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.
I was one of the people sitting with Kat, thinking about this picture and never did it once occur to me that the man was decapitated. I thought it looked like he was falling into some kind of Wonderland, much like Alice. And as he was falling his head turned into that cartoon because he is in a new land where things are not what they seem, not normal. I really enjoyed this painting and the activity!
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