Surrealism Collage

My Surrealism Collage Example

I love collages!  And most of all, I love hilarious collages!  So when I saw a post by one of the bloggers (Artolazzi) that I follow here about surrealism and collage, I was smitten.  What a fun lesson!  I pretty much followed the same lesson as Jenny Bartolazzi but in my own words and with examples of various artists.  The kids LOVED it!

After we discussed Surrealism and looked at some artwork, I showed them how the process would work.  I had previously cut out the pieces I planned on working with and it made the demonstration go smoothly and quickly.  I started with my chosen background (they could choose from 12 options, all cut from expired calenders--my mother in law donated a bunch of calenders from the bank she works for--thanks, Sue!).  I explained how I started just looking through magazines until I found something that gave me an idea or I thought was funny and/or interesting.  The first thing I came along was the superhero, so I cut him out and trimmed away all of his extra background.  When I stumbled upon a boy on his bicycle, I thought that he had the perfect facial expression for someone who needed saving, so I cut him out too.  But when I found the word bubble with "Help!  It's got my Graham-ma!" I changed my plan (I wanted them to keep in mind that plans can change and evolve as they search the magazines).  And then I searched for my villain which was assembled by a man's face and torso mixed with a basketball player's legs and I tucked "grandma" under his arm.  Grandma was found in a sports magazine and is actually a man dressed up as an elderly woman while wearing a pig nose (not sure why there's a pig nose, but I liked it).  I encouraged them to make a surreal scene and to have fun with it and be open to changing ideas as they come upon various images.  While some of them struggled with unifying their images or creating an overall scene, others were able to dive right in with ease.  And regardless if they made a unified scene or not, they had a blast and that experience and excited attitude are enough for me to consider the lesson a huge success!  Now, FINALLY, I will share some of their work with you!