Arts Explorer #10: Community Arts Project

The final project for the year was to bring awareness to a cause related to diversity and social justice. Myself and my group members decided to feature the Alma Children's Education Foundation. They are a Toronto based charity that is Toronto based but work to change the lives of those living in Latin America. Alma works towards improving the early childhood education programs in Latin America. They are a strictly volunteer based program and their projects don't exceed $10,000. They believe in working with communities to recognize and collaboratively decide what areas need improvement. Alma Children's Education Foundation also helps to contribute to the community by building on and working with local entrepreneur programs.

Photos retrieved from: http://www.almafoundation.ca/index.php

Our big idea is to raise awareness of the Alma Children's Education Foundation through a local contest. It would be a video contest directed to film students from university and colleges in the GTA. Their task is to make a digital video that displays what Alma is, what they do, and how other people can become involved. We plan to advertise the contest with flyers posted in the schools. The winners video will then be played on Breakfast Television. In order for our vision to come alive we need help from Alan Harman, the founder of Alma, Breakfast Television and t.o.night newspaper where we would also advertise the contest.

What we really like about the Alma Children’s Education Foundation is the accomplishments that they have made and the means of which they have done so. Their work has really shown us what can be accomplished through volunteering and little money. Alma has been able to improve the lifestyle of many children and families in Peru with less than $10,000 per project. It showed us that you don’t always need bountiful amounts of money to make a large difference in the lives of others, especially if you’re extremely passionate and supportive of it. We are also supportive of the foundation for their focus on early childhood education. They recognize the importance of childhood education and the benefits it has to children’s growth and development. As students in the ECE program we appreciate their recognition and attempts in trying to provide children with the best support and education as possible. Here is a link to the Alma Children's Education Foundation where you can find out more about their work and how you can help http://www.almafoundation.ca/index.php. 

BE THE SOUL THAT MAKES THE CHANGE!

Definition of the week: Mass and Volume
Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) define mass and volume as:

• "appropriate criteria for critiquing three-dimensional art, which has height, length, and width" (p. 142)

Mass and volume can be displayed in many ways such as open or closed, hard or soft, geometric or organic, solid, heavy, delicate, etc. (Schirmacher & Fox, 2009).

References:
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children, sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Delmar

Arts Explorer #9: Guerilla Art

This weeks task of creating guerrilla art was kind of challenging for me. I had a really tough time trying to come up with the what I would make. Thankfully the internet is full of great websites and images (by the way, I've listed some below) of other peoples creative street art. I found a lot of them really inspirational but they tended to be big displays of things that I didn't have the materials for. I finally came across my idea and the the pictures are down below:

What I created was a "notice sign" that had a silly remark under it. The idea is that it will hopefully catch peoples eye and draw them into it. The intent is to get people to take that 1 extra minute in their day to notice something that they would otherwise disregard. I hung my sign up on one of the days this week when the weather was so amazing. I now that I was really excited about the weather but I saw some people who looked so wrapped up and on a mission. It would be nice if they could be able to spend some time and have fun outdoors. It was interesting to see the people walk by who noticed it and those people who continued on their merry way. There were also some people, like the girl above, who walked by but then took those few steps back to reread the sign.  Although the project started off a little stressful, when I was finished it felt like a fun accomplishment. 

Some links for Guerilla Art sites:

http://www.kerismith.com/

http://www.guerrilla-innovation.com/

http://www.myspace.com/sitprojects/blog

http://www.killmydaynow.com/2011/02/kmdn-funny-signs-part-18-street-fliers-edition-32-pics.html

Definition of the week: Colour

• "is based in the passage of light. It is the visual sensation of light caused by stimulating the cones of the retina. As the light source changes, so does the the colour" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 136)
• colour can be  categorized as
• primary- red, blue, yellow
• secondary- mixing 2 primary colours
• intermediate- mixing equal amounts of adjoining primary and secondary colours
• complemenatry- opposite colours of the colour wheel
• neutral- pigments that have no particular colour (black and white)
• colours also have physical properties such as hue, value, intensity, tint, and shade 

References:
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children, sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Delmar

Arts Explorer #8: Pretend Play & Magical Thinking

This here is my friend Ken

Ken is someone who's been very helpful to me. Some say those like Ken have changed the world and I can't say that I disagree. Whenever I feel I'm in the dark, Ken knows how to brighten things up. His discussions through light is often just what I need to feel better and get things done. In times when I need to buckle down and get work done, Ken is there to keep me company. He's not big on having any extra clothing or accessories on because he says it makes him too warm. You often get the same response from any of Ken's friends. Each day he is surrounded with by his 2 other friends but they each take turns keeping me company. It is often at this time when the others get their rest. They don't like to compete for the spotlight. I must say, I really enjoy having Ken around and really appreciate his help.

