CHANCE

Unit Plan for 7th and 8th grade art, 50 minutes per day/5 Times per week

LESSON 1
Exquisite Corpse

RATIONALE
This lesson will act as an introduction to the theme of Chance. Each
student will contribute to a section of a drawing and pass it on to the next
individual. Chance will play a role in determining what each artist has to
work with in order to create their contribution. The final composition will also
be a product of chance; no one individual has complete control of the
outcome.

BIG IDEAS & ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

Much of art and artmaking is left up to chance.
Artists can use chance and letting go of control to their advantage when
creating.
How did the surrealists address chance or loss of conscious control in their
art?
Do you believe in chance? Or, do you think that we are the helm of our own
destiny? To what degree do you think you are really in control of your future?
What happens in our artwork when we let go of control over the outcome?
Do more possibilities present themselves? Is it better to take a chance or
play it safe?

DAY 1- SURREALISM
To begin, students will be instructed to cut out three magazine images and
tuck them into their sketchbooks for later.
Next, the students will view the works of prominent surrealist artists such as
Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Jean (Hans) Arp, Victor Brauner, Leonora
Carrington, and Georgio de Chirico. We will discuss several works by these
artists and talk about how the artists imagination/subconscious minds toil
within these pieces.
We will then VTS Salvador Dalis, Persistence of Memory.

Victor
Brauner

Salvador Dali, Persistence of

Memory, 1931

Jean (Hans) Arp

Rene Margritte, Son of a

Man

Leonora Carrington, Aromatic Kitchenlow

Georgio de Chiroco, Melancholia,

1916

DAY 1-JOURNAL ACTIVITY

With the remaining time in class, students will work with the images they cut
out to create a composition in their sketchbook. They will be asked to
consider how those images might relate to each other.
Do the images say something about you? Perhaps, something
subconscious?
They will draw, paint, and/or collage to connect and unify the images into a
meaningful composition.
Students can discuss amongst their table groups what possible meanings
might be derived from one anothers groups of images

DAY 2
Class discussion of sketchbook collage activity, this will act as a preassessment of students understanding of surrealism.
I will introduce the exquisite corpse assignment.
The students will create a surreal image using ink, as practice for the next
days assignment. The students will be asked to create this sketch using pen,
the marks they make, whether intentional or unintentional, cannot be
undone, and if mistakes are made they must find a way to incorporate that
into the piece

DAY 3
Today the students will be creating their exquisite corpse.
They will draw something, anything theyd like onto the first section of the
folded paper, making sure that only the end points of their drawings appear
in the second section (so that the next participant knows where to begin the
drawing).
The students will spend approximately 15 minutes on each section, when I tell
them to switch they will do so with a person who sits on the opposite side of
the room from them (to ensure that they are unaware of what the previous
sections look like).
Once all three section of the drawing are completed, the exquisite corpse
will return to the original drawer

DAY 4
I will hand the final pieces back to the students and give them a few
minutes to review their work independently. Next, we will come together as a
class and have a group discussion about the overall lesson.
The students will be asked to construct a short story on their whimsical
characters in their sketchbooks/journals. The short story is a fun way to hide
assessment from the students.
The students will then be given a grading rubric, consisting of the Objectives
for this lesson. This offers students a chance to make known to me what
worked and what did not work for them. Also, it helps them to think critically
about the decisions they made during the process
I will then photograph the artwork and print out photos for all the students to
place in their journals

Exquisite Corpse, Witch

Goblin Tree Woman Created
by Renee Shortt, Karen ShorttStout, and Patrick Stout.

ASSESSMENT
Formative and formal assessment throughout the process in the sketchbook
reflections and the in-class discussions, are used to monitor progress and
understanding of the concepts presented.
Summative assessment occurs at the end of the lesson with the selfevaluating rubric and short story. Also, documentation of the process
(photographing the work) will show evidence of learning throughout the
entire semester/year.
VTS of Salvador Dalis Persistence of Memory acts as assessment for students
prior knowledge and understanding of surrealism.

LESSON 2
Fumage

RATIONALE
Students will delve deeper into a theme and begin to understand the
overarching idea more sincerely.
Students will be asked to work with a new material, one that can be
dangerous and unpredictable (much like the theme).

Students will understand how chosen media effects the overall message of
the work.
Chance is an uncontrollable force, students will face the unpredictable
nature of chance directly and reflect, work through, and connect the
issues/barriers presented throughout the process to their everyday lives.
Understanding that we do not always have control over the outcome and
we cannot predict the results is a valuable lesson to learn.

BIG IDEAS & ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

Accidents, or chance occurrences, have led to brilliant discoveries.
The fumage technique can be dangerous and unpredictable, why might I
have chosen this technique to work with?
How does the medium one chooses to work with effect the message or
theme behind a work?

