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.