Community Arts Project

Art Word of the Week: Design or Composition
"Design or Composition is the overall mark of success, the standard of achievement, and the frosting on the cake." (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009)

Speak against racism!

In today's society individuals continue to experience various forms of discrimination. Because each person in our group shared a story regarding some form of racist stereotype, we decided that it was an issue most relevant to our lives while we were growing up. Although it is difficult to completely eliminate the issue of racism, we can try our best to prevent racist acts and reduce this by educating others and raising more awareness. As globalization continues to give opportunities for people of all cultures and backgrounds to come together, this issue is one of the most important in helping individuals learn to embrace diversity and culture. 

As early childhood educators who believe in accepting each child's uniqueness, it is important to also keep an open mind for learning about new cultures, and embrace diversity. This is the key for educators to develop inclusive teaching strategies that help every child learn and succeed to their full potential.

Our group decided to create stickers and post them around campus to provoke thought. The quotes on the stickers represented a variety of cultures and were also translated into multiple languages to target a greater audience. In addition to this, our stickers lead to a website where individuals could anonymously post their stories or ideas regarding issues of racism, and also find more information about other organizations that they can find support for their issues.

We started small and decided to stick the stickers around the Ryerson campus, and contacted one of our "Students against racism" equity service groups to be our stakeholder.

This is an example of the stickers that we posted,

                                                                    

Unfortunately beecause of the limited amount of time that there was for other groups to present, there was no time for the professor or the class to ask questions, although we did receive a lot of feedback from other classmates regarding our presentation. Many of our classmates commented on the power-point that we used to present our ideas, and said that it was very creative. We also received feedback regarding the appearance and design of our stickers after we handed them out to the class. If we were to expand this project and if we had more time to work on it, many people said that it would have been great if we could actually make the website rather than only drawing a poster of the layout to present the concept. This community arts project was an amazing experience that allowed us all to reflect on the issues that impact our lives. It was also a great opportunity for us to attempt to propose an idea that we could actually move forward with in the future after contacting some possible stakeholders.

Reference:

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

Guerilla Art!

Art Word of the week: Space
Space: "is determined by the size of the canvas, be it paper, cardboard, wood or a shoe box." (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009)

I used the word space to describe my Guerilla Art as it is associated with the spaces in my building where I have left my mark. I have used much of the negative space in my building and filled it with the little post that is on the right. I used simple and clean spaces to place the image as it will draw more emphasis to the message, rather than a busy space to cluster it from being seen.

For the focus of my Guerilla Art Blog, I wanted to provoke some thoughts for some of the residents who live in my building. I have been living in this building for as long as I could remember, and growing up this building has been many things. It's been a magical palace, a giant house, a game, a dangerous enemy base, a cat-walk runway, a grocery store, a school, a stage for performances, a home, and a secret fort with many hiding spaces. While I was growing up, this building of many things had once had it's own park where my sister and my brother and I used to play at when the weather was nice out. But at some point in time, the building management decided to take down the entire park, and even put up signs for "no loitering" around the fence.

Right now, I have a little godbrother who also lives in my building. He is now 6 years old, and has made many friends with other children who are residents here. Every weekend several of the children of the building gather at the lobby to play together. Every so often, I will see them laying out their coloured pictures (that they've ripped out from their colouring books) and placing a "10 cents" sign beside it for adults to buy their drawings. Other days I may seem them hiding behind the lobby couches and using it as a fort. Unfortunately there is also a "no loitering sign" at the lobby as well and quite often the management or the supervisor comes to "break-up" their play experience.

I simply do not understand why they've decided to take down the park, and yet prohibit the children who are residents of the building from playing indoors.

AS A RESULT, the children in my building are deprived of the same childhood opportunities that I had when I was younger, and they simply have no place to play.

As early childhood educators we know how important the role of PLAY is to children's learning. And therefore, I have decided to focus my GUERILLA ART for the children of who live in my building.

These are the signs that I have placed in the lobby anonymously for people to read. ( Of course I had to do this discretely as this is probably considered some act of vandalism!) My hopes is to provoke thought for adult residents in the building who have children regarding a concern that may have gone unnoticed or forgotten.

After I placed the signs up, I watched the residents of the building who had walked into the lobby. Many people stopped to look and read what was there, because it was so emphasized due to the low amount of stimulation created by other areas of the lobby. I placed the images on top of the elevator buttons, so that people would read it while they wait, as well as inside the elevators.  I also placed this on the front door of the building, and the mail-box bulletin board. Because I posted these images right before children came home from school, I was able to see the reactions of both children and their parents. Almost everyone who entered the building stopped to read the post, and I hope that it has done what I originally intended it to do-to provoke thought in residents who may have not noticed this issue.

Insights for Early Childhood Education
Like children who scribble on walls and furniture, adults also must tune into their creative sides once in a while and leave a mark where it may matter to them. Here I have left my mark around my apartment building in the hopes that someone will think about an issue that I have considered as an issue for the children who are residents of my building. By tuning into our creative sides, early childhood educators can remain inspiring to children, and can encourage children to respect their own creativity, as well as those around them.

