Arts Explorer #10: Community Arts Project

Our final assignment involved creating a community arts project that promoted diversity and social justice. At first it was difficult to choose an organization and topic to promote but through many discussions and brainstorming with my group we were able to identify that we wanted to raise awareness about child labour in hopes of promoting education globally. As early childhood educators we wanted to raise awareness on a topic that was relevant to our field, and child labourers who are not able to attend school is a huge concern.

OUR BIG IDEA! was not only to raise awareness surrounding child labour but to also raise money to fund Unicef protective actions to eradicate child labour. We planned to achieve these goals by using Facebook to hold a contest for the creative design and selling of t-shirts (which the profits would be donated to Unicef). 

 

(Our Facebook Page)

The Facebook page reflects that we as a group believe that all children should have the right to education, and that forced labour is truly leading children in the opposite direction from this. We used the arts through Facebook as well as the contest idea itself. We invited anyone with an interest to put their creative ideas in action by designing a t-shirt promoting child labour awareness. The arts truly offered the endless possibilities of entries for t-shirt ideas...

Our project involved stakeholders such as Unicef and Facebook as well as the company Ethical Ocean who would provide the printing opportunities and production for the winning t-shirt design!

Ultimately we aimed to persuade people over Facebook as we found it a very useful tool in communicating today. As university students, much of how we interact with others is over the internet and Facebook has so many users that it was easiest to reach a large amount of people. Within the first week of creating our page we were able to get 86 followers!

THE PRESENTATION

In preparation for our project presentation our group had a busy process. We decided to make our "Take Away" handout a t-shirt with a hand on it which listed 5 facts about child labour. Here is what the process looked like....

And here was the end result!

 

Overall I think our presentation went well. We all felt we presented our big idea successfully and people seemed to enjoy our handout t-shirts. The only thing I might have done differently was somehow engage the class a bit more. Possibly by asking more questions or asking for volunteers for a type of demonstration just to fully engage everyone's attention. Unfortunately there was not enough time for questions from peers afterwards but the professor did ask us one. She asked where we planned to sell our t-shirts....and we replied with our intentions to sell them online through Ethical Ocean which sells certified organic cotton fair-trade t-shirts that can be printed in Canada. 

 "Somewhat of an" Art Word of the Week: Social Justice

I think social justice is a type of goal we should all have in creating a world where equality is most important. Social justice involves understanding human rights and allowing everyone the same respect and dignity regardless of their race, occupation, social status or life decisions. Social justice means everyone has an equal opportunity, in our project's case we aimed to provide child labourers the opportunity for education.  

Arts Explorer #9: Guerilla Art

What is Guerilla Art All About?

This week our assignment required making a sort of street art!

I had never heard of this idea before but ultimately the goal was to leave anonymous pieces of artwork in public places for others to see. I decided on spreading smiles :)

I chose hot pink post-it notes as my art piece and wrote the words “Smile More” in many different ways. I then set off to spread good vibes to Toronto along my daily commute. I was inspired to leave post-it notes throughout my commute as I have noticed that not many people smile or look remotely happy while on the go train and subway, and I felt if I saw an anonymous note like this I would at least crack a small grin. 

Some of my Post-it notes I made

Here are the many places I posted my notes...

on a seat in class

on a post on campus

on someone's bicycle

 a Ryerson University campus map

In the subway station

 

 on the GO train ticket puncher

(keep scrolling down)

Arts Explorer #8: Magical Thinking

When engaging in pretend play I believe we are exercising our creative and imaginative parts of our brains. In magical thinking we tend to imagine ideal or unrealistic situations, in a way to play out unknown scenarios in our lives.

This week my magical thinking created Ms. Betty Boot. While on the train home I could not decide what object to bring to life, until I looked down at my feet...

Meet Ms. Betty Boot! She is a two year old winter boot (however in boot years she is much more mature). Betty Boot loves traveling and is always up for a new adventure. Her favourite season is winter and she absolutely loves snow. Betty Boot has a warm and calming personality but is not afraid to stand up for herself when people try to push her around. She lives on a mat inside a front door with other boots and shoes which she considers her family. Betty Boot hates when she gets stepped on, and she also hates puddles. Betty Boot is very much into style and loves accessories like her sunglasses. Betty Boot maintains a very active lifestyle and her favourite color is PINK!

Implications for the future...

This activity is a great way to encourage imagination and magical thinking. When working with children in the future this is a great potential activity, since children are always creating new things as it is. The only way I would adapt this activity to make it more developmentally appropriate for younger children is to provide them with many objects and materials to bring to life. I would also get the children to share their new object’s personality and background aloud, either in a circle or small groups as opposed to writing it up.

