Community Arts Project - Helping the Homeless!

For our community arts project, I was paired up with two other girls in the class. We decided to collaborate our project with Covenant House, a place where homeless teens are able to come and seek help. For our project we decided to create a hypothetical video supporting covenant house, trying to get people aware. In our video we would capture people's attention at Dundas Sq. by telling them about Covenant House. We would then distribute candles to everyone and would lite one for the next person to pass along the flame to the next. We would then lead a march towards Covenant House with our candles and our supporters. Once we reached Covenant House there would be candles lit everywhere on the steps. We would ask people to donate and to be aware of homeless teenagers and try and get them to come to covenant house so that they have a place to live.

I think our presentation went really well! There were a few mumbles in our speech, but that was just because of nervousness. I think we presented our idea to the class in the best way that we could. We distributed candles to the class for them to take home which read on the side "shed a light," meaning shed a light for homeless teenagers. I think that during our presentation we could have spoken slower and spoken louder.

We only heard back from the teacher what she thought our presentation was like. She told us that it was a great place to support and wondered how we would get people's attention if no one was going to come up to us at first to see what we were doing at Dundas Sq. We told her that we would have family and friends that would help us and would hopefully bring crowds of people to the square. We heard back from our friends that we did an amazing job and that they thought the candles were a great idea to do and to give out. The teacher asked us if the candles were cheap, and we told her that yes that they were cheap so it wouldn't cost a lot of money and that you could even get them at the dollar store. The next day I heard back from a friend on facebook that she really liked our presentation and thinks that we will get a great mark for how we presented it!

Guerilla Art - Sidewalk Art!

"Look Up The Sky Is Falling"

I did this art activity with a friend. We went out onto the streets of Toronto and used chalk to write "Look Up The Sky Is Falling." We wanted to see if people would stop to read it or if they actually looked up into the sky. When we first started doing the art piece a man came up to us and started talking to us about what we were drawing. The next person that came up to us was a lady. She made a somewhat rude remark to my friend that said "How old are you?" Meaning that we shouldn't be drawing with chalk on the sidewalk at our age. I felt as though she didn't know what exactly we were doing and that she didn't need to make such a rude comment.

Once we were finished drawing the words, we walked across the street to start to take photos of people's reactions. We got a lot of people looking down and reading what it said. We got a few people who actually started looking up to see if there was something going on, it was quite funny! Unfortunately there were no children around to see our drawings, but it would have been really interesting to see how they would've reacted to a colourful sidewalk. I think that since children love to play with sidewalk chalk, introducing them to different types of drawings/art works would get them more interested in what they can do. I would ask them what they though sidewalk art is to them, and if it is even considered art. I would let children draw whatever they wanted with the sidewalk chalk and let them explain what they drew. I loved playing with sidewalk chalk as a child and to be honest, I had fun when doing this art activity!

Here are some people's reactions:

Magical Thinking!

http://illusion.scene360.com/art/8872/characters-and-objects-come-to-life-on-city-streets/

These pictures are done with chalk and paint on the sides of streets. It's amazing what little people can do to make something look like it's coming to life. In each of these paintings shows a different cartoon character. One of the paintings shows a crossing walk turned into a watch. These different paintings illustrate what creativity is. I like how the images look so realistic but still have a cartoon twist to them. I love how these paintings can show depth to the cartoon even though they are painted on a sidewalk. These illustrations can tell that the painter who created these is very artistic and loves to created unrealistic representations of things. This is truly art in it's finest form.

If I was to find these paintings on the street, I would love to bring children to come and see what they thought about them. I would ask them what they think they are and why someone would paint these on the street. If there was a safe area where we could get children to paint on the sidewalks, I would make it happen! 'Magic' is a great word for children to learn and to think about what it really means. I would ask the children what they think magic means and how we can draw magic onto the sidewalks. I would ask them if these paintings that they saw was magic and if so, why?

CHEESE! - What can we do?

