Portraiture

& Street Art

SWOON

Do Now

This is an artwork by street artist Swoon. Circle which

visual elements you feel she manipulates the most:
LINE
TEXTURE
TONE
SHAPE
Using the examples above, fill these 4 boxes with different
mark-making techniques just using line.

PATTERN
COLOUR

Try to recreate the Swoon image by using as many visual

elements you can

FORM

SPACE

PTO

SWOON
Read the
information below
about the artist and
highlight
words/phrases you
feel are important
about her work
along with any
words you do not
understand.
Describe her art in
one paragraph by
using familiar
formal elements

Swoon is a street artist who specialises in life-size wheat paste prints and paper cutouts of human figures. Since she began illegally
pasting images around the city 15 years ago, Swoon has inspired a lot of wonderment.
Born Caledonia Curry, she started her career as a graffiti artist, but quickly grabbed the attention of gallerists and museum curators.
Her detailed portraits, often affixed to walls in run-down places, are meant to disintegrate in place, symbolic of the life around them.
The majority of Swoons street art consists of portraits of people she has met on her many travels around the world. She wants her
portraits to capture something personal about her subject. She tries to document something she loves about the subject and has
seen in him or her. It is a way to connect with the subject. By putting the portraits on the streets she is allowing for others to witness
this connection and make their own.
Living in New York City greatly affected Swoon as an artist. She loved its graffiti, its layers, and others' feelings toward the graffiti and
other aspects of the city. She wanted to interact with the layers of the city, what she describes as the naturally occurring collage of
the city. Her first series of prints were done on tracing paper so that the colours of the walls and the chipping paint could still be
seen. Her prints tried to create life in what would be an otherwise dead space.

Use one SWOON image as a base for

experimenting with the formal elements you
have learned so far
Annotate what went well Even better if

Success criteria:
Be able to combine formal elements
Be able to use formal elements for finer details and
tone
Be able to use formal elements creatively