______

Art Masterpiece: I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can

By Miriam Schapiro

______

Keywords: Movement, Collage, Shape, Pattern

Grade:3rd

Lesson: Fabric Collage



Meet The Artist:

  • Miriam Schapiro was born in Toronto,Canada in 1923. She grew up in New York City where her father was an artist, and she attended classes at the Museum ofModern Art.
  • In 1971 she and an associate founded and directed theFeminist Art Program the California Institute of Arts. She combined painting and collage with respect for pattern and decoration and materials from typically “female” art such as quilts, textiles, and stitchery.
  • Since the early 1980’s she has worked with the human figure, creating dancers and actors in fabric, paper, paint and paper Her works show personal expression while drawing on women’s heritage.

About the Art

In I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can, there are two human figure, one male, one female, in a vigorous dance across aspace filled with streamers and swirling confetti- like patches. The marionette-like bodies pull in one direction, while arms and legs push in the opposite direction. Feet flex and point, hands reach out, knees lift, hips twist, elbows bend, one head stretches back, one looms forward. The colorful costumes of paint and fabric scraps of floral, stripe, and geometric patterns move with the figures. The dance is frantic. The dancers are powerful in their physical energy, yet contained in the shallow stage Schapiro has created.

Questions and Discussion:

  • What do you see in this collage?
  • What did the artist use to create this picture?
  • Does it seem like the figures are moving? What makes it seem that way?
  • What seem energetic about this picture?

Activity: Fabric and Notions Collage

Materials

One sheet (9” X 12”) paper. 1 per student.

Fabric

Notions: sequins, buttons, ribbon

Scissors

Glue

Instructions:

  • Be sure to go over instructions before passing out any art supplies.
  • Students will create a collage showing someone dancing”as fast as he or she can.” Go over the characteristics that will give a feeling of movement to their collages. (diagonals, joints that show bending and flexing)
  • Cut shapes from fabric and arrange them with a few selected notions into a dancing figure.
  • When they create a good dancing arrangement, glue the pieces down.