Appropriation in Art

Today I completed my first written unit plan, titled "Appropriation in Art."  The unit was compiled of four linked lessons, each meant to build off the last.  I choose the theme of appropriation as it was part of the original idea Kim and I had used for our Theme-Based Lesson that we presented to the class.  I feel that teaching students about appropriation is so important.  My unit rationale reads:

This unit educates students about appropriation which has been present in the arts throughout history.  It also encourages students to change existing sources by putting their own expression into their work, and to questions what it means to be original.  This unit allows students to make a connection between their art work and other source material, creating their own visual language.

I feel that students should know how to incorporate sources into their own art by changing it to fit their needs, and by changing it, this reduces the idea of "stealing."  My unit explores change through both physical and conceptual properties of sources, working from simple to complex imagery and ideas.  I had the most fun working on my ideas for the third lesson, "Cluster Sources," which requires students to find source material and use the theme of juxtaposition in order to create new meanings.  This lesson calls for students to use at least three different sources, such as other artists' work, their own art, or media images.  Students must first plan out their drawing by cutting out images and arranging them on paper to test out different compositional ideas.  My favorite teacher example that I made consists of work by Willem de Kooning, my own figure drawings and photographs, and a newspaper image of a peacock.  I meant for this combination of images to speak to the body (particularly the female body) and the different forms of beauty that are depicted.