Using my imagination to help make Ken come alive was quite a refreshing activity. It's definitely been a while since I used my imagination in such a way. I do remember a similar time in highschool when my friends and myself gave some of our peers characteristics of supermen. One of our favourite was a guy we nicknamed "Long Man" because of how tall he was. When I look back on this now it was quite fun and amusing. It seems that after childhood the imagination is not as creative as it once was. As a kid you are always coming up with personalities for objects and toys and giving them an entire lifestyle. Using the imagination in way like this can keep a person busy for a long time.

Definition of the week: Line
Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) define a line as:

• "a continuation of a dot" (p.135)
• "is something we use to make letters, words, numbers, symbols, and signs" (p.135)

Lines are so commonly found in art because of the wide arrangement of its uses. They can be straight, squiggly, long, short, wide, narrow, be in all directions, cross or meet, dark or light and much more.

References:
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children, sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Delmar

Arts Explorer #7 Grocery Shopping with a Twist!

This blog is all about exploring the common food items that you see on your grocery shopping adventure. Most of the time when I go to the grocery store I have a set grocery list and try to make it a fast visit. It is a rare occurrence that I have the opportunity to roam throughout the grocery and take notice of the different shapes, sizes and colours of the different products or their packaging. So this week I took the time to focus on such things. I mostly focused on the produce but more specifically I looked at the fresh berries. First I made a list of the foods that I would include in this category.

Berries
          -raspberry          -blackberry          -smoothies
          -strawberry        -blueberry            -cakes
          -gooseberry       -currants               -yogurt
          -cranberry         -juice                    
          -pastries          -jam             

When I think of berries the first thing that pops in my head is freshness. Eating berries makes me think of picking them fresh from the farmers field, which by the way is a rare occurrence. When looking at the different berries you can see how they vary in size. Although they are all quite small in size, some of them such as the blueberries are a lot smaller than the strawberries. I also noticed that they all share the same general shape of being round. For some of them they have an overall shape of round but some of them also have circular shapes or lines within it. They also come in a variety of colours such as reds, blues and yellows. The colours also vary in shades of that colour. Something else I noticed was that the packaging for the fresh berries is quite simple. They are usually sold loose of come in a basket. Either way they are it is easy to see what your buying and if they are fresh or have been sitting around for a while. Below is a picture of some of the berries that I sketched.

After doing this blog I learned to make more time to look and really think about the things around me. It really got me to view the things in the grocery store that I see on a weekly basis in a different way. By looking at the shape, size and colours of the various foods it was almost inspirational as to what I could make with them. This method of categorization is a great math concept to do with children. There are so many characteristics for them to focus such as size, shape, colour, and species.

Definition of the week: Shape

• "edge of an enclosed space" (Schirrmacher, 2009, p.140)
• "created by connecting lines" (Schirrmacher, 2009, p.140)
•  vary is sizes
• most common shapes are circles, squares triangles, rectangles or they can also be nongeometrical (Schirrmacher, 2009)

References:
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children, sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Delmar

Arts Explorer # 6 Painting with Scissors

After reading the article Painting with Scissors: Art Education Beyond Production by Joann Honigman and Navaz Bhavnagri we looked at different art projects that can be made using scissors. So this week is an entry of an art activity that can be done with scissors and cut up pieces of paper.

 

Photos Retrieved From: http://www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/samples/

 So what I've come up with is "Mosaics with Scissors". The idea is to create one of these picture mosaics. So what it is a whole bunch of small pictures that are combined to create one large image. If doing this project with children I thought it could either be done individually or for a younger age group it could possibly be a group effort. If making it individually, children might choose a picture of their favorite place or their favorite thing. The picture could also be of something they've experienced or their view on something. They could then cut up pictures in the designated colours to create their final picture. Children could also cut out pictures that relate to the topic of their picture. If doing this as a group project, then children can bring in some pictures of their favourite things or people and everyone one could combine their photos together. This would also be a great way for the children to share their thoughts, ideas or feelings with their peers. It would be a project that has the potential to be fun whether its done alone or collaboratively.


Definition of the week: Design or Composition
"The overall mark of success or the standard of achievement in artistic creation" (Schirrmacher & Fox, p.364) It can include creating something, making a sketch of something, or working out a plan.

References:
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children, sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Delmar

Arts Explorer #5: Watch an ‘art film’

So this week I had the task of watching an "art" film. I ended up watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I had seen the movie once before but I think I was to young to follow the storyline and have any understanding of what was going on. But below is a conversation that I had with a friend who had also watched it, and our thoughts about the movie.

