Community Arts Project

For our community arts project, our group decided to focus on child’s hunger in worldwide as our “big idea”. Because we believe that all children has the right to have their basic needs such as, food, water, clothing, and shelter.  It is very important for children to receive the full amount of nutrition in order for them to productive in learning. As an early childhood educator, I believe this is one of the biggest awareness that need to be spread out. We chose the world vision, 30 hour famine, world hunger education service, and world food program as our stakeholders. Our plan was to raise money to help children that are in our community, and we came up with a couple ideas such as having a bake and merchandise sale, and help out the morning program in school by providing breakfast for children in schools. We also made a logo for our presentation, the strawberry; made from a heart with the help hand, and then became a strawberry for children to take a bite. In addition to spread out the awareness, we made a blog www.childhunger.tumblr.com for people who are interested to take a look at what events are coming up.

I believe our presentation went well, but one thing that I would do it different was to classify the “big idea” more in depth before coming up with the ways of what we can do to spread the awareness. Because I believe classifying may lead us to challenge our ways of creative thinking (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 141), which would be a chance for us to come up with all those crazy and fabulous ideas.

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

Guerilla Art

The guerilla art task I chose to do is to put a smiley apple out my neighborhood. I have drawn out a happy face on both side of the apple and hopes that whoever saw it may either smile or eat it. My purpose was to capture people’s feeling when they saw the apple. Because we all have our moments of depress or sad, so hopefully my smiley apple will become a reminder for them that “Smile, is that simple.” According to Schirrmacher & Fox, my apple is considered as an open-ended object that let people fulfill their own definition on what they see (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 13). 

The result came out pretty success, I saw people who would smile and walk pass it, and some people may take a closer look of it. I am glad that my apple makes them smile :)

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

Pretend Play & Magical Thinking

For this activity, I chose to transform the wire plug into an elephant by using the artistic style called "Surrealism". "Surrealism means super-realism. It attempts to  create a magical, dreamlike world that is more intense than real" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, P. 204). By using a real object and transform it with our imagination. Just like the wire plug, the wire is long as the elephant trunk, and the shape of the wire plug would be the body of the elephant. Last by adding the eyes, ears, legs, and tail, the elephant will come to life.

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

Grocery shopping with a twist

The food category I chose to do this blog is my favorite fruit "STRAWBERRY". From this category, I could think of strawberry candy, ice-cream, juice, and with chocolate dipped, shortcake, cheesecake, jello, jam, salad, muffin, pie, wine, bubble tea etc. Strawberry is not only delicious, but also nutritious that it contains a range of nutrients. What really inspire me is how one thing (strawberry) can turn in to a variety of treat in different shape and texture for us to enjoy. According to Schirrmacher & Fox (2009), texture refers to the surface quality of a work of art. Just like strawberry itself may taste sour and juicy, and ice-cream maybe cold and sweet etc. And the shape of these products (strawberry candy, ice-cream, juicy...etc)  are turn into either geometrical or non-geometrical shapes that vary from one another.

Out of the list of my example, I have chosen to sketch four of my favorite product made from strawberry, and they are strawberry candy, chocolate dipped strawberry, strawberry ice-cream and strawberry juice. Each strawberry has their own shape, although they are very alike, some are bigger than other, rounder than tho other. Chocolate dipped strawberry is very similar to strawberry except with chocolate the texture may taste better and sweeter, especially yummier :) Candy vary from both shape like lollipop, jellybeans, marshmallow...etc and texture can be hard, soft or chewy. Ice-cream, depending on how we scope it it may have a different shape, and the texture is very cold and it will cool you down from anger haha. Strawberry juice, there is no shape because it had turn into liquid, and the texture is more watery but sweet. THEY ARE JUST DELICIOUS !

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

"Collaging" with Scissors

"How I understand and see the world"
Personally, I believe there are many different views to view our own world depending on different aspects and situations. Because this is creative art, I have chosen a more artistic view to share.

I chose to use the word "COLLAGING" to fill in the blank of ________ with Scissors. As John Locke stated, the human mind at birth is a blank slate (nature), and as we grow up and we will start collecting our own experience (nurture) and fill it in to create our own picture. Just like my art work, I start off with a blank piece of white board, then I fill it up with pictures both related to myself (like my families, stuffs that I like etc) or pictures I found interesting. My theme of this is to make it real, because it is about myself and the way how i understand the world. As Schirrmacher & Fox (2009) stated, Realism is "the artist's attempt to make art objective and like the actual object".

See the girl who is blowing bubbles at the right corner? That's me. I believe everyone is fill with colour deep inside of them, and it is up to us to decide how we want to view the world with colour or not. The whole board is mainly black and white (representing the world), and the bubble represent how I see the world, as the bubble pop, the area around it will turn into colour (the world is so big, and I am so small which only some spots are filled with colour, the remaining black and white represent the world that I have not yet seen, and the world we refuse to see.) It should be very common that most of us viewed colour as happy and black and white as sadness, which I would love to pop all my bubbles so my world is fill with colour (happiness). To me, I believe colour is one of the most important element in art, because each colour represent a sense of mood that would affect and help us to view things differently.

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

Art Film

 

Out of all the art films, our group decided to watch The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (2007). This is a true story based on Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a sudden stroke in a rare condition called "locked-in syndrome" (LIS). He has lost virtually almost all physical control, except his left eyelid. Although he was not able to write or speak, his mind was intact enough to reflect his condition and excursions into the realms of his memory, imagination, and dreams into a book. I was truly inspired by Bauby’s patience, that he could composed each passage letter by letter, to an amanuensis who was also patience enough to recited a frequency-ordered alphabet for Bauby to choose by blinking his left eyelid once to signify "yes." Leading me to a question, who would have this patience to spend almost 2 years to compose a novel letter by letter when he or she has become paralyze except blinking with one eyelid. Now that I am looking at Bauby’s success on his novel, it influence me to remember even though thing doesn’t go in my own way, if I just have the patience like Bauby and the amanuensis then everything will be solved.

Through our group discussion, we thought that the way that the movie is filmed is very unique. The camera angle is filmed though Bauby’s left eye perspective, we thought the technique that the director chose was very creative, because it now not only gave the viewer a stronger sense on how Bauby now see the world after the stroke, but also made us fall into Bauby’s role just like we had become Bauby, so we are able to become more in-depth as the movie is playing. Overall, I thought the movie was very interesting since it is based on a true story. I thought it was very sad that Bauby has only survived just long enough to see his novel published in the spring of 1997, but I am glad that he was able to finish so we are able to see his success and influence by his patience. 

Patterns in Urban Settings and Nature

Patterns can be defined as being symmetrical or asymmetrical, sequenced or alternating.
Patterns are everywhere, they can be seen in different ways through the repetition of forms, shapes, lines, colours, textures, or symbols.

"Symmetrical Patterns" I took in Urban Settings and Nature.



This is a photograph I took while I am on my way to a family dinner. And the pattern I see here were the lights position, they are posited in a straight line.

It is hard to find a pattern that is nature and urban setting since it's winter now, and everything are covered with snow which inspire me to use my footprint as pattern :) 

  
Brick by brick, one by one, side by side, they are build with a symmetrical pattern to our houses.








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