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Drawing Danger: Making Monsters


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Drawing Danger: Making Monsters

Mission Statement

The mission of the Drawing Danger: Making Monsters group was to investigate contemporary culture through monster metaphors. We operated in the space between fear and desire. Through the study of the monster genre in stories, images, and movies, the students gained awareness that political, cultural, racial, sexual, and economic differences tend to be portrayed as monstrous deviations from a comfortable normalcy. 


The students experimented with shading, color, and composition to create monstrous effects. Recognizing that fearfulness is often signaled by dramatic conventions, the students developed an “elements and principles of horror.” Elements include the many monsters of myth and contemporary culture—from Grendell to Freddie Kruger.  Principles included such fear signals as dripping blood, seeing the shadow of an unseen figure, a stormy night, or a dangling phone.


Drawing Danger: Making Monsters explored the relationship between fear and attraction, between self and other. We gained a greater understanding of how culture constructs and uses monsters to contain its deepest fears. We also learned that “The Monster Always Escapes.”

 

Making Monsters Faculty: Nick Gorisch & Abby Neisendorf

2005 Spiral Workshop Directors: Olivia Gude & Jessica Poser


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Download Drawing Danger: Making Monsters presentation containing project descriptions and examples of student work of the semester long curriculum. 


Drawing Danger Making Monsters OMG NAEA presentation 2007.pdf

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Example Image
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Self-Portrait with Monster worksheet

Many Spiral Workshop projects begin with a worksheet! I know this sounds very "old school," but well-constructed worksheets engage students in the kind of thought processes that artists utilize in gathering ideas and considering a subject from various personal and cultural perspectives. 



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