Community Arts Project

Poster for our project

Our objective to our community arts project was to bring awareness to the inequalities educators in comparison to teachers. My group and I put together a creative website, which showed who we are and what were the issues that we needed to get across and what were we planning to do to make a change. Some of the main issues my group and I included in the website were: payment, education, gender, and equal partnership. Even though we made a website, it was not really published since the presentation was not really a real campaign, however if we were to continue our project and move forward to find equality, than in that case we would publish the website. We used the arts to communicate our big idea by creating the poster in the picture above, and with the informative website. The poster would be posted around Toronto and at the bottom there is a link to the website, which people would use for more information.

Overall, I feel the presentation went well, we may have rushed it, but we were able to get everyone's attention on the cause and get our ideas across. After my group and I presented, we did not get feedback from our peers since it had to be a quick transition due to the amount of people presenting and the amount of time. However, the professor said it was a great-looking website, and it was a good project in general. Nonetheless, if I were to present this same objective again, I would definitely change it up a bit. I would make it more creative, find more ways in which people can help, and make a blog or an additional social networking site in order for people to gain information about our project.

This week's "art word of the week" I believe would be design or composition. According to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009), design or composition "is the overall mark of success, the standard of achievement..." (p. 142). I believe these words fit perfectly with our presentation since our design and layout of our website was used to catch the reader's attention.


I believe that doing a project similar to this one would be interesting for children to try out. Not necessarily going into full detail, but getting an idea that is really bothering them and find a way to share it to the class. It gives children the ability to think freely and come up with a creative way to share the class what are their thoughts and feelings towards some issues in the classroom and what peers and teachers can do differently to support. 

Reference

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. 

Guerilla Art

This weeks blog was to go out and leave a mark, guerilla art. The purpose of guerilla art, also known as street art, is to leave anonymous art pieces wherever you want and see the reactions that people have towards your artwork. When thinking of what to do as my guerilla art, I decided I wanted to do something fun. Something that people can actually participate in rather than just starring at it. Therefore, I decided to draw a couple of footsteps with sidewalk chalk around the Ryerson quad. Once finished, I stepped back and allowed for people to walk by and see what they would do when looking at the footsteps. After a few people simply walking by and starring, there was one person who smiled and jumped on each footstep and laughed when finished. Proving that guerilla art can sometimes be just plain fun!

I believe guerilla art is all about being creative in what you are displaying. Finding a creative way to have people's attention and look at your artwork. According to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) creativity is "the ability to see things in new ways or combine unrelated things into something new" (p. 364). Creativity is seeing things in new ways, my guerilla art may not be seen in a new way but others' guerilla art may have different ways and meanings when looking at it.

As a future early childhood educator, I believe this would be an interesting activity to apply with children. It wouldn't necessarily need to be out on the street it can be at a park or in around their own homes, making it a fun experience for them. I feel that it is importnat for children to go out and try new things that they are not used to doing in the classroom. It would be interesting to see what type guerilla art they were to come up with!

My Guerilla Art

Reaction

Reference

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. 

Pretend Play & Magical Thinking

     Doing this assignment brought back so many memories. When I was around six years old I was obsessed with stuffed animals and would always bring all of them to life. Each one had their own personality and I would play "house" with them where I would act as the mother of my stuffed animals. Around that same age I received a gift that was one big bear/dog (not really sure what it is) that I have been stuck with until today. He had a personality until I was around ten and then I grew out of it. However, for this assignment I decided to bring him back to life. I still call him by the name that I would use when I was younger, which is Horace. I have no idea why I decided to call him that, but it I loved it and it stuck. He is fluent in both Spanish and English and loves sports. He has travelled the World with me, everywhere I go he always comes along. Horace was born in the United States, but has hispanic background. His favorite place in the world is Buenos Aires. He is pretty tall for his age, which benefits him when he plays basketball. His favorite food is pizza and dislikes poutine, since he has no idea what it is. He is still getting to know Canada and so far he is enjoying the city life. 
     This weeks are word is: imagination. According to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) imagination is forming a mental image that is perceived as unreal, in which children can use during play, such as dramatic play. I believe this is the perfect word for this assignment. Children use creative thinking to have their objects come to life. The way the children choose the objects' personality, likes and dislikes I believe is using their imagination in a creative way. 
      I find this activity a great way for children to enhance their imagination. When I was younger, I enjoyed bringing objects to life and it would give me a way to express myself. I feel that having children doing activities such as this one, can give them the opportunity to express what they are feeling. It can be included into the classroom routine, have each child bring in a stuffed animal or an object and have them bring them to life. It would be interesting to see what each individual child comes up with! There are many ways in which teachers can bring in the idea of pretend play and magical thinking, and this activity is definitely a way. 

