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!