Robyn says
What did you think of the movie?
Emily C says
You know, I had seen this movie a while ago and I remember being totally confused, so this time around I was looking forward to watching it and having a better understanding. As it turns out, I think I'm just as confused as the first time.
Robyn says
I watched for the first time and i was really confused through like the whole thing but then i started to get it towards the end.
did u like it?
I didnt at first, i keep thinking what is the point of this movie but i liked after it was finished
Emily C says
I did enjoy the love story part of it. It wasn't quite your typical romance story. And I also though that the whole idea of being able to erase a part of your memory is interesting. So I guess overall I did enjoy watching it.
Robyn says
Yeah, I liked the earasing the memory part too, it was different. I liked the proccess of the erasing part too.
When they kept flashing back to the past it confused me
Emily C says
I thought it was pretty clever when Joel was in the process of having his memory erased but then he cahnged his mind. It was neat to see him trying to figure out a way to save Clementine and hide her in parts of his memory
Robyn says
Yeah and she knew and she was helping him.
Emily C says
yeah!
Robyn says
I liked how his memories would get mixed up, like it would be Joel siiting on the couch with her and then it started to rain in the living room and then it would be joel as child with clementine acting the part as someone from his past
Emily C says
I think one of my favourite parts was when it flashed back to Joel being a baby and sitting under the table. And you Clementine was a family friend. I thought it was cool how they filmed that part.
Robyn says
Yeah i liked that part too
Did you like the ending? That after everything they went to erase each other from their memories, they still ended up finding each other
Emily C says
I mean I liked it as far as it being nice that they were reunited. But at the same time it definetly confused things for me.
Robyn says
Yeah the whole movie confused me. I figured out out at the end that when her hair is blue its Joels and Clementines present and when her hair is orange it is their past.
Emily C says
I'm surprised you noticed that. I feel like her hair changed so many times that you can't keep track.
Although, after watching it, I definetly see how it could be considered an "art movie". Not only the story line, but also the idea of erasing people from your memory and the way that it was filmed all showed some creativity to me
Robyn says
Yeah I saw the creativity part after watching it too. The switching to the past and present, the ability to see things in a diffferent way.
In the end I liked it and was still confusing but over all a good movie.
Emily C says
Yeah I feel the same. I'm also glad I was reminded of it so that I could come to have a slightly better understanding of it.

Definition of the week: Balance

• when the forms of a picture seem to be proportionate to each other (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009)
• forms are somewhat equal in appearance
• is acheived with either symmetry or asymmetry
• symmetry or asymmetry depend on whether "the shapes are evenly or equally balanced around some point" or if "the objects are not evenly or equally balanced from a point" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p.144)

Balance to me seems to become more distinguishable in children's artwork as they get older. As their skills develop they practice and/or strive to have certain aspects of their art be symmetrical or near identical.

References:
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children, sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Delmar


Photo's retrieved from:
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News-Comments.asp?NewsNum=3020
http://destinihuston.blogspot.com/2011/02/numero-siete-eternal-sunshine-of.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Sunshine_of_the_Spotless_Mind

Arts Explorer #4: Looking for Patterns In Urban Settings & Nature

This is a photo of an engraving of a church wall. I took this picture on a trip to New York. The church is called Saint Patrick's Cathedral and it is a popular tourist destination. Below is a link to their website as I would strongly recommend visiting it. I was so taken back by the detail and precision of the carving and the consistency of the pattern. The entire church was full of such amazing carving along all the walls and various patterning that was also seen on the stained glass windows. It is definitely a place for those who enjoy or appreciate fine detail and an interest in varying patterns.

Link to Saint Patrick's Cathedral:  http://www.saintpatrickscathedral.org/

Definition of the week: Patterns
Schimmacher and Fox (2009) define pattern as

• the treatment given to a surface
• repitition
• a reoccurring sequence
• being created with forms, shapes, lines, colours, textures or symbols

Patterns can also have many different characteristics. They can be simple, irregular, symmetrical or asymmetrical, sequenced or alternating, etc. Experimenting with patterns with various materials, or even observing them through pictures, is a great math concept for children.

References:
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children, sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Delmar

Arts Explorer #3: Fine Art Critique

This week my class took a trip to the Royal Ontario Museum. We were there to look do a fine art critique but also to get some better ideas of how to get children to develop and interest in art and how to help them with analyzing it. You can ask them how they think the artist felt when they made the artwork, how the child feels when they look at it or why the artist chose to draw/paint/sculpt what they did. There are various questions that you can ask all children across different age groups. I initially wasn't too excited about the trip because I had always thought that I wasn't a museum person. But to my surprise I really enjoyed my time and hope to go back soon. Below is the picture that I found and chose to write about.
 

