Blog #10

Our community arts project was on Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides. I have been part of the Dog Guides organization through the foster puppy program and as a kennel volunteer for over three years now, and it is very close to my heart. I was thrilled to be able to help promote Dog Guides in my class, and potentially go further. Rhonda Workman, the head trainer at Dog Guides, was kind enough to let me borrow a dog in training for the day. Meet Salem, canine ambassador extraordinaire!

Salem is in training to become a Special Skills Dog, and will one day assist someone with a disability, such as someone in a wheelchair. A dog like Salem costs over $20000 to raise and train, but will be provided to his future client free of charge. These dogs make a world of difference to their clients, giving them freedom, independence, and better quality of life. The organization runs entirely upon donation, and is an incredible force of social justice. I am proud to represent them, and I hope some people in our class really took our message to heart.

Our group decided that a viral video would be the perfect way to promote Dog Guides, since animal videos are very popular on Youtube. A video with similar dog skills to the ones Special Skills Dogs perform has almost 10 million hits, so we knew it was a great creative way to promote the dogs!

I had another neat idea for something I could do over the summer as a personal project to raise money for Dog Guides. As a lighthearted Christmas gift, I painted a dog in clothes for Caleb this year.

This painting gave me an idea: maybe people would like to get paintings of their own dogs done in this funny old-fashioned portrait style! They could commission me to make the portrait, and I could give the proceeds to Dog Guides! I’ll have to think about that idea more, because it could be a really fun and different idea to raise money!

Anyways, this is the last blog of the year, so I just wanted to thank everyone for making it such a fun class, and also for the opportunity to bring in Salem and promote a wonderful cause. Love and wags,

Emily and Salem

Blog #9

COLOUR is one of the most miraculous aspects of sight. As light falls on objects that absorb or reflect certain spectrums, our eyes pick up on different colours. Those colours come in many hues and shades, and create a more vibrant world for us to see. I love looking out my window and seeing colour. In Toronto, there is less colour than out of the city, especially in these winter months. But I am lucky to have a large mural visible out my window that is teeming with colour! 

The joy I get from seeing this splash of colour in the grey city inspired me to use my Guerilla art project to spread more colour and joy throughout my neighborhood. First I created some uplifting messages I wanted to spread around the city. Then, for a splash of colour, I tied each message to a bright balloon! Balloons are such a throwback to childhood happiness and levity. My intention was to tie these balloons around my neighborhood for others to find and enjoy!

The project started off well, and I was excited to see if anyone would find my balloons. But as you can imagine, on a windy day walking around with a large quantity of balloons is no easy feat! I was buffeted and blown around the streets in a ridiculous fashion, and soon became part of the spectacle. People noticed me and my balloons before I could leave them behind, and even approached me and asked if they could have one! Since all I really wanted was for people to enjoy my colourful bounty, I happily handed them out to anyone who asked. I was particularly pleased when a group of young people who were sat on the street each asked for one, and since the strings were impossibly tangled by this point in the day I handed over my remaining bunch, proud to see how happy it made them. On my walk back along the way I came I noticed several of my balloons were gone, and I hope that means someone found them! I really enjoyed this project, since it gave me an excuse to put out some positive energy with no occasion whatsoever! 

Blog #8

Grammie the quilt lives in an old dusty attic. She hasn’t always lived up there, she can still remember the days when she was proudly displayed atop the living room couch downstairs, the centerpiece of so much action. She kept people warm and comfortable, and was always there when somebody needed an extra layer of comfort. She had witnessed celebrations, arguments, births and deaths, and she had so many stories to tell. But now, she is worn and frayed. She is stained and her stitching has begun to unravel. And so she sits in the attic, hearing the voices coming from downstairs, which once sounded so familiar, but are now so strange. She has found a new role though, upstairs in the attic. She cares for all the old, forgotten objects just like her. She changes the lightbulbs in the old, grumpy lamps, she cleans the coffee stains out of the delicate doilies, and she soothes the hurt feelings of forgotten toys. She does so much for the attic bound misfits, she is their unsung hero, never asking for anything herself. She has changed so much since living in the attic; her texture, which was once so soft and plush, is now rough and bare. She feels quite self-conscious about herself now in her age, without her past plushiness. Texture is so important for a quilt. The soft, smooth fabric brushing against skin can comfort even the most weary souls, but she is no longer soft and smooth, and few people would want her against their skin. But there is beauty in this new texture of hers, one which is rough and worn. It tells of her adventures and her experience, and is, in a strange way, a comfort to the attic dwelling misfits. 