CHEESE!!!

- Orange Cheese, Cheese cake, Grilled cheese, Mac and cheese, Cottage cheese, Feta cheese, Cream cheese, Cheese whiz, Cheese bread, Cheese pizza, Cheese lasagna, Goat cheese, Havarti cheese, Blue cheese, Guda cheese, Bree cheese



All these different types of cheese/cheese forms make me want to eat cheese soooo badly! Some of these cheese's have different textures completely, and some are quite similar. Some of the cheese's I have listed are different colours, like orange, white, and even blue. Some cheese can be melted to make a girlled cheese or cheese bread for example, and some is cooked into a cake like cheese cake. Here is my sketch of three items of different forms of cheese. :)

If I was an early childhood educator, I would have a full week of talking about different kinds of foods. I would have a different type of food that we as a class would talk about each day and what we can do with that food. For example, if it was cheese, I would ask the children about the texture of the cheese, the colour, who eats cheese?, does it have a smell?, what can we do with cheese other than eat it?, can we make some type of other food that involves cheese?, and where does it come from? Asking different questions about cheese could help explore different activities with that particular food. I would get children to paint what they think about cheese, and maybe what their favourite type of cheese is. Continuing onto the next day, we would talk about a different type of food.



Scrapbooking with Scissors!

"Scrapbooking with Scissors"

An art activity that I would choose for children would be a scrapbooking activity. I love to scrapbook when I have free time on my hands. I have created tons of scrapbooks from past events such as trips, my first year at university, and of my best friends. I think that it's a great way to remember special times that you had with friends and family and to show how creative one can get. I think a scrapbooking activity that I would get older children (that can cut and paste and come up with creative ideas) to do would be to have them do a collage of something that they love. For example, children could collect items that remind them of their family, or even things that they collect such as pictures of birthday cakes. Putting their creative ideas onto a huge piece of paper gives them opportunity to expand their minds and come up with adventurous collages. I think that this will teach children about important things in their life and how special they really are to a person.

Scrapbooking not only shows how creative someone can be but also lets people know that we must cherish each moment in our life and remember all that we can. I think children will want to look back at a scrapbooking activity like this one and remember what they thought was important to them at the time and reflect on their art.

Art Film - Wishes!

My Conversation between Magdalen Dydula and Myself

Carolyn: personally, I was kind of bored during the film...it was a very dramatic movie which I think made it not that exciting for me, because stuff like this can actually happen in real life and it just seems, I duno..scary and really depressing...what did you think?
Magdalen: I understand what you mean by depressing. It made me angered inside and feel agitated inside when I saw Jon Do as the person he was inside as he was prior to his stroke. And the body he was caged in afterwards. His mind ran miles where as his body (other than his one eyes) was completely incapacitated..excuse the spelling of the name
Carolyn: ya I have no clue how to spell his name..anyways! it was sad to watch his children and his father become so affected by Jean's tragedy..whereas before when they showed glimpses of his life before the tragedy, he was such a loving father and son..it was definately life changing for him and for his family as well..it makes you wonder about real life occurences like this one
Magdalen: i really appreciated the mother of his children taking the time and making the effort to care for Jean and made sure his children were there to see him and support him as well. However, as sad as that was there were two things that changed altered my sad state in watching the film
Magdalen: first was that Jean had a lover who may or may not of torn his family apart prior to the accident which I felt was a negative second was the language translation and the voice over that took away from some of the intense moments such as the time Jean's father was crying over the phone
Carolyn: ya I didn't like the overlay of the speech..it was a foreign film..I also didn't like how the camera director filmed the movie..although it is how Jean saw the world, it made me feel sick at times because for one the camera wasn't showing the whole image (how we as normal human beings see the world) and also because it made me feel so depressed for Jean, knowing that that is how he watches his everyday occurrence..it makes me sick just thinking about how this can happen to people
Magdalen: I have the same feeling. it is really tragic but I think that how the director captured the scenes from Jean's eye, I believe, made the point he intendedCarolyn: ya that's true
Magdalen: I think it was supposed to make people feel this way..I also found the film a little bit confusing; especially there parts where he was under water in the scubadiving outfit
Carolyn: ya I didn't understand what that was all about, also the virgin mary statue...this movie was just confusing over all..but i'm glad we picked this one to watch out of all the other ones
Magdalen: I'm glad we did too, I wanted to watch it because it was based on a real life story and it was also eye opening apart from much confusion.
Carolyn: agreed :) 