Art word of the week: Design

I feel design consists of the composition of any piece of art. A design can take form in many ways for example...a creative image on paper, a sketched outline, structure of a building or an idea in your head. For my project this week, design included bringing an object to life. I designed aspects of the personality in my mind and chose elements to add accordingly for an effective "living" object. I designed Betty Boot through both my mental and visual ideas

Arts Explorer #7: Grocery Shopping with a Citrus Twist!

The category of food I chose was citrus fruits. There are many variations of citrus fruits, however they all have thick rinds and juicy pulp. Citrus fruits are grown in warm regions and on tropical area trees. The most common types of citrus are lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, clementines, pomelo, kumquats, and papayas.

(http://blog.nativefoods.com/.a/6a0112796f38d028a40148c7cb93c7970c-800wi)

Citrus fruits can range in many colors. They can be yellow, green, orange, flesh-colored, or red. Citrus fruits can be small like a lime or large like a papaya. They also range in shapes from completely circular (limes, oranges, pomelo), to circular with a pointed tip (lemons, clementines), to an odd shaped with small tip (papaya). Citrus fruits all have a juicy taste however they all have a bit of a sour tangy after taste (some more than others). They are a great source of vitamin C. When working with children in the future, discussing the different textures, tastes, colours and appearances of citrus fruits or any food category would be a useful strategy. One way this activity of grouping foods could be adjusted for younger children could be providing them magazines and newspapers to flip through and cut out any of the applicable products they find.

Different Ways to Find Citrus in Your Foods....

Ripe slices of: lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, clemetines, pomelo, kumquats, papaya etc.

Marmalade

Orange zest

Candied citrus peels

Sweetner in water

Drink garnish (lemon/limes) or sangrias

Key lime pie

 Lemon juice

 Pomelo sorbet

Lemon flavored cough drops

Lemonade

Limeade

Grapefruit cocktail

Lime juice

Lemon tea

Orange juice (fresh)

Orange juice (frozen)

Lemon chicken

Papaya smoothie

Kumquat jam

Mixed in salads

Lemon sorbet

Lemon merangue pie

Papaya salsa

Lemoncake

Lime/ Lemon candy gumdrops

Kumquat simmered in sugar syrup

Marinades/seasonings

 Papaya vinaigrette
Orange Flavoured chocolate

Citrus is also imitated quite often in scents for household cleaning products, soaps and shampoo and hand creams. I sketched three different sources of citrus...

       Art Word of the Week: Shape
      I feel that shape is a concept used to describe the physical appearance of an object. Shapes can be symmetrical, 3D, uneven, or repeating. The shape of something refers to the structure of the lines it is composed of and the direction of the space it takes up. This week all the citrus fruits were circular in shape, however each was a bit different. This shows that shapes can be similar and yet still vary.

Arts Explorer #6: Word Collage with Scissors

“ WORD COLLAGING WITH SCISSORS!”

How can we represent our identities and understanding of the world?

In order to represent our own identity through artwork, we need to establish the values that we personally consider most important to portray. After identifying personal values as contributors to our lives, we as the artists need to consider how the values are related to the greater global community. Finding similarities in aspects and values from around the world can help an individual identify how they are connected to the international or global community.

My activity involved creating a collage to display the important aspects of my personal cultural Canadian life and the same aspects that also are applicable around the world. Communicating personal identity in my art activity was expressed through the use of newspaper print words collaged together. The overall aim of my activity is to get others to pick words from print that are important or applicable to their life (either positive or negative), and to further consider how they are applicable to the international community. To adjust this activity further for younger children, they can look through magazines and cut out pictures that are important to them or pick favourite colors and collage them together.

 Above: My personal word collage

Once important aspects are cut out, the artist can pick a symbol to collage them in, which represents something personal to them. For my own example, I decided to collage my words together in the shape of a butterfly to represent personal freedom. The right wing of the butterfly has positive aspects and the left wing has negative aspects, all of which are experienced personally and globally. Finally my sentence for the artwork is, “Imagine the global community”. This provokes thought for viewers as they read the words on the wings, and will hopefully attempt to consider how each aspect can apply to their own life and all lives around the world. I also picked newsprint for the background of my collage to show how the print words i picked stand out for me. Children can pick whatever sentence they feel reflects their collage best, to communicate an important meaning in their life.

ART WORD OF THE WEEK: COLLAGE

To me, a collage is a piece of artwork which contains many similar materials in the same space. Often cluttered or overlapping, collages do not contain a lot of empty space. It can be created from many artistic materials. A collage is personally created through the artist's decisions and some contents may be meaningless alone, however all pieces together as a whole is what creates the effectiveness of the collage and the message.

