The Temperas
This series was created in late 1993 in Pomona and Irvine, California, during the beginning of my 3 year teaching stint. One of my first assignments involved teaching 1st grade. Once I tried teaching how to make butterflies by dabbing paint on a piece of paper, folding it while still wet, and unfolding it to reveal the colorful symmetric butterfly looking images along the fold. The experiment did not work too well...most of the kids painted and saturated the entire sheet and when the fold was made the sheet either tore in half or stuck together. For those that didn't and that managed to unfold in one piece, no butterfly images were present. I took some of the sheets home and after a couple of weeks began to find some of the color and textural subtleties interesting. I then brought some of the temperas that had been used and overlayed 11 of the sheets with my own brush strokes and drips that harmoniously blended with the color fields created by the kids. These added contrast, depth and definition to the images without destroying the infantile and playful nature that was the origin of this series and which is at the base of these paintings' charm. Inspired by the results I obtained, I set out my sails to the wind and created the last 5 works of this series which are somewhat less playful and spontaneous than the others. These I created in Irvine in late 1993 and early 1994. The titles given are again are mere suggestions. |
"School house temperas"
Temperas and collage on paper, 1993-1194
Copyright � 1993-2005 Jose E. Araya-Sibaja
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