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

For those of you who haven't seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, it is about a man who leads a normal accelerating lifestyle until he has a stroke and is unable to move his body and unable to talk. He goes through many challenges such as having one of his eyes sewn shut, and also to be able to talk he had to blink whenever someone read him the alphabet; this was how he spoke to others. He had three children who were all still very young. Whenever he thought about his children or his father, he became very sad and remembered back to the good times he had with them. His ex came to visit often because of the children and so she stayed a lot at the hospital with him to keep him company. He became close with his therapist who was helping him write his book that he had always wanted to write.

I was very confused throughout the movie when they kept on flashing back to when he was normal. The way the director filmed this movie made it hard to understand for me and hard to keep track of the past and present. My friend and I watched the movie together and we both were very surprised with the ending. We weren't really expecting him to pass, but we knew he wasn't going to get better. We both felt somewhat bored during the movie because it was more of a serious matter that keeps you down and depressed. My friend and I talked about real life occurrences such as this one, and how it can affect your life forever, and the people around you. I can't imagine going through something like that, I would just want to die. Not being able to move or talk, and not even able to see the world with two eyes just makes things terrible for a person. I have always had respect and care for people who are unable to do certain things in their life such as this person, but not until I watched this movie do I have even more respect for people with life threatening events.

Personally I wouldn't get children to watch this movie until they were older. If I was to show clips from this movie to young children, I would chose the clips when the man's family came to visit him in the hospital and how the children reacted to their father whose lifestyle had changed in an instance. An art activity for children could maybe be children drawing the man sitting in the hospital and allowing them to make wishes that the father might want for himself. I would discuss to the cihldren that everyone can make wishes for themselves, and people who are physically hurt or upset should be allowed to have more wishes than others. We would discuss as a class what kinds of wishes the man would be wanting for himself and if he would be able to get those wishes.

Spot the Patterns!

The photo on the left was taken by myself on a walk to campus one day. I'm not sure what building this is but it's huge! The photo on the right was also taken by myself at my home up north in Muskoka. I didn't want to add just a boring photo of a building so I added a colourful nature filled photo of leaves last summer. These photos are very different from eachother, one coming from the busy city life that has creative designs and one from a natural and clean environment that shows creativity as well. These pictures also show that I have two different lifestyles, a city girl who is always on the go, and a layed back and relaxed girl who enjoys the outdoors and exploring the woods.

If I was an early childhood educator I would love to bring children to places where they are able to spot patterns in everyday life. It would be amazing to bring children to a city life landscape to spot patterns, and then bring them to a countryside area where they are still able to spot patterns, but patterns in nature. I would get the children to compare the patterns to one another. Spotting the patterns would help an early childhood educator discuss things like colour, shape, lines, texture, movement, etc. This will help children realize differences in city life patterns and countryside patterns.

AGO Visit - Nature, Colour, Distance, Animals!

Maharana Jawan Singh of Mewar is seen with his hounds in pursuit of two wild boar both in the foreground and background of this painting. The focal point of the painting is where he slashes the larger boar with his sword while his dogs are attacking the smaller boar. The green dress that is worn by the ruler and his army, as well as the emphasis on the green vegetation of nature show the mark of a ritual hunt called Aheriya. During this hunt, the ruler and his army were to wear green robes.

When I look at this piece of artwork shown from the Maharaja exhibit in the AGO, I see anger but yet struggle for survival. I see a beautiful landscape filled by trees and mountains and a deep blue sky. What I think the artist is trying to portray is that although nature is a beautiful thing people can sometimes be oblivious to it and sometimes only focus on negative things. (like a vicious fight)

This painting makes me feel happy yet confused. The nature shown in this painting shows light and serenity, but when a fight for survival is put into place I feel confused as to why they would be placed in such surreal nature, why not on a rainy day to help the negative feeling of the death of the boars and the blood spilling take over. This painting somewhat reminds me of the movie "Marry Poppins" because in the movie there is a wild chase with horses and hound dogs. I love the movie "Marry Poppins" which is why I think I chose to write my post on this painting.

I think that this is a great painting for children to see when they visit the AGO because it shows how the world can be a frustrating place and that not all things go the way they are suppose to. I also think that the design in this painting is very pin point and very clear, and I think children will like this painting because of the organizational aspect of the horses and dogs. It is a very clear painting for the children's imagination to run wild and make them wonder what will happen next! I think that the words that I as an early childhood educator would discuss with the children would be words like nature, distance, animals, colours, shapes, because these words are what make up the painting. I would start talking about nature and where this painting takes place. I would add in the word 'distance' to try and see if the children recognize the landscape of the mountains and the fields. Next, I would ask the children what animals they see in this painting and talk about for example, what horses are used for; are they used for riding? If I was showing this painting to very young children, colours and shapes would be good to bring up.

Overall, I think children would be interested in this piece because of the animals mainly, and how it would look somewhat cartoonish to them!

Instant Sculpture!

Before I moved to the city of Toronto for school I was never the type of girl who would get all dressed up in a short dress and heels and go out with my friends; I guess this was because I lived/live in a really small town and there was/is still nothing to do there. Growing up with an older brother who played outdoors almost every single day influenced me to tag along in a pair of sneakers and shoot some hoops. Although I LOVE to get dressed up now and party it up, running around in a pair of sneakers playing basketball and street hockey is still something I do whenever I have the opportunity. I guess behind the hidden fashion wall of glammer and sass will always be a muddy kind of girl who's not afraid to get dirt on her shoes. I am a star of sport at heart.

To sculpt, is to take things whether they are personal items or store bought products, and bring them together to create something new and different. I wouldn't necessarily think of sculpting with shoes to be an activity for young children, but now that I think of it, it would be a fun thing to do when in circle time. Everyone could take their shoes and pile them up in the middle of the circle. The teacher could then ask the children what they believe sculpting really means and what they could make out of this huge pile of shoes. If the teacher wanted to expand on sculpting, she could introduce clay to the children (if little, use play dough) and let their imaginations run wild to create different objects with the clay, or play dough.

If you're wondering why I have two pairs of Puma shoes, well, that's another story, preferrably one I wouldn't like to tell.

Creativity!

Personally, I believe that I am a very creative person. I express my creativty through many things, for example, through dance, singing, scrapbooking, drawing, painting, organization, and through expressing who I am to others. I think the main person in my life who has inspired me would be my mother. My mother is a graphic artist. She paints with water colours and oils and is amazing at what she does. When I was a child I used to live in a neighbourhood with tons of children, so I had many other children to play with. Everytime my friends would come over to my house we always did something creative whether it was through painting, sculpting, creating forts with the living room furniture, or playing in the sandbox creating mudslides and rivers using the garden hose. My mother always gave us great ideas for us to try next, which inspired us to create things on our own.

Now that I'm older I keep on finding new ways to express my own creativity. Over the past couple years I have started scrapbooking which has taken up a lot of my time. I've created tons of scrapbooks with millions of photos and keepsakes from special events. I have also started to paint with water colours, but I am more serious about it now that I am older. I think that my creative experiences will help me in my future as an early childhood educator because I can remember back to when I was a child and what new and exciting ideas I wanted to create. Those experiences can take me into the minds of young children today and can hopefully understand their creative path.