Horace

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. 

Grocery Shopping with a Twist

www.google.com/images

Every time I go to the grocery store I always find it extremely boring so I usually go in and come out very quickly. However, for this assignment I actually stayed a bit longer to observe the different shapes, sizes, color and texture of fruit. I love fruit and I am very picky about the fruit I buy, it needs to be the perfect texture, color and shape for me to pick it out. My favorite fruits are apples, oranges, and kiwi therefore they are the ones I buy the most and do not really look at the rest. Even though there I mostly enjoy kiwi, apple, and oranges there are others that I also enjoy in this category such as:
-Strawberries

-Bananas
-Grapes
-Peach
-Pineapple
-Mango
-Lemon
-Pear
-Plum
-Raspberry
-Papaya
-Watermelon
Every fruit has its own texture, size, and shape. According to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009), "texture refers to the surface quality of a work of art...rough, bumpy or smooth, wet sticky or dry" (p.144). When really observing the texture of my favorite fruit (kiwi, apple and oranges) I noticed that they are all different. Kiwi has a rough and dry texture, apples have a shiny and smooth texture, and oranges are rough, sticky and sometimes wet kind of texture. When comparing these fruits to the other fruits in the category, I really noticed that actually every single fruit is different in texture. Pineapples are rough and dry, and grapes are wet and smooth.

When sketching a kiwi, an apple and an orange I really tried to demonstrate the different texture in which each fruit portrays. Not only do fruits have different textures, but they can also be used to make a variety of smoothies, combining many fruits into one drink.The idea of categorizing can be brought into the classroom, it does not necessarily need to be fruits it can be anything that they can categorize based on shape, size or texture.

Apple 

Orange

Kiwi

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. 

Painting with Scissors

Sponge Painting

www.google.com/images

When I was younger, especially in preschool I always enjoyed sponge painting. Every time I would paint whether it was with hands, paintbrush, or sponges I feel like I had been give the opportunity to express myself and feel so free. No instructions, no one telling me what to do, simply paint. However, out of all the different ways in which one can paint I find sponge painting to be more fun. 

www.firstpalette.com

As an activity for young children I would give them the option of big, small, round, or rectangular sponges and give them the freedom to do whatever they feel like doing. They can even cut them to a different shape if they'd like! Children will then choose any color of paint they wish to use for the painting. They will have the opportunity to explore the paint and mix colors to get a variety of colors throughout their painting. They will then dip the sponges into paint and move the sponge onto the blank sheet of paper. With sponge painting children can cover the whole paper with different colors with the sponge or even make a tree with the tapping of the sponge. Sharing experiences, emotions or their own personality can be expressed through painting, in this case sponge painting. This allows for children to really express themselves and feel that they have full power of what they are doing. No instructions no right or wrong answers. 

Once finished with the activity, children can share with the class what their painting is about. They can share what shapes they used and why. They can also share to the class why they decided to make that image or why did they combine the colors they did. 

In relation to this activity, the art word of the week is shape. According to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009), "shape had its own qualities and personalities: simple, complex, circular, anglur, big or small" (p. 140). Shapes are used throughout this activity when choosing the sponges and using the different sizes and shapes to create whatever it is the children want to make.

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. 

Art Film

Donnie Darko (2001)

This week we were asked to watch an art film and chat about it with our classmates. Out of the list of movies, the one that interested me the most was Donnie Darko. I had heard interesting things about the movie, but had never really gotten the chance to watch it. This past weekend I was finally able to watch it, and my first reactions were confusion,very dark and creative! The movie is about a young teenager who keeps getting these messages from a bunny named Frank, whom is asking him to do criminal and dangerous things to other people in order to save his own life. 

The movie was very creative with the settings of the scenes, the way in which they portrayed Donnie and Frank. The detail that the directors put into Donnie "dreams" or "visions" I found absolutely amazing! Every scene in the movie was different and creative in its own way. For example, the scene where Donnie touches his bathroom mirror and sees Frank, and they give the impression that he can pretty much go through it and go into the bunny's world. 

