Metamorphosis – life cycles, change, alteration, transfiguration, mutation
Music – sound, making tone visible, music culture, what do music and art have in common?
Dance – movement, rhythm, repetition, physicality, meaning in gesture
Legend/mythology – ancient, primitive, modern, stories, archetypes, moral lessons, religion, ritual, social obligations
Nature vs. Science – current issues (bioethics) technology, how do we understand the world? Our place in the universe, limits of scientific knowledge, art and science, Cubism, Futurism, Orphism, etc.
Myself - diary, memories, esteem, place in the world, pride, shame, family, heritage, ethnicity, self-portrait, friends, loves, enemies.
Gender issues – male & female, role in society, in family, in evolution. Advantages/disadvantages of being one or the other. Stereotypes, cultural roles, sexuality, gender in politics, gender reversal.
Scale – close-up/magnified, objects blown out of proportion, large vs. miniscule, other worlds of scale, space, positive/negative, color and texture.
Other worlds – underwater, space, extraterrestrial, microscopic, imagination, computer/virtual world.
Animals – other life, instinctual, life cycles of, physical/spiritual power in, ecology, animals as symbols, cultural associations with animals.
Art and the senses – ways of knowing, art that smells, tastes, feels, etc. Art that appeals to alternative senses.
Cryptography – art as code, codes in life, symbols, signs, text, sense in nonsense, order, mathematics, key to understanding.
God/religion – creation, destruction, judgment, what is holy? Role of religion in society, metaphysics, personal sense of god, mercy, forgiveness, justification, sin, sacrifice.
Kitsch – what is kitsch? What is beautiful? What is not? Value, mass production, pop culture, your own personal sense of kitsch, aspects of society as revealed in its kitsch.
Graphics – use of line, color and composition to create a graphic identity, advertising, mass media, manipulation of imagery, the (blurred) line between what reality and the graphic representation.
Human anatomy – body, muscle, bone, skin, weight distribution, issues of beauty and human body, use/abuse of the body, skin (color?), aging, disease.
Dreams – meaning, analysis, associations, truth in, the bizarre, wish-fulfillment, imagery, Surrealism, the subconscious, Sigmund Freud.
Chance – allowing chance to dictate art, automatic drawing, the Exquisite Corpse, Surrealism, Dadaism, kinetic art, image association.
Emotion – human feelings, expression, knowledge through emotion, emotional situations, culture and emotions, controlled/uncontrolled emotions, conveying emotion, color, line and shape and emotions, Expressionism, Fauvism, Abstraction.
Collection/series – repetition, repeated objects, objects in a series, objects that share something in common, distant vs. close relationships between objects, association.
Beauty/ugliness – what defines these? What constitutes the appealing or the repulsive? Manipulating materials so that they take on appealing/repulsive qualities.
“The Wedding”- from the engagement ring to the sealing kiss
Architectural renderings- showing (exploring) the interior and exterior space with a strong focus on light, perspective and structure
Exploration- using realistic and non-objective animals (stipple technique….a series of black and white ink drawings moving into color)
Portraits and the human form
Monkeys or primates
Junk yard still life
Tomatoes, from seed to fruit
Fantasy characters – gargoyles, fairies, dragons, etc. – convincingly rendered
Low riders
Circus life
My ancestry
Crime and punishment
Women in feminine roles
“Seven deadly sins”
“Things that make me smile”
Historical events
Reflections of images wherein the reflections are an emotional exploration (of literal reflections)
Instruments that make music
Icons w/in our society
Strength of women (Cindy Sherman, Barbara Krueger)
Dreams and dream images (Chagall, Dali)
Dance images (degas)
Struggle to find one’s self (identity)
Figure studies in strong lights/darks
Car interiors
Abstract portraits
Illustrate a classical character or story in a new or modern way (superemofriends)
Childhood memories and feelings
Evolution of an item as it deteriorates or decomposes
Portrait/figure distortions in color/shapes (ed paschke)
Personal or social issues
Cultural diversity – social issues (diego rivera)
Visual puns/hybrids (magritte)
