Just me, myself and a copy machine.

Photocopy machines have been good friends of mine for years, especially the ones that can shrink, enlarge, lighten and darken. Their capabilities have enabled me to blend art and technology comfortably.

I first experimented with the photocopier as a way of duplicating students' drawings, so they could be repeated as a motif within a larger work. Why have the students redraw an image when a copier can accomplish it quickly and crisply? It was with this user-friendly capability that the machine and I again joined forces.

Characteristics of Art Styles

To help beginning art students understand the differences between realism, abstraction and nonobjective/nonrepresentational art, I had them use their faces as subject matter.

We discussed the definitions and characteristics of realism, abstraction and nonobjective/nonrepresentational art while viewing works by Rockwell, Picasso, O'Keeffe, Marc and Kandinsky.

Choosing the Right Pose

Having the students "pose" for a close up, I took at least two photographs of each student: one frontal and one a three-quarter angle. After each student had posed, she or he became my bounce light technician in charge of holding a white board on an angle to catch the light of the flash.

The students really got into the photo session and began to "direct" other students into poses or expressions while they determined the light. When the photographs were processed, the students chose one to use in designing their compositions.

The Pop Art Phenomenon

The students used the photographs to do a realistic drawing first, an abstract drawing using warm or cool colors next, and a repetitive, photocopied self-portrait last.

To achieve the final phase of these self-portraits, we studied Andy Warhol and the Pop art phenomenon. Warhol's penchant for repeating images helped, but we took it a step further by making a design using our own images.

The students had fun with their faces, adding things, coloring the copies, cutting, adjusting, disjoining and adding magazine faces. The results of this multipurpose, multifaceted assignment were refreshing, humorous, dynamic and creative. The students saw themselves as legends in their own time--as me, myself, and I.

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students create multiple solutions to specific visual arts problems that demonstrate competence in producing effective relationships between structural choices and artistic functions.