The word I chose to describe this film is surrealism, which according to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009), "it attempts to create a magical, dreamlike world that is more intense than reality" (p. 204). The movie is definitely very surrealistic. The bunny Frank, who talks and gives orders to Donnie and the fact that nobody else sees him. Also the fact that Donnie also uses a time-travel to go back in time in order to save his life, but having been so confusing I am not really sure if I interpreted it correctly. When chatting about the film with me peers, we all said that it was very dream-like since at the end of the film he wakes up from a dream (the entire film). Also, the fact that there is a bunny who talks and gives orders, in my opinion, is very dream-like. 

Overall, this movie was very intense, most of the characters were really creepy and confusing. Yet, the movie still had me captured in every single scene, had me jump in fear a couple of times, but would definitely watch again!
I believe that having a film chat with children would a great tool to enhance children's communication amongst their peers and teacher. I would not consider a film like Donnie Darko, however, there are many art films that are child appropriate in which can be brought into the classroom and every once in a while and have the children watch and chat about it. Some children may see the movie differently and have different thoughts and feelings towards characters, then other children will and that could be a way in which will enhance their communication skills. 

The bunny, Frank

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. 

Looking for Patterns In Urban Settings & Nature

Living in Toronto you are always surrounded by extremely tall buildings, even when you look out your window all you see are buildings, buildings and more buildings. Every once in a while I look out the window and the first thing that I see is this building. However, I had never really noticed its amazing structure and the many patterns it portrays, until I took a picture of it for this assignment! This residential building is located on College Street a couple of blocks from Ryerson U. I took the picture right from my window so I could snap a better picture of it. As you can see this building has repetition. Each floor contains a balcony, which is located on the same place for every floor, same size, shape and location for each floor of the building. The balconies also are placed on the back part  of the building in a u-shaped form. The balconies in the back part of the building are also placed on every floor and are the same size throughout the entire back side of the building. 
The building's structure also demonstrates angles and patterns. At the top of the building you can see the many angles in which the building forms. The back part of the building curves and has the entire back part of the building on a curve. There are also parts of the building that pop out as seen at the top of the building. The repetition of balconies shows a pattern that every side of the building contains. In addition, to the pattern of consistency, the balcony's fences also contain the pattern of simple, plain lines. "Patterns have their own identity. They can be plain and simple..." (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 142). 
The overall design of the building demonstrates that it was meant for repetition of the balcony's, the pattern of the fences, the angles and curves since they all blended well together. "Design is the overall mark o success, the standard of achievement..." (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 142). 
After having done this assignment, I began to notice that patterns and angles surround us everywhere we go. I look at this building everyday and had never noticed it contained so many elements! If it hadn't been for this assignment, I probably would have never noticed the repetition, or the great overall design of the building. Also, from looking at this assignment, patterns can be a fun and creative way for children to learn. Not necessarily in art, but in other ways as well. Activities can be brought into the classroom in which can help children understand the concept of patterns or having open-ended materials and seeing what patterns they come up with. 

Repetition and Patterns in the balconies

Angles at the top of the building

The curved back side of the building

Reference 

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. 

Fine Art Critique

Bernard Boutet de Monvel "Yeshwant Rao Holkar II of Indore in Western Dress" 1929

During our field trip to the Art Gallery of Ontario I had the opportunity to visit the Maharaja Exhibit.  When walking through the Maharaja exhibit, a lot of artwork caught my eye. Yet, the one that stood out the most was the painting above: Yeshwant Rao Holkar II of Indore in Western Dress by Bernard Boutet de Monvel.  My initial reaction was how real the painting looked, I thought it was a photograph! I also noticed how sophisticated the artwork looked. I believe that the portrait is showing the luxury during that time period. You can notice the man's pose, which demonstrates elegance. His outfit looks extremely sophisticated as well as the furniture in the household. 

The label mentioned that the painting was portraying the increase of European influence towards the Indian. One of the major influences was luxury, which is very well displayed in this portrait. Looking at this painting you can immediately say its portraying luxury.  Knowing the history behind the portrait you begin to see more things from the painting, such as the man and his body language demonstrating superiority and the expensive furniture.