Arts Explorer #5: Watch an Art Film

The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) was the film I chose to watch. It was definitely a film that provoked thought and kept my interest as it was unlike most plots. The character Joel (Jim Carey) becomes heartbroken that his girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) went through a procedure to erase him from her memory. Despite their fight I was a bit unsure as to why she wanted to completely erase him from her memory since that seemed very drastic. I felt that this type of plot for a film was uniquely abstract since the idea of erasing someone’s mind is very creative and almost unheard of. After realizing through the confusion what Clementine did, Joel decides to do the same. Unfortunately Joel realizes he made a mistake and does not want to watch his memories of Clementine fade forever so he attempts to fight the procedure. I found this concept also abstract as mind erasing (in itself) was creative enough but then escaping mind erasing was even more complex. In the end after having their minds erased, they end up meeting anyways which brought a sense of fate to the plot, later they receive their original records from the secretary (of the office which erased their minds) and they discover they’re former lovers.

  picture retrieved from: http://www.blogcdn.com/blog.moviefone.com/media/2011/01/eternalsunshine.jpg

Through discussing this film with my CLD 215 peers we all realized that we found the film a bit unusual in the way that the character Clementine was portrayed. She seemed as if she was a very careless and constantly changing person (which was evident through her hair color and clothing choices). We also found that the concept of mind erasing was very unique and that it caught our attention.

picture retrieved from: http://cf1.imgobject.com/backdrops/452/4bc901ec017a3c57fe000452/eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-original.jpg

When working with children in the future, discussing films can be an effective way to experience different perspectives and incorporate art. One way in which I would alter this activity would be selecting a single movie for the class to view and showing it in class so everyone had the same opportunity to share their ideas on the same movie. Picking a single movie for younger audiences would be helpful as they may not have access to a variety of choices and it would gaurantee an appropriate viewer rating (ex: G or PG).

Art Word of The Week: ABSTRACT

I feel that an abstract concept refers to something that is unlike true existence. There is no rule or reason for why things are abstract. It can be considered apart from reality but it is also a new creation through influences in reality. Abstract concepts are hard to understand and interpret but they have meaning to the creator. In artwork the word abstract is usually applied to paintings with no defined image or meaning, however I found that the movie had abstract components. This showed me that films are just a different mean of art.

Arts Explorer #4: Looking for Patterns

Trying to find a pattern was hard to pick because there were so many options. Going to school in Toronto definitely offered many buildings and patterns on the streets but I wanted to make mine a bit more distinct yet personal. I decided to pick a pattern in nature: the design of zebra skin. The zebra design is my most favourite animal print and I actually have many articles of clothing and other belongings imitating this pattern. Although this pattern is in nature it is increasingly popular through imitations in urban settings (for example in stores and products).

picture retrieved from: http://www.graphicshunt.com/images/zebra-7828.htm

 

I went to the Toronto Zoo this summer and took pictures of a zebra since it is my favourite wild animal, this is another aspect of nature still being present within the GTA.

 

         my personal photo of a zebra at the Toronto Zoo

                   Me at the Zoo

The pattern of zebra skin is distinctly repetitive. Having only two colors, its creates an original assumption or sense of simplicity however each stripe is uniquely shaped which creates an intriguing sense of complexity. The closer you analyze zebra stripes the more appreciation for nature’s own beautiful patterns can be felt. Almost everyone including children can identify this pattern which indicates how unique and distinct the zebra pattern really is in the world.

 Art Word of The Week: PATTERN

 

Patterns include alternating sequences of some sort. I think that often times patterns are associated with colors or symmetry however it can be the repeating structure of any aspect in life. Patterns through artwork can be words, designs, shapes, masses, spaces and textures to visually be represented. Patterns can occur naturally or be created.

Arts Explorer #3: Fine Art Critique

This week our creative arts class had a field trip to the Art Gallery of Ontario. It was a very interesting opportunity for us as we were able to experience creativity in a different setting and were even provided strategies as to how to make experiences more interesting for future students. The work of art that caught my interest was the painting: Winter Woods 1915, by Lawren S. Harris.

