Activity Guide by Kate Kwasneski
Intern, Grinnell College Museum of Art
Arnaud Loumeau is a graphic designer from Toulouse, France who produces a lot of art, including books. Graphic design often happens on a computer, but Loumeau also uses paper and screen prints. Most of his work is based on a grid pattern or done on grid paper and you can see the shapes made by the grid in some of his work. The Grinnell College Museum of Art owns a copy of an artist’s book by Loumeau, called Bacteria.
Arnaud Loumeau (b. 1978). Bacteria, 2012. Screen print, 12 x 8.75 inches. Collection of Grinnell College Museum of Art, Marie-Louise and Samuel R. Rosenthal Fund
Look
Look at the pages of Bacteria shown above. The colors stand out vibrantly against the black background. What do you think of these images? Can you see anything in the shapes and colors that you recognize? These images are exciting and full of shapes and patterns. How do they make you feel? Do they show something that is fun, or something that is scary?
Create
Now it’s time for you to make your own neon art inspired by this artist’s book! Loumeau uses many bright, almost neon colors in Bacteria. To make art like it, I used highlighters and black construction paper. I first drew shapes on a piece of white paper, then cut them out to glue them to the black paper to make their bright colors stand out more. Think about adding patterns to your shapes . Also think about how you can make the shapes overlap! If you are using cut out pieces it’s easy to overlap them by placing one on top of another.
If you do not have black construction paper, you can still make a brightly colored drawing! For this drawing, I placed my pieces onto white paper, and the colors still look very bright.
When creating your drawing, think about the kinds of shapes you want to make. Loumeau uses many shapes, some of which have other shapes inside of them. Also think about the colors you are using, and which ones look nice next to each other. Try to space your colors out and use different colors together in different parts of your drawing!
Write
Arnaud Loumeau’s book Bacteria looks like an alien landscape. What kinds of creatures do you think would live in it? Is the environment hot? Cold? What is the weather like? Write about the alien landscape that you find yourself in.