Photo Retrieved From: http://www.canadianart.ca/online/reviews/2008/07/31/kim-ondaatje/

The above artwork is a painting by Kim Ondaatge known as Hearn Plant, Toronto Harbour. Kim was born in Toronto, ON in 1928 and this painting was done in 1974. She created this painting using acrylic paint, masking tape, and canvas. When I first walked into the room where this picture was hung I was immediately drawn to it. I wouldn’t say that it is one of my favourite paintings but it really grasped my attention. I’m not sure if it was how large it was in comparison to the other artwork or if it was the simplicity of it. The painting consists of a few colours with the majority if it being white and the boat having a bold colour. 

Before reading the title of the painting, I was able to recognize it as the Toronto harbour front. When I saw the boat in the water I thought of driving down the Gardiner Expressway and seeing all the boats at port. The overall look of the picture made it really easy for me to imagine the cold winter scene. I could imagine that if I was standing there it would be freezing, with a strong cold wind and no one being around because they are in their warm homes. The scene in the picture also brought me to realize how different the lakeshore was. In this picture there is one smokestack and industry with one docked boat. When you think of the lakeshore now, it has about 10 times the boats and industries. I found that Kim Ondaatge’s picture transported me to this exact place where I would be surrounded by simplicity and a cold Canadian winter.

For more information about the ROM here is a link

http://www.rom.on.ca/

Definition of the week: Space
When it comes it art, space is determined by the size of the canvas (Schimmacher & Fox, 2009). Space can be either positive or negative. In a positive space you would expect to see it filled with lines, colours, shapes and form(Schimmacher & Fox, 2009). With a negative space there is room between or surrounding subject matter, symbols or shapes(Schimmacher & Fox, 2009).

References:
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children, sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Delmar

Arts Explorer #2: Instant Sculpture with Found Objects

So this week I had the task of creating an instant sculpture. My sculpture made out of unused materials turned into a tree. I started off this project focusing on the product. It took a while for me to decide what I was going to create but the trees just outside my bedroom window sparked some interest. I decided on the wire, which I got from my dad, because I though it would be easy to manipulate and form. And the base of my tree was actually a piece from my Christmas tree from the holidays. The whole tree was created from wrapping the wire around the base and then adding more and strings of wire that I continuously wrapped around one another to eventually form branches.

As I mentioned previously, my main focus was on the product. I think as you grow older, and more often as an adult, your concern is on what your final creation looks like rather than the effort and fun you spent making it. Where as, a child would probably be more interested in the process and of the feel or manipulation of the materials, being active and hands on, but also having the overall sensory stimulation. The one thing that an adult or child may do similarly is trial and error. Children would likely do it for the exploration aspect but adults do it to reach perfection. Creating this sculpture made me realize where I put my focus and that I should perhaps try being less concerned of the product and enjoy and the overall process.

Weekly Definition: Texture
 Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) define texture as "the surface quality of a work of art". Texture is used when describing the feeling on a surface or a material. Some words for describing texture are rough, smooth, bumpy, carved, soft, scratchy or rough.

References:
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children, sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Delmar

Arts Explorer #1: My Creative Inspiration

 Photos retrieved from http://www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

So today is the beginning of my first blog. It's starting off as part of an assignment for one of my classes but we'll see where it goes from there. It is for a creative arts course and so the focus of the blog will be on art, creativity and how it relates to early childhood education.

My first entry will start with what is Creativity? Creativity can be seen as being creative with the objects or materials surrounding a person. Whether it be painting a picture, taking a picture, knitting a scarf or fixing the piece of furniture that's falling apart, it in some way involves being creative. It can involve creating something entirely new or revamping the objects you already have. I think that creativity involves having the ability to look at everyday things in a different way. It can be used as a technique for expressing the ideas that someone has or communicating feelings. The interesting thing about creativity is that every person has the ability to captivate and display it. I think that the expression of creativity is most prevalent in the younger children. They are experimenting and discovering the use of different skills and materials while forming their art but also their learning.

In my family I definitely see each one of us as having the ability to be creative. My mom uses her knitting talents to make us some warm, and stylish, hat scarves and gloves. My dad is creative with his ability to recreate or fix things for the better, Whenever something breaks or needs a repair we always know to visit him first. Then there is my sister who was the child that received the art gene. She is always painting or drawing and has gone through many sketch books. I on the other hand enjoy to make crafts. Every Christmas family and friends receive a new tree ornament to add to their collection. This difference in creativity goes to show that everyone has a different way of viewing and creating things.