While looking at this painting I noticed that it does not have much COLOR. Most of the portrait was painted in BLACK or WHITE, which according to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) that would be called neutral! “NEUTRAL refers to pigments that do not have a particular color. Black and white are considered neutrals” (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 137). I also noticed how clean the painting looks and the artists' use of lines when drawing the outfit of the man as well as the furniture. According to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009), a line "is a visible mark made by an artistic tool, artists produce lines to represent edges" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 135). 

When reading about the artist, Bernard Boutet de Monvel was a French artist who was known creating portraits of pale colors and his use of lines, which shows in this portrait. 


I really enjoyed going to the Art Gallery of Ontario. I saw amazing artwork and learned a lot about the history behind them! For my future teachings, I would definitely consider bringing my class to an art gallery to hear their thoughts towards a painting. This could benefit children in many ways. They can express their thoughts towards the painting, enhancing communication or see if they can identify the emotion of the painting, which also helps us as teachers to see their emotional intelligence. Also the fact that children can get a historical background of the painting and simply learning about art in general. 

My trip to the AGO. 

Reference:

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. 

Instant Sculpture

 For my instant sculpture using household items, I decided to use aluminum foil! At first I wasn't too sure on what I could do with aluminum foil, until I came up with the idea of making a face mask! I began by placing the aluminum foil over my face and really making sure the nose, eyes, and mouth were molded onto the aluminum foil. I also decided to create little people out of aluminum foil to really show the artistic elements. When using the foil, I noticed a few artistic elements such as shape and texture. 
The texture of the foil is what really gives the mask and the tin men its shape. The rough texture that the aluminum foil contains makes it simple for the image to really stand out. To demonstrate the simplicity of molding things using aluminum foil, I decided to make people. As mentioned, the rough texture allowed for the shape to come out faster. In addition to texture, another artistic element is balance. Even though it may not seem like this face mask contains balance. According to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009), there are two types: Symmetrical and Asymmetrical. Symmetrical being equally balance and asymmetrical being objects that are not equally balanced (p.144). To me, this face mask seems to be symmetrical since the nose and the eyes are equally balanced. 
In relation to the aluminum tin men, the artistic element found in this sculpture is a line. The lines of the foil have the arms, legs and body of the tin men to really stick out and forming the overall shape. 

Having done this assignment made me realize that anything or maybe even everything out there has some sort of artistic element. In this case, something as simple as aluminum foil and face masks! Also, the use of open-ended materials allowed me to create anything  I wanted and therefore it can be give to children as well. Children can use open-ended materials to explore and create whatever they are feeling, therefore for my future teachings, open-ended materials will most certainly will be included in my creative arts center. I wonder what children will create with aluminum foil? 

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. 

My Creative Inspiration!

What is Creativity?

Creativity is a word that you can’t really find an exact definition for.  In my view, everyone is creative in their own way. Whether it’s through painting, photography, dancing, or even baking! Baking may not seem something that you can be creative with since a cake is a cake and cupcakes are cupcakes they all look the same. But what if you were to go extreme and change the shape and size of the cake!  For example, Chef Buddy Valastro creating a fire station with just edible ingredients, now that’s creative!

http://www.carlosbakery.com/

http://www.carlosbakery.com/

Anecdote! 

When I was younger, my sisters and I always enjoyed playing with our dolls after school.  We wouldn’t ever play with one of those real dollhouses instead we would just pretend. Until one day we came up with the idea of using legos and whatever was around us to make this extreme dollhouse for our dolls. We used legos to build the shape and walls of the house and used paper towels as blankets and cotton balls as pillows! As we played, each day we would add new things we would find around the house that we felt could be used in our “mansion”.  We would glue tissue paper on the walls so that the walls would look nice and painted. Our bathtub was the bottom of a big bottle of water that was simply cut and painted blue in the inside! The dollhouse consisted of pretty much recyclable items that were used at refrigerators, blankets, rugs etc.  My sisters and I got into building this house that we then wanted to build one for ourselves! Instead of paper towels and cotton balls, we used big blankets that we would place over a tall pole and underneath the blanket we would place chairs as dividers for rooms. Simply being creative with the materials that were surrounding us and using them to building our very own fort! 

Anyone can be creative! Grabbing something so simple as a rubber band and making it the shape of an animal has become something so big! Being creative, in my opinion, is expressing yourself in what you're passionate for. Creating something different by simply trying new things and problem solving your way through. It can be the way you structure an essay, or write a poem. You can even be creative through sports! In many sports you come up with a creative plays (that the opposing team doesn’t know of) to have your team win the game!