderful monoprint from it. I'm not sure her mom "got it" at first, but the artist was so pleased at the end and in love with her work, which made me so very happy.

10 year old, portrait of a woman

She had quite a bit of time left in class after creating this piece and so her attention then turned to her favorite subject in the world, cats.

10 year old

Another artist who left the studio that night quite proud of her work was this 11 year old. I have no doubt this lovely horse is going to find a special spot in her home. She worked so hard on it.

11 year old

I always have the kids pull the ghost print with the leftover ink on the plates. Sometimes they are wonderful and the kids actually like them more than the original and sometimes they are "eh", but I do find students are always quite excited to find out what might be pulled with the leftover ink at the end.

In this case, the artist loved her ghost print.

Cats were the de rigueur of the day. They were also the focus of the 12 year old in the class.

12 year old

Those eyes! Who could resist those eyes!

12 year old

This cat maybe because it looks "so over" everyone purring about how cute the above cats' big eyes are. I love the emotion the artist captured in this piece.

I was pleased to see each student walk away from this project happy and proud of their artwork. I always find it interesting to see what each child takes away from a project or how they decide to tackle the project at hand. This night was no different.

I am so grateful for the jumping off point the gifted photographs from a friend provided, along with the beautiful work of Gideon Rubin. It made for some beautiful art created by the preteen class at the end of the night.