Beloit College, August 25-December 15, 2015

ART 115, Introduction to Drawing and Design, Section 02

instructor: Helen Hawley

email: hawleyhh@beloit.edu
class web: art115.weebly.com!

SYMBOLIC IMAGES DUE 10-01-15

Consider that when someone looks at your drawing, they are

involved in an act of reading. Imagine how your drawing
might read differently to a person of a different nationality
or a person older or younger than you. Symbols take many
guises. For example, they may seem cliche, covert, universal,
or idiosyncratic.
ASSIGNMENT

This assignment is in full color. Cover the canvas completely.
Make a portrait of a person dressed and decorated to reveal their
interests, personal history, or profession.
MATERIALS

Cont Crayon set and gessoed canvas 9 x 12

TODAY [1950]

Oh! kangaroos, sequins, chocolate sodas!

You really are beautiful! Pearls,

harmonicas, jujubes, aspirins! all

the stuff they've always talked about



still makes a poem a surprise!

These things are with us every day

even on beachheads and biers. They

do have meaning. They're strong as rocks.

Poem from The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara. Copyright 1971

by Maureen Granville-Smith.

Culture is based on symbols. Flags, traffic lights, diplomas, and

mathematical notation are all, in their various ways, symbols.
The most symbolic aspect of culture is language [. . . ]
Symbolism is basic to the construction and conveyance of
gender, ethnic, and national identities. It is the primary way by
which humans create meaning, classify knowledge, express
emotion, and regulate society.

"Symbols" International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 23 Sep. 2015.
Images top to bottom are by Esther Pearl Watson and Maira Kalman