Faith Ringgold

Faith Ringgold is an artist, author, and activist. She was born and raised in Harlem, New York in the 1930s. Her artistic career began in the turbulent times of the late 1960s and early 70s. Today, she is best known for her painted story quilts, art that combines painting, quilted fabric, and storytelling. Her mother and grandmother promoted African-American culture and she had many wonderful role models as neighbors such as stateswoman and activist Mary McLeod Bethune, artist and painter Aaron Douglass, and musicians and singers Duke Ellington, and Dinah Washington.
Ms. Ringgold expresses her family and childhood stories in her artwork and collaborated with her mother and grandmother to sew fabric borders around her paintings. Her method was a unique departure from the conventional way of stretching the canvas fabric over wooden frames as most painters did at the time. Ms. Ringgold most always imbues her paintings with images emblematic of racist and sexist issues. Throughout her career, she’s often confronted with these issues and has usually created obstacles for her and other artists over time. Her work combines with her folk-inspired style, aspects of modern and contemporary paintings, as well as elements of Abstract Expressionism, and Pop art. She continues to create artwork and fights in the struggle to reconcile the current political and economic inequality that confronts women and people of color.

I can construct a digital collage and express a central theme in a work of art by combining various symbols and motifs that share a relationship in the scene’s context.

I can extract an image from a neutral (Plain, standard) background by using the Magic Wand Selection Tool in Adobe Photoshop and deleting.

I can extract objects from complex backgrounds by using the Magnetic Lasso Selection Tool to surround and select the object.

I can refine my selections to improve the accuracy of the object’s edges by using the Eraser and the Brush Tool in the Quick Mask Mode to refine the Mask meet the objects edge.

I can combine a variety of images within a digital collage by using various Selection Tools in Adobe Photoshop (AP) to extract objects from the background areas of the scene.

I can create a variety of effects using the Filter Gallery in AP and adjusting the settings within the filter and customize the effect.

I can create blend layers together and create dynamic effects by exploring the Blending Modes in the Layers Panel as well as adjusting the Transparency/Opacity settings in the Layer Panel.

I can Modify and refine my selections by using the Select Modify features in AP to Feather, Constrict, or Expand the selections.

I can assess, refine, and evaluate my work by comparing it to the items listed in the rubric and adding attributes that are missing or need more refining.

Read More | Questions to Consider

What are the various themes evident in Faith Ringgold’s work?
What symbols or images does she use often in her work, what is a reoccurring theme?
What moods does she create in her works? What elements help to create the mood in the paintings?
What do you feel is most important to Ringgold?
What are the distinguishing features of Ringgold’s work?
Can you list the various components or parts of Ringgold’s quilts?
How would you prioritize the different images you gathered for your quilt?
How would you organize elements within a composition to create a story or theme?
What way would you design a story or a theme using the images you gathered?
How do the skills developed in the previous projects help develop the new illustration?
What are the parts or features of your quilt that add to the story?
How would you organize the various elements so that all the items fit together to make a balanced whole?

Taking Flight / An Interview with Faith Ringgold from Institute for Women’s Leadership

Faith Ringgold is a celebrated children’s book writer who has written numerous children’s books that have become classic children’s literature. Her books express her ideas, memories, and feelings about growing her and her family, and up in New York city. Themes that are important to her in her artwork are featured prominently and reoccur throughout her artistic career. Watch this brief video of Ringgold discussing her experience as a black woman striving to make artwork in a difficult and prejudiced art world environment and see how she strives to overcome the obstacles presented to her. Her motto is, “If One Can Anyone Can All You Gotta Do Is Try.”

What are the distinguishing features of Faith Ringgold’s quilts?

What motifs, symbols, or icons do you see in Faith Ringgold’s work? What is the significance of the quilt and the George Washington Bridge?

What are the different part or elements of her work, how is it made? Based on the evidence, what do you think she is expressing?

Can you describe the different parts of a picture and how they are organized?

How would you prioritize the images you gathered for your collage?

What objects has the artist gathered to develop the motif of the work? How many different icons can you discern?

What collage materials can you identify, what texture do you see that shows you what the orginal material was?

How will you organize elements to create a story or theme?

Project Tutorial | Patterned Collage

For this project you’ll need to generate five to seven patterns by exploring and applying the pattern and texture tools that you will find by internet. Gather a variety of rich and colorful patterns and save them to your devise. The following tutorial shows you how to combine pattern images together using Sumo Paint, to begin search and save large patterns of images that you will combine in a multilayered image computer graphics program like Photoshop or Sumo Paint.

Sumopaint Explore the different effects that can be
created with using the different settings and colors
provided. Demonstrate your ability to use common
design tools like paint brushes, color pallets, and combine
and manipulate images.

Project Tutorial | Silent Actress Collage

Vocabulary

Collage;n. 1. a form of art in which various materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric are arranged and stuck to a backing.
Composition;n. 1. Arrangement of artistic elements so as to form a unified whole.
Color Harmony;n. 1. A grouping of colors based on relationships between the colors on the color wheel.
Depth;n. 1. the amount of space in a picture.
Juxtapose;v. 1. to place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.
Pattern;n. 1. repetition of shapes, lines, colors, or forms.
Space;n. the feeling of depth in a picture.
Shape;1. the outward form of an object defined by an outline.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Thematic Essay: Modern Story Tellers, Romare Bearden,
Jacob Lawrence, and Faith Ringgold.

Faith Ringgold Will Keep Fighting Back.
New York Times interviews Faith Ringgold
about her work and the turbulent issues of the day.

Learn More | The National Core Arts Standards

Creating
VA:Cr1.1.HSI Use multiple approaches to begin creative endeavors.
VA:Cr1.2.HSI Shape an artistic investigation of an aspect of present-day life using a contemporary practice of art or design.
VA:Cr2.1.HSI Engage in making a work of art or design without having a preconceived plan.
VA:Cr3.1.HSI Apply relevant criteria from traditional and contemporary cultural contexts to examine, reflect on, and plan revisions for works of art and design in progress.
Presenting
VA:Pr.4.1.HSI Analyze, select, and curate artifacts and/or artworks for presentation and preservation.
VA:Pr5.1.HSI Analyze and evaluate the reasons and ways an exhibition is presented.
Responding
VA:Re7.1.HSI Hypothesize ways in which art influences perception and understanding of human experiences.
VA:Re7.2.HSI Analyze how one’s understanding of the world is affected by experiencing visual imagery.
VA:Re9.1.HSI Establish relevant criteria in order to evaluate a work of art or collection of works.
Connecting
VA:Cn10.1.HSI Document the process of developing ideas from early stages to fully elaborated ideas.
VA:Cn11.1.HSI Describe how knowledge of culture, traditions, and history may influence personal responses to art.

¹ Source: National Women’s History Project. www.nwhp.org., Retrieved 11/01/13

² Faith Ringgold: Artist and Activist, http://www.makers.com/faith-ringgold, Makers.com, Retrieved 11/01/13

³ Timpane, P. An Interview with Faith Ringgold, 05/03/2010,  Institute for Women’s Leadership Retrieved 02/21/2017.

ƒ Kathrin Kuhn, katherinkuhn.com, Retrieved 02/06/18