My initial reaction was very positive as I felt like this scene was somewhat familiar. The image of pine trees covered in snow symbolized a very Canadian winter to me. I later learned that Lawren Harris was a member of the famous Group of Seven so he did focus mainly on the Lake Superior region and Canadian landscapes. I feel that Lawren Harris was trying to show the world how Canada looks during the winter months. This was relatable to me as I have lived in Canada all my life and have had my fair share of cold and snowy winters.

picture retrieved from: http://www.sivertson.com/images/products/big/1Winter.Woods.Harris.jpg

The most important element to me in the painting was the color as it made me feel relaxed. I found a sense of calm coolness towards the bottom of the painting mostly due to the cooler primary and secondary colors used. At the same time I felt a sense of rising warmth in the painting as the top of the landscape has warmer looking colors creating visible foliage through the snow, possibly due to the sun melting it away. This highlight reminded me of the very cold days of winter we are experiencing currently, because on bright sunny winter days the sky looks deceivingly warm and bright however it is still bitter cold. Another highlight of the painting was that it had many layers of paint which added texture and a realistic sense of layers of snow and ice on top of the trees. Finally the way in which the colors softly mixed reminded me of Canadian winters since snow literally falls everywhere and there are no limits as to where snow can fall in Ontario. Therefore it creates a type of mixing and covering of landscapes.

Art Word Of The Week: COLOR

I think color provides a visual sense of lightness or darkness to any object. Color does not have to be the same as there are many possible variations. Color has been put into categories and color wheels which describe it as warm, cool, primary, secondary, intermediate, neutral or complementary. Color is a very important aspect in everyday life as it is part of an individual's personality and it brings joy. Without color, our world would be boring.

 

Arts Explorer #2: Instant Sculpture

My instant sculpture took some thought since we had to use materials not intended for designing which was hard. I finally decided on using a package of pink bendable straws I had in my kitchen cupboard. After deciding to assemble the straws together, lining them up, I realized what my sculpture could end up being: a model of an outside lounge chair. Since the straws were bendable, I positioned them upwards to make the incline of the backrest. As I was hot gluing the straws I really started to enjoy my creation. In the summer I love to lounge outside in the sun on a deck chair, so creating this sculpture reflected a part of my personality and enjoyment. 

After gluing and bending the straws I realized my chair needed legs. I found two hair curlers and hot glued them to the bottom of the chair which raised it up for the legs. I also cut one curler in half to make a headrest on the back. I made arm rests by simply bending the straws into a triangle on each side. After the chair was created I decided to add a few more personal touches of my own, by using a small drink umbrella on the back and using a pencil eraser and cap as a drink. In the end I was very happy with my instant sculpture, considering I had no real idea at first. I was able to realize that as I went along, the initial creativity with the lines (straws) were able to lead me to a final product which resulted in a slight reflection of myself as well.

Art Word Of The Week: Line
I feel that a line is a continuous mark following along the same path. Lines can go in many directions and do not need to be straight. A line can be thin or wide, drawn or 3D, straight or curved. Lines can represent a type of order and direction, but at the same time they can go their own way and be creative.

Line designs related to my instant lounge chair sculpture this week, since the main shape of it was inspired by straight straw lines. In this case my lines were bendable and 3D however they still maintained a design order and ended up resembling a spontaneous lounge chair idea. I never would have thought it was possible to create a sculpture with straws but I have learned for future teaching activities that simple materials sometimes are the hardest creative challenges.

picture retrieved from: http://www.paulburwell.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/bendy_straws.jpg

Arts Explorer #1: My Creative Inspiration

What Does Creativity Mean?

Creativity: to me, is adding your own personal touch. I see creativity as the ability to incorporate personal interests and desires for discovery into a process working alongside outside influences to find a unique end result. Creativity does not have specific rules or limits, it can occur through endless forms of talent.

In other words, creativity can alter an existing idea or trend to make it one's own. Here is a popular attraction, which many people pose with for a picture (usually appearing to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa...) however this man's creativity puts a spin on the existing idea and makes it his own.

retrieved from: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/151/399633119_fc6ec2eea3.jpg

My Creative Inspiration

       My personal inspiration is, and will always be music. Ever since I was young, I have always loved to sing and have enjoyed a wide variety of music. I took singing lessons for 8 years and participated in competitions and exams. Today I have less time to formally practice, however I listen to music everyday and sing along to all my favourite songs on the radio. Sharing my voice with others was a challenge for me since I was only comfortable singing for my family. Participating in singing helped me gain the confidence I still use today to present in front of larger groups. My unique hobby came into great use in both my child-based school placements as I was able to add music and songs into my activities. I plan to continue to use music as a great teaching strategy when working with children in the future.

      About a year ago I decided on two music notes for a tattoo behind my ear. I used creativity to make my inspirational love for music more unique and personal for myself. The tattoo literally symbolizes my permanent love for singing and music in my life.

my tattoo