DAY 1
I will begin the class by explaining to the students the fumage technique as
well as the vocabulary terms for this lesson, non-objective, fumage, and
abstract.
Next, I will introduce several artists who work in this medium such as,
Wolfgang Paalen, who is also a well-known surrealist painter, Antonio Muniz,
and Anne Ressman Zabinski.
VTS Antonio Munizs, Your Invisible Self.
I will then do a demonstration of this technique. Once I have completed the
demonstration I will give the students a short quiz on the steps in the process
and the safety precautions.
With the remaining time in class the students will create a non-objective work
in their sketchbooks using loose charcoal

Wolfgang Paalen, Implicit

Places

Antonio Munez, Your Invisible Self

Anne Ressman
Zabinski

Wolfgang
Paalen,
Fumage
1937

DAY 2
We will discuss the charcoal drawings that the students constructed during
the previous day. This will help me to pre-assess their thinking on nonobjective works prior to beginning the fumage.
The students will practice fumage-ing today. Before we start practicing, we
will do a quick review of the safety precautions.
I will separate the students into small groups of 3 or 4, each group will
fumage independently as I oversee the process.
This process can be tricky and Id like for them to receive lots of practice, so I
anticipate this process taking all class period.

DAY 3
This day is to be dedicated to studio time.
I would like for the students to make a minimum of three fumage drawings,
on 5x7in. pieces of canvas paper, with a maximum of five fumage drawings
The students will be asked to take into consideration the composition of the
marks they are making, the variation within the marks, and also to look into
the fumage for hidden imagery.

DAY 4
The students will be asked to revisit the fumage drawings they made during
the previous class and choose three that they find to be the most
accomplished, variation in the line quality, the overall composition, etc.
Out of those drawings they will analyze their favorite and ponder what else
the drawing could represent
They will then create a more finished sketch of their fumage in their
sketchbook along with a few key words or sentences describing their image
Once theyve completed their fumage sketches, I will give the students a
rubric consisting of the Objectives for them to fill out.
I will photograph their final charcoal sketches and their fumage drawings for
them to place in their sketchbook

ASSESSMENT
Formative and formal assessment throughout the process in the sketchbook
reflections and the in-class discussions, are used to monitor progress and
understanding of the concepts presented.

VTS of Antonio Munizs, Your Invisible Self, acts as assessment of students prior
knowledge and understanding of the fumage technique.
Safety quiz as formative assessment of students procedural knowledge.

Teacher Examplar
Fumage

LESSON 3
Fortune Cards

RATIONALE
This lesson will act as the concluding segment of the overarching theme to
the unit. Students will better understand the use of a big idea and how to
apply that to ones artwork. Chance will play a major role in determining the
outcome of their Fortune Cards, challenging students to think critically
about non-objective works and their meanings.
Students will see into an artwork and derive subjective meaning, apply
personal aesthetic, and make relevant decisions/arguments as to support
their resolutions.

BIG IDEAS & ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

Humans have looked to the universe for guidance and control over chance.
Shaman, priests, elders, and seers have been consulted for centuries as
means to predict the future and our fortunes.
Despite all scientific evidence to suggest that the future is subjective, why do
people continue to attempt predicting the future? Is it fear, fascination,
both?
Are artists similar to the seers and shaman of ancient cultures? Do we both
make interpretations and create meaning based on intuition and symbolic
imagery?

DAY 1
Once the class is settled I will show an example of my own fumage piece
and we will brainstorm as a group about the images we see within (
compare to looking for objects in clouds)
As students contribute ideas, I will draw on the canvas with charcoal,
emphasizing the areas where students are seeing objective imagery, to
demonstrate the process of seeing into and drawing out forms.
The students will take notes of what they see and discuss it with nearby
classmates ( I will not yet tell them about the fortune cards, to ensure
authenticity of responses)
When ready, students will begin by sketching lightly into their fumage with
chalk to emphasize and draw out the imagery from the fumage. I will remind
them to work with the fumage, not just draw on top of it.

DAY 2
I will reveal to students that our fumage pieces will ultimately be turned into
fortune or tarot cards.
We will look at several examples of tarot card decks by famous as well as
unknown or little known artists.

We will discuss how the symbolic imagery relates to the meaning of the
card. As well as the artistry of traditional playing cards, noting how both
chance as well as cunning skill often play a role in the outcome of card
games.
With this eventual outcome in mind, students will continue to develop the
imagery in their fumage

Robin
Wood
Tarot

The Housewives
Tarot Deck

Durer TarotThe World

Klimt Tarot-Death

Alice Tarot

The Voyager
Deck, James
Wanless

DAY 3
Studio work day. Students will continue to layer and push their imagery
further.

Fast workers who finish early will be asked to research the meanings of
different tarot cards and share their findings with the class.

DAY 4
As artists finish up the visual component of their tarot cards, we will pause for
an in-process group critique before students begin writing about the
meaning of their cards. This critique will focus on what more, if anything, an
artist can do to draw out their imagery more clearly, as well as a group
brainstorm about the possible symbolic meanings of the images we see. This
will help students to generate ideas for the writing part of the process.

DAY 5
Students will write about the symbolic meaning of their card and respond to
writing prompts such as,

What symbols does your tarot card display?

Does your card predict the future?
Does your card reflect anything subconscious?
If someone drew this card randomly from the deck, what might it mean for
them?

Just for fun, we may shuffle the class deck and do a reading as our final
form of critique. The class will discuss, as a group, what they think the cards
mean to them

ASSESSMENT
The final product for this unit, the completed tarot card and accompanying
interpretive writing, will, in essence serve as a one page portfolio.

Students will have provided reflection in their journals throughout the process
and will have participated in group critique sessions.

Fumage Fortune Card, Origin