March 7, 2008

We began this class with a discussion of the articles that we had read over the past week.  We also were able to discuss our final project with our group. 

We looked at textiles and quilting. We began by looking at the various materials needed and used for quilting. In our groups, we chose a theme that would decide our scene for quilt making. We chose the theme of cities and/or climates. I chose to do a city scene in winter. The quilting/textiles project involved taking pieces of fabric and making a scene. We were told to sew the pieces onto our fabric background. If that was too difficult, we were told we could glue the pieces on instead. After the sewing the first initial piece, (and having some difficulty with it), I chose to glue the rest of the pieces on. The scene was almost like a collage – with pieces layered on top of each other. 

February 29, 2008

We began the class by discussing our personal visual reflections from the art gallery. We were given the chance to discuss our personal reflections with our group members. It was interesting to see the different interpretations of the students on the gallery. Some people thought the same as I did, that art was often confusing and difficult to interpret, whereas others took the approach of looking at one artist and reflecting solely on their work. After discussing with our groups, we were given the opportunity to look at the reflections of other students in the class. It was interesting to see the varying interpretations and artistic understanding of the students. Some had quite abstract interpretations, whereas others were more clearcut and basic. We were then given instruction on printmaking. We were shown how to do printmaking using a variety of materials, from lino to foam to string and a glue gun. Printmaking is simply rolling ink or paint onto a shape or cutout and using it as a stamp on a piece of paper. We were told to use each material and make a shape. The groups were to have a specific theme to focus their prints on. Our group decided to choose the theme of the jungle or rainforest. My first material was the foam. I drew a flower into the foam using a sharp pencil and used a roller to cover the print in ink. The second material used was the linoleum. We used a sharp knife like object to cut away the excess from our image. We were left with an object that looked a lot like a stamp. The third material used was cardboard and string. We used a glue gun to glue string onto the piece of cardboard. We then used the roller to paint ink onto the print. After completing the three types of materials, we were given a large sheet of white paper to use as a group to make a large print. We all used our various shapes and objects to create our sheet.   

February 22, 2008

We were given the chance to visit the Helen Belkin Art Gallery, which is a gallery located on the UBC campus. It was an interesting and inspiring visit. The exhibit was called “Exponential Future” and focused on eight young B.C. artists. The artists featured were Tim Lee, Alex Morrison, Isabelle Pauwels, Kevin Schmidt, Mark Soo, Corin Sworn, Althea Thauberger and Elizabeth Zvonar. The curators chose artists working in different media whose work involved a wide range of issues to give an overview of the new artistic thinking of our time and place. Having never been to a contemporary art gallery before, I was somewhat shell shocked going in. I believed the gallery experience would be like those traditionally seen in movies and television, where the gallery visitor stands at a painting and tries to decipher what the artist is trying to say. However, this gallery experience was not like that. Many of the exhibits were interactive with moving parts, video or sound. Others required a lot of thought and contemplation to think about what the artist was trying to say. Some pieces, to me, didn’t even seem like art and it was difficult to imagine their place in the gallery. As I went through the exhibits, my mind kept coming back to the same question: What is Art? So many of the pieces shown did not seem like the traditional art I was used to. They were open to interpretation and required the viewer to open their mind to new possibilities.  During my time at the gallery, I was forced to question my own beliefs about what is art and what isn’t. Even now, I still question what is art and what isn’t. I find myself looking at everyday objects in a new light, as though they may be a piece of art! The trip to the art gallery further emphasized the fact that art is open to interpretation and can have different meanings to different people. In the classroom, all children who try are creating pieces of art, there are no specific requirements necessary!Visual Reflection from Gallery

February 15, 2008

We were asked to bring a cultural object to class – one that represented a part of our heritage. I chose to bring a Manchester United jersey as it represented my late father’s childhood home. We presented our cultural object to our group and explained its importance. We then walked around the class and looked at the other cultural objects from other students in the class. It was interesting to see the various objects that represented the cultural heritage of the other students. We then used paint to make a colour wheel. We used paint to create value and tone. We made different values from colours using black and white paint. A colour can have different values depending on what is mixed with it. We were then given a chance to paint our sculptures from February 1. After learning about the different shades, value and tone that colour can have, our sculptures were given beautiful colour and life. We were also given time to paint our plaster puppets, which also brought them to life! 

