Title: Making YOUR Mark! 
Artform: Text Art 

Goal/Objectives:  

Using text art, create a group installation that reflects both the individual members and the group as a whole. 

Making YOUR Mark! demonstrates the use of Text Art to create a group installation. Each participant contributes an item that, arranged together, creates the whole art piece. This collective approach requires pre-workshop design and preparation by the workshop leader.  

What IS Text Art? Text art uses language—words, phrases, questions, or responses that speak with intention and insight. The resulting communal artwork combines individual voices. Text art reinforces the notion that words matter—their power and visual placement and interaction can engage and challenge the viewer. 

Studio Work 

We like to begin with questions. In one workshop we did, participants were members of various social justice initiatives at a local synagogue. We asked them to reflect on the work they do and respond to these questions: “What draws you to this kind of community work? What keeps you engaged? What led to your personal involvement in the group? How has your involvement affected you? Encourage participants to jot notes when answering these questions. 

Create a template of a nine-foot female figure—arms akimbo, her stance declaring her resolve—first drawn on kraft paper (a rip-resistant, lightweight paper), then traced onto canvas. Subdivide the figure into the number of participants, so that each participant can use text art to “make her mark” on the figure.  

Each participant then emblazons her canvas fragment with text art. Once completed, the canvas fragments are re-assembled to animate the figure. 

Materials 

• Kraft paper roll 
• Yards of unprimed canvas 
• Color paint pens 
• White drawing paper and pencils for sketching ideas 
• Fabric glue for attaching the finished body pieces to the drawn outline of the figure on canvas 
• Wooden dowel cut to size for installing the canvas, which will hang on a wall 
• Hem/pocket to insert the dowel on the top and bottom hem of the canvas hanging 

Inspiration 

Begin by looking at different examples of graffiti and text artists, noting the use of word size and shape, design or colors that reinforce the meaning of the words. Barbara Kruger uses text art as a goad, forcing responses to her simply expressed challenges.  

Two good websites are https://art21.org/artist/barbara-kruger/ and eight artists on https://mymodernmet.com/text-art-masters/.  

See also: Sheila Myer Miller and Barbara Ellison Rosenblit, Pentimento: Revealing Women’s Stories 

Exhibition 

Artistically, a group installation speaks to the many hands and voices that go into making community impact.   

Exhibiting “Making YOUR Mark!”  is easily hung on a wall with two or more nails to support the dowel that the canvas hangs from. It is likewise mobile, easily rollable to be portable to other locations inside or outside the building. 

Reflection  

The process of creating a group work speaks for itself. The individual voices and visions of each member combine to speak to the creation of something bigger and more substantial than any given element of it. Every fragment contributes to the whole. What better metaphor for building communities is there?