Derek Gores

“Blowing Bubbles”

Big Idea/Subject: Relationships

Major Theme: Portrait

Medium/Presentation: Collage, reproduced in print later

Visual Components: Color, collage, texture, form, value, repetition, shape

This piece is constructed entirely out of recycled paper and magazine scraps. Derek Gores has made a name for himself in the art world by doing incredibly detailed and intricate portraits of people (and sometimes objects) using collage. The piece above, titles Blowing Bubbles, was a commission. It is unbelievable how life-like his portraits are when they are only made out of magazine pieces! Even viewing his artwork online, the viewer can see the immense depth and sense of space he creates just with the colors he chooses in his paper application and placement. I placed this piece under the idea of ‘relationships’ because of the intimacy of the portrait itself. Only someone close to that child could capture such a personal aspect of his life from that close up. The piece speaks to innocence and the feeling of being young and carefree again. The boy is so calm and at ease – lying in a field and blowing bubbles content as can be. Looking at this piece more closely, the amount of painstaking detail involved in creating all of the different textures is truly amazing. Just look at the difference between the boy’s skin and shirt and the grass and bubbles. The textural difference between these elements really elevates this piece from craft to fine art. Regarding his process of collaging Gores said, “When I teach this, I have one rule– you can’t use pictures of the actual object when making that object– so for example, no hair to make hair. no eyes to make eyes, etc. Makes you think of other more wild solutions. You have to see beyond the actual literal texture, or words, on the magazine page to see them as tones. Don’t just let the students look for the flat value… have them squint and look from far away.” It is awesome how he likes to use more creative solutions to create textures rather then try and poorly imitate the real life texture.

Gores’ pieces would be fantastic as an introduction and inspiration for having students create collaged artwork. Especially in high school, I believe his art would show students that collage is actually art and can be elevated into something more than just paper bits. I also think that a collaging project is great to mix up students’ process for art making. A lot of students might get stuck/comfortable in one or two media they are the best at working with. Introducing collage would help students get out of their comfort zone and expand their knowledge of other areas of art and art mediums. I think the best project to create with collage would be one of observation, whether it is a self-portrait using mirrors or observations of still-lifes. Students could create interesting compositions and focus on their use of space and color to create dimensionality in their work.

Sources used: http://www.violencevisual.com/2010/10/derek-gores.html, http://derekgores.com