February 8, 2008

We began by creating drawings, through memory, line drawing and blind drawing. In some ways it was as though we were trying to draw like children at various stages in their development. We then looked at our children’s drawing assignment. We put ourselves into a circle, grouped by age. My drawing was done by a 10 year old so I was placed close to the end of the circle. The class had drawings done by children from age 21 months to 14 years. It was interesting to see the progression and development of children in art. The younger children had lines and scribbles for their drawings, whereas the older children had more sophisticated, detailed drawings. We then discussed the elements and principles of art – from lines to form to emphasis. We looked in magazines to find pictures that show the elements and principles of art. It was interesting to see how each page had some element or principle to it, whether it was line, colour or shape. Once we start looking, we notice that art is all around us. We just have to look to find it.We took the clippings from the magazines and pasted them onto sheets of paper to display our principles and elements of art. It provided us with a clear view of each element and a reference for us to look back on if we ever need.We then made finger puppets out of plaster of paris. We used strips of plaster of paris and wrapped it around our finger to make a finger puppet. We then added smaller pieces of plaster to make ears, eyes, wings etc. This activity is great for any age group and can be modified to relate to other subjects – i.e. can be done to make an Aboriginal totem pole for social studies.   

February 1, 2008

We began the class by watching Alex work with the clay. He used various techniques to make a simple piece of clay look extraordinary. Every time he did something to his piece, he made it that much different and more interesting. It goes to show that a piece of art is never truly complete, it can constantly be updated and changed to create something new. The techniques he demonstrated could be used easily in an elementary school classroom and adapted for different grade levels. We were then given the opportunity to create a sculpture of our own.  I decided to make a sculpture of an animal but I wasn’t sure where to start. After working with the clay for some time and thinking about possible animals that I wanted to sculpt, I settled on a penguin. I decided my penguin would be more of a cartoon than an actual penguin. I started with two balls of clay, one on top of the other. I then shaped the wings, beak and feet. I made two small round balls for eyes. Using what Alex called “slip”, I glued the pieces onto the main body. The slip is a combination of water and clay to make a paste that holds the pieces together. I then used a stick to add texture to the piece.     

January 25, 2008

We began the class by being put into colour groups, ours being red. We were told to walk around the Scharfe building and try to find objects that were of our colour. We found leaves, pieces of paper, Coke cans, chip bags and a chair. In class we also found that some members of our group were wearing red and we used those in our display. We used the chair as the main focal point and put all our red items in it, arranging them in such a way that it looked like an advertisement for international school or a book company!

While listening to a piece of music, we were asked to draw on four pieces of paper with felts. I let the sounds in the piece guide my felt pen. The result looked like nothing more than a scribble but it was a result of the music that I heard. The various sounds in the piece often made my pen go wild on the paper or made it move slowly.

After we had finished our drawing, we were asked to cut or rip the pages into smaller pieces and make a shape on a black piece of paper. I ripped and cut the pages into various pieces, unsure of what shape to make on my page. As I did so, one the pieces turned out looking like a crown. I then had the idea to make a king on my page, one that seemed to go well with the love story piece of music that we heard.

 We then were asked to cut pieces of our colour, red, from magazines. As a group, we ripped and cut pages and sections from magazines that were red in colour. We used a variety of shades of red, ensuring that we had a vibrant selection. We were then told to take those pieces that we had cut out and make a shape on a white piece of paper. As a group we discussed what we thought would be a good shape to make. Considering our colour is red, we decided that a broken bleeding heart would be a good choice. It also went well with the music that we had heard.