Reference:

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

Pretend Play and Magical Thinking

Art word of the week: Design or Composition
"Design or composition is the overall mark of success, the standard of achievement, and the frosting on the cake." (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009)

Here in this royal chair lies Sir Hops-a-lot. He is the kingdom's magic frog and was taken to the palace when he was only a young tadpole. You see, Sir Hops-a-lot was special, even as a young tadpole. A fortune teller had said that he would be born with a magic pearl attached to him. And the fortune teller was right. This magic pearl that he was born with was supposed to cure the kingdom of all it's illnesses, and so little Hops-a-lot was taken from his pond, and forced to stay seated on the royal lily-pad chair that preserved the magic of his pearl. The main priority for the king and the queen, was that their youngest daughter Princess Peepkintot would be cured from a strange illness that she was born with. You see, Princess Peepkintot was always a very weak little girl. As a baby, she was often sick, and even growing up she had very few opportunities to leave the palace because of her illness. Her parents were afraid that her illness would eventually lead to her death, and so they searched all over the kingdom for a solution that might cure her. This was how the king and queen found the fortune teller, which lead them to believing that little hops-a-lot's pearl was the answer to all their problems. Once they captured little hops-a-lot from his pond, a witch was hired, who eventually placed a magical spell on him to bind him to the royal lily-pad chair. For as long as he lived in the chair, Princess Peepkintot would be well, and with this they bound the little frog there for 10 years. In the 10 years that little Hops-a-lot lived in the chair, he had grown to be a humble frog which dedicated his life to duty. Although he was a noble frog, he did not feel fulfilled. In the 10 years that had past in the kingdom, he had become best friends with Princess Peepkintot, and because she was no longer ill, he saw her very little as she was well and could travel the country. All he wanted was to travel back to his pond, and be able to swim again. He missed his family and eventually became very depressed. He was constantly drained of energy as he stayed seated on the lily-pad chair, preserving the magic of the pearl.
The next time that Princess Peepkintot had returned, he was exhausted and began to lose his colour. Princess Peepkintot was concerned for her friend, and sent out a quest all over the kingdom to find someone that could save her friend. And after months of searching and waiting, the same witch who had casted the spell to bind Sir Hops-a-Lot to her chair had approached the kingdom gate.
You see, in all the years that Princess Peepkintot had lived in the palace, her parents had kept the secret of her health away from her. She did not know that her health had been obtained by sacrificing the freedom of her frog friend. Once the witch had told her the truth, she was furious, and confronted her parents. She insisted that they needed to un-do the spell so that her friend would be able to return to his pond, and be relieved from his duty of preserving the power of the pearl. Her parents refused, at the thought of their beautiful daughter falling ill again. Princess Peepkintot sobbed as she watched her little frog friend laying on the lily-pad that he was bound to for 10 years with the most exhausted and painful expression on his face. Suddenly, the pearl on his belly glowed, and rays of light had filled the palace halls. And in the blink of an eye, the pearl had disappeared. And there, lied Sir-Hops-a-lot, reverted back to his original colour, with the most peaceful expression on his face. He woke, and he was no longer bounded to the chair. Everyone gazed in amazement, but then looked to the Princess, for the pearl was what nursed her to health. The Princess was fine, and everyone looked at one another in awe and confusion. The witch transformed into a beautiful fairy queen, smiled at the confused faces, turned around, and vanished. All was well in the Kingdom, and Princess Peepkintot and Sir Hops-a-lot began the first of their many journeys together, as they walked towards Sir-Hops-a-Lot's pond.

This is a tale of true friendship, inspired by a simple trinket that my mom had given be as a birthday gift a few years ago.

Insights to Early Childhood Education
Imagination can bring anything to life, and it is this creativity that drives children's play and take them on their many adventures. As an early childhood educator, it is important to be imaginative when working with young minds so that we can accompany them on their explorations and enhance their learning experiences. This way we recognize that there is no one way of doing things, and acknowledge children for all forms of expressing creativity. Children are still very much open-minded, and therefore adults who work with these children need to be open-minded as well, otherwise an opportunity for learning may be missed.
In this blog, I have imagined a story based on an inanimate object that was meaningful to me. Story-telling is a great way to engage children in imaginative thinking, and also helps early childhood educators to practice their creativity when doing the activity in the process. Because story-telling is an activity of such interest to children, it is important as early childhood educators to learn to be original and enthusiastic in the way that they tell their stories.

Reference:

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

Grocery Shopping with a Twist!

When I go grocery shopping, the part of the supermarket that attracts me the most is definitely the fruits and vegetables! They capture my attention because of their different SHAPES and sizes, and most importantly their many vibrant colours. This was my "shopping list" when considering which types of food to draw.

Art word of the week: SHAPE

(shp)

n.

"A shape is defined by a line or outline, or by contrasting colour or texture in the surrounding area." (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009)

Here is my brainstorming. I have made a list of fruits that are different shapes, and grouped them together. I then chose the three shapes that I wanted to draw, and then considered the three different colours I wanted to incorporate into my sketch.

As a child, one of my favourite things to do with my parents was to go grocery shopping. My mom always gave me one of those plastic bags, which my sister and I would blow into and tie, then poke holes in. My mom would only let us each pick ONE specific thing that we wanted to buy in the store...of course we always picked more than one. I remember running off with my sister to touch every type of food we could get our hands on (since we were small back then it was hard to reach).


Insights to Early Childhood Education
As a result, the grocery store is an amazing place to help children learn about the different types of foods there are, as it involves many sensory opportunities: seeing all the different colours and sorting them by category, touching the various types of textures and describing them, smelling the difference between wheats, and milk, and popsicles, listening to my mom choose watermelons by tapping them (though I never understood how that worked), and most importantly TASTING the free food samples in each aisle!

 These are the three fruits that I chose to sketch, and they are also some of my favourite fruits to eat!

Reference:

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