Blog #7

A line is a mark created to suggest shapes or edges, and to create symbols. When I think of lines I think about drawing: the act of taking a marker or pencil for example and drawing it across a page to create an image in two dimensions. It can be a challenging task to take something we see in three dimensions in our lives and create a shadow of that object on a flat paper. Line is especially important when sketching without colour, because the use of line must then also be used to create the contours and shapes that colour might otherwise highlight. In this way, line really only exists as the creation of an artist. It is there to represent qualities that it doesn’t have, like colour, texture, and shape. When I first learned to draw I always used to try and draw my IDEA of an object. That is I would represent everything I knew to be true about a chair for example. I knew there were four equally sized legs and a square seat, and so I would try to draw all the legs and the squareness of the seat the way I knew they existed in reality. However, when we look at a chair from one angle, the seat shape may not LOOK square. The legs may not all seem the same length, or even all be visible. Not until I had mastered the concept of drawing only literally the lines before me did my images start to look realistic. Even now, sketching is something I find difficult, which is why I was apprehensive about doing some sketching for my art activity this week. I looked at all foods that might fall under the category of grains or grain products, and came up with this list:

Wheat

Barley

Oats

Porridge

Rice

Rye

Quinoa

Pasta

Corn

Crackers

Popcorn

Buckwheat

Bread

Beer

Cheerios

I chose to sketch wheat, bread, and beer. I chose wheat because to me the image of a sheaf of wheat is the first that comes to mind when I think of grains. I love the way each grain interlocks with the others, and the fine “hairs” that reach out from the tip of each stalk made for a great chance to showcase simple lines. Like many lines, the curved lines of the wheat sheaves seem to suggest movement. When I look at them I imagine a breeze swaying the wheat in its field.

Next I drew a loaf of bread. When I think of eating grains, I immediately think of bread and cereal, so I chose a loaf of bread for my next image. I had to use thicker and darker lines to outline the essential shape of the loaf, and then softer lines and shading to fill out its form. Here line is all about delineating the shape of the object more than the movement of the object.

Finally I drew a pint of beer. I had to include beer when thinking of grains, both because I personally enjoy it and because it always makes me think of my uncle, who is a brewmaster. My Uncle Jonny opened the first brewpub in Ontario 25 years ago, and has been setting up breweries all over the world ever since. Most recently, he opened a Brewmastery and Brewing Operations course at Niagara College. His artistry with grains is amazing and delicious, so this sketch was in his honour! I love the clean, graceful lines of beer glasses. This was the easiest and most enjoyable sketch of them all! 

Blog # 6

To help understand the concept of shape, think of any object. Now imagine that object in silhouette. That shadowy form is the shape of the object. Shapes can be used in any two-dimensional form of art. Shape is essentially the flat version of volume.

Honigman and Bhaynargri’s (1998) article Painting with Scissors: Art Education Beyond Production talks about children cutting up works of art to use the pieces in collages. Cutting things that already exist into shapes and reusing them to create something new is a wonderful alternative way to create art. On a couple of occasions I have done something similar using fabric: reusing cut up scraps to create new things. I’m a bit of a pack rat, and over the years have kept some fabric items that had sentimental value to me. On one occasion, my boyfriend and I cut a pair of his pajamas to turn them into pajama shorts. I kept the two bottom halves of the legs as a souvenir, and later turned them into two small decorative pillows with our initials stitched on them. I think I picked up the habit of saving and reusing fabric from my Mum, who used to do a lot of quilting when I was little. She also saved fabric, for example from my sisters favourite blanket, and reused it to create beautiful quilts to hang on the wall or spread on the bed. This gave me an idea for a classroom activity: “Quilting with Scissors”. Children could choose or bring in pieces of fabric that they like for any reason, whether it be sentimental or simply because the pattern pleases them or expresses the way they feel. It could be any type of fabric, and could have patterns reflecting any culture. Then together we could combine all of the pieces of fabric to create a classroom quilt, either to hang up or put in a cozy corner near the books for example. This quilt would be a collaborative work, combining elements of each child’s personal perspective and artistic ability to create something everyone could share and enjoy in the classroom. 

