And So It Begins...

A visual introduction! The exercise: in a short and set time (5minutes), draw or sketch something that represents you. For anyone who knows me, the toon-like tree frog makes sense. The rest of the exercise consisted of showing the class the sketch, telling a bit about yourself and why you drew what you did.

"Tree frogs are my thing...3rd year expanded art ed... btw I'm Lance...etc"

great exercise for introduction. Could be done in any secondary art class. May help with remembering names because it provides an insight and something to associate with the name and face.


Exercises of the day:
1. Photograph mirror; Chose an image from a pre-selected set that appealed to us personally. We were unaware of what the activity was at this point.
The image I selected was similar to this, but not exactly. It was a fashion shot of a man in a black leather jacket. The whole image was in both warm and cool blacks and blues except for the mans face which was much lighter in value and warm. The activity was to answer a set of questions in relation to the image and ourselves. The questions were something like:
 ~How is the image a reflection of you?
~Why was the photograph taken?
~If you  were to receive this image in the mail with no return address, who and why do you think it would have been sent?
~Would you send this to anyone, and why?
~Imagine you were leaving this to your grandchild, what message would you leave to accompany it?

After writing down our answers to the questions, we got into small groups and shared our answers and experience of doing the exercise. I was a bit reserved at the beginning, as Im sure most of my peers were, but after a few questions you get into it and it is therapeutic to do that kind of self reflection and introspective investigation.

[In a high school class room setting I might be a bit hesitant to ask a class to engage in this kind of self reflection. Most students are still at a stage of being afraid of peer judgment and are constantly comparing themselves with those around them. As a result it may cause feelings of anxiety to ask them to go introspective and then reveal their thoughts to peers and/or the class. The exercise could be adapted by informing the students of the intent of the exercise before selecting their photo, and excluding the group component. Elsewise the exercise could be adapted by simply changing the questions away from introspection to the simple aesthetics of the photo. What kind of composition is used, colour palette, why was it taken, what is the target audience, etc. in doing this group communication could still be done.]

2. Lines
In this exercise we were given a bunch of black strips of paper and a sheet of white paper. When instructed, we were given 5 seconds to take the strips of paper and make a composition that showed the word given. For example; emotions, colours, etc. After we were asked to take the lines and an additional sheet of black paper and create and glue a composition relating to the previous exercise involving the photograph and the message we would leave to our grandchild. After gluing we needed to give it a title.

Timeless

On another piece of paper we were to write the title of the piece and write one line about the title that related to the use of line. The paper was then passed to the person next to us where they read what had been written and passed the paper on the person next to them, and so on. It was repeated till there were four lines to the poem. The poems were then shared with the class while the paper composition was displayed.
The poem:

Timeless

Line variety is timeless

Lines are timeless until ended by a point

Time cannot be measured through the use of lines

lines can always be continued

The final step for the assignment was to take the poem home, change it if you wished, and write it out or print it so that it could be displayed with the paper composition.

[This exercise could be used in the classroom with little tweaking. again it depends on the previous exercise and what kinds of questions are asked of the students. With a mature group, it is possible that the exercise could be executed as is with minor adjustments made for time, or done over the course of two class blocks depending on length. The question about grandchildren may be changed away from being personal to something more comfortable simply by asking if they could leave a message for a future generation or "if you were to leave this image in a time capsule with a message, what would it be?" The poem writing aspect of the exercise could remain unaltered.]

Something To Think About : Zen art and Mandala

Mandala are essentially art created in a circle. A lot of them are symmetrical but they are not always. They may be fractal. Present and important in most cultures and religions. In doing research for zen art I came across many different definitions, though a lot of the examples appear to relate to zen philosophy and Buddhist tradition.