Colours & Miniatures.

There are many definitions associated with the word "colour" but the one which best explains it with respects to the arts is most likely this one:

col·our

 
[kuhl-er]
–noun
The quality of an object or substance with respect to light reflected by the object, usually determined visually by measurement of hue, saturation, and brightness of the reflected light; saturation or chroma; hue.
Or
According to Schirrmacher & Fox (2009), "it's based on the passage of light (visual sensation of light caused by stimulating cones of the retina. 

Grass, pond(with turtle), and bake stand.

I chose the word colour as the word of the week because I simply cannot deny it's significance in our everyday lives. Other aspects such as balance, volume and mass, space, lines, shapes and forms also exhist and surround us, but can any of you imagine a world without colour? Without colour, our world would be black and white, and we would never be able to know that the sky is blue, that the grass is green, and that certain jelly beans taste better than others.  Colours fill our world with beauty and enhances our imaginations. It inspires us to have new ideas, and allows us to find new ways of expressing our deepest thoughts. The world, as we experience it is visually inspiring because of the many dimensions that colours allow us to see. If you were to take colour out of our everyday lives we would be confined to live in those black and white films which many of us find uninteresting and boring. And so in my attempt to use colour in my creative sculpture, I have created a miniature scene using everyday items that I found in my home. This is an image of what I have made.

Materials that I used to make everything in the scene.

Colour, as I have experienced it has shaped every aspect of my life. It creates a dimension of uniqueness and creativity in every object, place or person that I encounter, as well as the pieces that I create. This image is my attempt to recreate a scene in which some of us can relate to. I used the colour blue to create the pond through the use of pieces of origami paper, rubber bands and beads. I created the patches of grass with the same items and arranged them in a way that reminded me of a park in which I grew up around. I also made a stand for "baked goods" by wrapping a container of push pins with construction paper to create the miniature table. I also used orange construction paper to make the little roof over the table. Throughout the scene, I created small miniature animals such as the turtle and the green duck in the pond, as well as the small chick in the grass. On the bake stand I created miniature cakes and cupcakes with polymer clay that I found lying around my house.

What interests me most about the miniature scene that I made is that if I did not use shades of blue paper for the pond and shades of green for the grass, it would be pretty impossible to figure out what I was attempting to create. Say for example, that the grass and the pond were just comprised of scattered pieces of rainbow coloured papers. It certainly would not have created the same outcome. The scene in itself is explained by my choice of colours. 

Can you tell what the scene is now that the colour is taken out of it?

As an early childhood educator, it is important to talk to children about the elements in their own artwork that make them unique. Children create sculptures out of lego, blocks, construction papers, boxes, and pretty much anything that they can find. Children learn through play, and are constantly engaged in some form of art-making. It is up to the educator to bring to the child's attention the sculptures that they make on a daily bases, and help them appreciate the different forms of artistic expression. It is also important to give them opportunities to explain their art-pieces, as I have done here with my instant sculpture to help them learn more about their style of art-making. 

Reference:

            Schirrmacher,R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar.