A History of Music

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Even though I don't consider myself that musical, I come from a long line of family that values the importance of Music. For example my great grandmother used to play the piano for the silent theatre in her town Westville, Nova Scotia. She was considered the best pianist in the community. My mother also took after her by playing piano at a very early age. Along with this she took singing lessons and instilled this talent onto my brother. As long as I can remember, my brother has been singing. Eventually, he devoted his passion to this by partaking in Royal Conservatory examinations and music festivals. This was enjoyable for me as we often were able to travel for his provincial competitions. Eventually he was admitted to Dalhousie University's Music Program to study singing. As for myself, I started piano at the age of 2. I eventually continued on to complete my level 10 RCM. Even though I achieve this accomplishment I did not feel that music came as naturally to me as it did to my family. Regardless, I have a huge appreciation for music.

This just shows that Art despite what genre, music, drama, dance, or visual arts can give a sense of identity and belonging. This reminded me of our last class when Dolly shard her drumming with us. The drumming in her story of the feast hall built a sense of community between the members at the hall. Therefore, it is important to cultivate and celebrate students talents, for I feel that we all can connect to a form of Art, for it moves and inspires us all. Even if we cannot perform it, we are all surrounded and linked though it. I know for me thus far, teaching Fine Arts has been one of my Favourite if not Favourite subjects to teach. This is because I have noticed that all the students in my classroom participate in these lessons, even students that normally exclude themselves from regular classroom activates. 

One lesson that I would love to give, that was inspired while creating my inquiry, would be to have students research their own background of their artistic history. This does not have to be specific to family, as I know that there are many children in this day and age that do not live a nuclear model, but could incorporate researching ones culture or even community they grew up in or identify with.

Deck the Halls

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With Christmas right around the corner, now is the time to think about all the amazing arts and crafts ideas that are available to create with your students. One of my favourite places to get ideas from for making Christmas decorations in Pinterest. This site provides a lot of clever ideas for a variety of difference ages.

One idea that stubbled upon while searching through the site that I really likes was making prettily Christmas themed tea light holders with mason jars. This idea seemed so simple yet looked so effective.  The look of the end result reminded me of when I made a snow globe out of a mason jar when I was a child. I absolutely loved my mason snow globe and thought it was the prettiest decoration. I was please to see that I was also able to find this on the site. Both of these seem very simple to make as they only involve mason jars, glitter, glue and pretty much what ever you can dig up around the house. The materials are up to you.

Here is the links to both of these ideas. I plan on making either one this Christmas with me niece and nephew, to see how the process turns out!

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Two Rivers Art Gallery

Bloodredlife by Will Gill

The visit to the Art gallery was educational to me in so many ways. After practicing the first activity while seated in front of the paintings by Will Gill, we had a chance to hear some of the interpretations that people came up with. It was interesting listening to the stories that people created for the paintings, and while listening, I was wondering what factors influenced everyones ideas. It seemed like peoples experiences and backgrounds really shaped and reflected what people came up with. Additionally, the hues used in each piece seemed to set the tone of what typed of emotions were evoked for a few people. I know this was true for me. I was instantly drawn to the decapitation piece for it used warm hues such as reds, pink, orange and light blues. Little did I realize that this was what the painting was depicting, as the colours gave me such a warm and happy feeling. The story that I made up for the piece was quite comical involving a paint can falling off construction scaffolding and landing right on the head of someone below. This resulted in bright colours being splashed all over the persons head to the point where there was no head left to seen. I even thought how it would have fit perfectly into a Just for Laughs prank, with a laugh track and silly music playing in the background. I was happy to know that after talking to Chris the warm colours in the painting evoked positive feelings for him as well. Perhaps I was not the only person who completely missed that grave undertones that a lot of the painting were depicting? While preparing for a fine arts lesson on colour, I discovered that a german scientist and writer named Johann Wolfgang von Goethe studies how colours make us feel. He discovered that blues evoked quiet moods and reds evolved cheerfulness. Perhaps this is why this peace made me think of something comical.

I liked that I did not go into the gallery knowing a lot of the history or the background that the artist had on the pieces for it was a fun experience to see where my imagination would take me before I was fixated on the entire theme of the exhibit. I can only image what the mind of a child could come up with when viewing different types of paintings, for even their everyday seems like it can be such an adventure. I would think an activity like this would be great to try with a Fine Arts class. Perhaps even some of the breathing techniques would be a good way to get some of the little ones to settle and fine their inner peace (fingers crossed).

Here is the painting that went along with my story. Perhaps you can look past the meaning that the artist envisioned for this piece and come up with something cheerful of your own.

Figure with Red Pants by Will Gill

Archives & Special Collections

During the previous Fine Arts class, I was able to get together with my Inquiry group to discuss the artist that we will be researching. As one of our sources, we thought it would be a good idea to go to the library to search for a book on the artist. After finding a few useless resources, we were intrigued by one that was located in the Archives and Special Collections section, especially since all of us has never been there.

If you have never visited the Archives, we found out from the librarian that it is an area located on the fourth floor of the library that houses rare book collections and maintains the University's artworks and artifact collections. I was amazed that I had beed going to the University for so many years and had never discovered this place before. As we exited the elevator on the fourth floor, we noticed several students studying in a what appeared to be a very nice study area. There was also a detailed model of the university encased in glass. Further down the hallway we came to the Special Collections building. Inside we had to fill out a form in order to see what was titled, The Kenojuak prints. We were all curious of what resource we were about to discover that needed such special attention.

We soon discovered that the prints were three books of poems that are based on a series of prints by the artist, Kenojuak. They follow the same order as the Cape Dorset Calendar. The poems were quite simple, however their simplicity captured what Kenojuak portrayed in her art.

Here are a few samples from the artist.

Kenojuak Ashevac

Kenojuak Ashevac

Kenojuak Ashevac

 Kenojuak Ashevac

Falling Into Winter

This years Art Show titled, "Falling Into Winter" was such a neat experience and one that will be remembered. I really enjoyed how our cohort was able to get together to celebrate the creative pieces that our Fine Arts students made. I must say I was so impressed with every singe classes Artwork and I was inspired from each one for my own Fine Arts class.

I was happy to see how many students and families came to the event including two of my own students. An event like this is such a great way to incorporate parents and families into the school culture and to give them a chance to see the projects that their children have been working on. Additionally, the expressions of pride and excitement on the children's faces were so rewarding to see. You could tell that they really enjoyed the show and to see their art displayed in a professional manner.

I noticed that with my display it attracted a lot of younger students, for the pieces looked very silly and funny (entirely the point of the assignment). This was great, for when I taught the lesson students really loved how silly their Picasso Pumpkin faces looked and I was happy to see that this amusemet transferred to the children at the show.

I would love to create an event like this either in my own classroom or school. I remember when I was in high school students were allowed to frame and display paintings or drawings on the walls of our foyer. It gave this space an art gallery feel when you walked into the building and really livened up the area. Just one of the many ways to incorporate art into the school.

Here is a picture of my students Picasso Pumpkins as well as a few others from the Art show.

UNBC Art Show Preparation

While discussing the preparation for the UNBC Art Show I really had no idea how the final product would turn out. In the past I have attended several art shows however, I have never helped plan one.

The day before the show our class had time to discuss what the different committees had been planning. I was please to see what great ideas everyone had. For example, creating a playlist for background music, making a banner to display the theme,  designating people to photography to capture the event and inviting a violinist to play during the show. 

As part of decorating committee, our group had several tasks to complete in order to get ready for the Art show. This included making snowflakes to hang up, taping up balloons and streamers, and arranging baskets with dry leaves in them. Emma and Amanda also spent the previous night making an amazing banner that displayed the events theme "Falling Into Winter", which was placed on the second floor catwalk. I was happy to see that with every job that needed to be done we were not short of hands, as numerous people participated in getting ready for opening. 

After everything was placed, hung, and taped, I thought the venue came together nicely and transformed our Teaching and Learning into a proper Art Gallery.

Picasso Pumpkins

                              

    

While in my Practicum I taught my first Fine Arts lesson, which turned out to be a great success. It focused on teaching Pablo Picasso's cubism technique where student we able to recreate cubist inspired pumpkin faces. It was perfect for the week of Halloween as some of Pablo's paintings can look quite odd and eerie. I stressed that many of their pumpkins would have the same effect which instantly got the students excited.

Pablo also lived a very fascinating life which is great for throwing in some fun facts to engage students' attention. For example, did you know that his first word was "piz" short for "Lapiz" the spanish word for pencil? Or that he was able to draw before he could speak?

A fun little project that I created for students who were finished early was to visit the site called Picasso Head. Here student were able to create online Picasso Portraits that looked equally as creative. This got me thinking that the site would be great to use as an introductory lesson or follow up lesson in the computer lab. If you are interested in teaching Picasso to your students I would strongly suggest checking out the site. Here are a few creations that have been created on the site.

Picasso Head

Picasso Head

Picasso Head

Picasso Head