Blog #4

Blog #4

Patterns occur when shapes, lines, or colours for example are repeated in a regular sequence. I explored my neighborhood looking for examples of patterns, and found them to be everywhere! In particular I liked the pattern on a large vent outside my apartment building. It tickled me that something so practical and utilitarian actually had such a pretty and interesting pattern to it. So even mundane objects may have fascinating patterns, and in fact mundane objects can be transformed by pattern. It got me thinking of how children could make their classrooms more beautiful and more personal using patterns. When I was younger, one of my teachers had us create “treasure chests” to store our favourite work in. We had sponges shaped like fish, pirate skulls, mermaids, seashells and so forth and we dipped them in paint to decorate the boxes that were going to be our treasure chests. An activity such as this, where children are encouraged to create patterns by alternating or sequencing shapes to make something practical into something beautiful, would be a great activity in a classroom! It could be a perfect way to make portfolio’s of children’s artwork reflect all of the creativity that will be stored inside.

Blog #3

A work of art where every component seems proportionate to the others, harmonious, and equal, is balanced. On a recent visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario, I looked at a beautiful painting by Emily Carr called Trees in the Sky, and saw lovely balance in this whimsical scenic oil on canvas. In this work there is striking balance between the land and the sky, which meet around the centre of the canvas. I also love the colours in this painting; they are such rich and vibrant jewel tones. The wavy brush strokes create incredible texture and movement, all running in horizontal directions across the work. In contrast to this horizontal motif are the trees, whose slender trunks soar vertically upwards, out of the realm of the land to deposit their umbrella-like treetops in the sky. This equilibrium between horizontal and vertical movement is another feature of balance in this work. Balanced paintings such as this give me a feeling of stability. When a painting is in balance, the world feels in balance. I feel centered and calm, and free. I want to hop from treetop to treetop in that blue sky like a frog upon lily pads. I want to roll down those undulating hills and into the mashes and grasses below. It reminds me of a Doctor Seuss illustration. It also makes me think of how beautiful natural scenes such as this one can be. Walking through a forest you can see how much balance there is in nature, and what a peaceful effect that can have. I think every child in Canada should get to explore the natural wonders we are so lucky to have here, so that they can find that sense of balance within themselves.

Blog #2

Three dimensional objects have mass or volume. It is the shape and form of something in the physical world: the weight, size, height, depth, and breadth of an object. I wanted to explore mass and volume this week by creating a sculpture, since it is a work of art with three dimensions. We were asked to use found objects rather than something more conventional like stone or wood, which made it an easier task! To highlight mass and volume above all else I decided to use a material that had no colour or pattern and simple texture: clear tape. Using tape I created a tree, which I built up from a piece of cardboard. Trees have always featured in my art. I think that they are beautiful, and their shape and form delights me. I love the way the roots of the tree spread across the ground, and then all converge at the base of the tree where the trunk rises up, thick and solid. And it seems to perfect the way that base divides and spreads gracefully out into ever narrowing branches. Trees to me are the image of beauty in nature. I remember in grade 5 there was a tree in a planter in the middle of the playground at my school. We used to play marbles underneath it. Some boys in my class used to hang off the lowest branch and swing around. One day I noticed them hanging on the branch, bouncing up and down in an attempt to break the branch off the tree. I immediately ran over and told them to stop! I told them that trees were wonderful and that we were lucky to have them in Canada. I told them to enjoy having a tree to climb, rather than hurting it. To emphasize my point I hung from the branch myself, saying that no one would get to play there if they broke it. One of the boys came up from behind me and pulled my pants down. It was one of my most embarrassing moments at the time, but looking back on it I am proud that I stood up for that tree. I do think that it is important that young children are taught to appreciate the wonders of nature; so creating tree sculptures could be something fun to do with a class. I started by putting tape on the cardboard in “roots” to create a base. I then wrapped and layer tape upwards to create the trunk. By twisting tape into strands I created the branches, and then covered them in more tape to connect them smoothly to the trunk. I was pleased with the result, though surprised at how long it took to make such a small tree using thin layers of tape! I think this artwork captures the idea of volume: that we can recognize something by its three-dimensional shape alone.