Carver

My son's name was almost Carver I loved carving so much. At the time, I had only made a spoon and wittled away at wood in a shop with family tools. I had carvers in my life and I was only able to watch them carve away at wood and create beautiful pieces of art work because I did not have the time or the tenacity to become a carver. I did not think that I had the tools necessary to become a carver. All i needed was tools though, however not the type of tools that you can buy in a store. I think that, to really be able to carve and become an artist, you need to have a pure heart. I think that your soul is poured into art work and if a piece of art work is made in bad intentions, then it can have a negative effect on the artistry itself. I cannot explain exactly why i feel this way. I think it is a respect that you need to give the art work. I think it was from, a time, when a good friend was carving a Native mask. He did not have the greatest intentions when he carved his artwork. Sure he was good at it, and he produced some good masks. I do not want to say great because he did not seem to place a lot of effort or soul into it. He sold the masks for drugs, and money to get by. I was not sure if this was the right way to live. In fact, he ended up tarnishing his name as an artists because eventually he was caught stealing somebody else's designs. This gave him a bad name and nobody would buy his art work anymore. I think it was also a form of karmic retribution. I do not know. All I know now, is that I would not want to treat art work with anything other than respect. I want to make art work because it makes me feel good. I want to create art work because I want to create something for somebody to look at and enjoy. One day I will carve, i think i have the tools now. Now i just need to go get some tools.

Then And Now

The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams. There is a documentary about cave paintings that were discovered in Chauvet, France. These drawings are one of the oldest known paintings to man, thought to be dated at around 36,000 years old. It is amazing that the paintings have been preserved for such a great number of years. I think that the paintings are fascinating because it is a link to our past as evolved human beings. If you think about where humans were at in terms of evolution at this period, you can picture perhaps a more hairy type cave man standing and painting representations of what they see in their world. This particular painting portrays a herd of animals on a landscape. The animals look to be in a healthy number  parading across the surface of the earth. The time, so primitive, yet so pure. Blood, flesh, and bone. Water, sky, dirt and sun. Moon, tree, bird, and grass blowing in the wind. My senses are keen, and my eyes are sharp. Science is a distant futuristic alien.

See Spot Run

A painter takes a sun and makes it into a yellow spot. 

An artist takes a yellow spot and makes it into a sun. 

                                                                  - Pablo Picasso

We can teach how to stroke a paint brush across the surface of the canvas. We can show how to mix colours to produce a new colour. We can model the use of charcoal on a piece of white paper to produce shading and we can also draw straight lines and perfect circles. The ability to create a really rich piece of art work takes time and energy to produce. Some visual artists will be able to pick up a brush and learn the intricacies that exist between the mind, and the hand quickly and produce great art work. It takes muscle memory, and learning how paints interact with the surface of a canvas, or the surface of a piece of stock cardboard. Depending on what types of materials you use, they will all interact with each other in varying ways according to the textures and other physical characteristics. Water colours will react a certain way on a particular texture of paper and artists learn the ways that these interactions work. They can manipulate the images through building this knowledge base, and I would imagine it takes practice, time, scaffolding knowledge to eventually produce something that was built out of hours of interactions. I firmly believe that true talent comes from how much dedication is afforded to a particular aspect of the mind, whether it's visual arts, dance, music, or whatever you choose to do.

Stand On The Shoulders Of The Greats

Chapter one in "The Arts As Meaning Makers" text talks about standing on the shoulders of the greats and putting theory to practice. It talks about the great theorists that have influenced the framework of education throughout history like Piaget, Maslow, Erikson and Vygotsky. Once broken down, the theories can be used in any facet of education such as art work. Art work requires creativity but what is creativity? Psychological theories can help to analyze the human mind and how it works to produce meaning and I think about Sir Ken Robinson's video on the changing paradigms really speaks well to how education currently does not breed creativity. I may be very naive, and probably am, to how simple it may be to extract creativity out of students however this is something that I am very interested in. I am interested in learning how to interact with a student in such a way that will produce things such as divergent thinking and practicing how to think outside the box. The current education system concentrates the classroom with so much students that it is difficult to really move around intellectually in the classroom to produce freedom to explore more artistic avenues of the mind. I'm talking about the curriculum that one has to explore in a short school year. It would be different if a teacher had students for multiple years to help to develop students in a certain way that would require time and focused long term goals, except students often change teachers one year after another. Like I said, i could be very naive when it comes to being able to affect significant creative changes in a student in a short period of time. I will find out when the time comes to explore more.

Seasonality

One way to produce successful lessons in elementary schools is to use the season to your advantage. Using the seasons as a theme, is a great to way make connections with the world around the students. An effective teacher will utilize aspects of the seasons help to provide meaningful connections that will last with the students, such as fall, winter, or summer colours.

This leaf bug art exercise is a great example of using fall to provide a exciting way to manipulate leaves and the change of colours. The idea is very simplistic, yet creates a final product that screams creativity that young students would really enjoy. Upon presenting a lesson on the way that colours change in the fall, the teacher could present an exemplar and get the students excited to go and find their own leaves to make their own bugs. The activity could involve students going outside for a quick walk to find a leaf of their own, assuming there are leaves around to pick up. 

Considering that Christmas is quickly approaching, it provides a great opportunity for the students to create art work that celebrates Christmas, or winter for that matter for those who do not celebrate Christmas. These stars could be produced to hang on the Christmas tree or to simply represent the stars in the sky. Creating meaning is what a teacher does to provide learning opportunities for students that spark interest. Interest and engagement are at the top of the list in terms of successful instruction and utilizing seasons will always be a great basis from which to develop art lessons. 

Art Gallery Visit

Start.

I always appreciate being forced to go to the art gallery. I just think that it is so out of the norm from what I would normally do in my own life due to my own personal influences. I believe that it really takes somebody to take you some place new, or perhaps you have the fortune to stumble across new things in your life. I have been to the Two Rivers Art Gallery twice now since the start of the program and I enjoyed myself a lot each time. I wonder now, how often they change their shows.

There was one piece that I liked, which was the one that looked like a kaleidoscope image. It was made on a computer from digital photos that were taken of trees. The images were altered to make patterns that were meant to look like totems. I thought the final product looked amazing, because I was able to stare at the image for a long time to see new things within the design. The piece was meant to represent the clear cuts that are scattered across B.C.'s landscape. The clear cuts sometimes make patterns on the land that are damaging to the ecosystem, and they disrupt the balance of life. The images can provoke thoughts about clear cuts, simply because the images are made of wood they are made into intricate patterns; and the fact that the print was given a clear cut theme. This allows the audience to take those elements and create something with them in their own mind. The artist has presented what their intention is with the piece, and given the audience something to look at and work with, and the rest is up to the voyeur. This is similar to a process in teaching. You make your intention clear, present material for the student to work with, and allow them to make meaning through guidance.

I also would like to comment on the beheading. I really liked the fact that the host brought up the fact that children are looking at some pretty gruesome things online and becoming desensitized to brutal images on the computer. I do not know what is out there, as I do not have interests in looking at really brutal things like "Faces of Death" or anything like this. I am not, however, ignorant to its existence and I think that all parents should be aware of these types of things on the internet. It brought about my renewed awareness of these things and for that I am grateful.

End.

Rap/ Hip Hop

Hold on a moment and think about everything that you know about rap and hip hop and your pre-conceived notions about what rap and hip hop are as a genre.

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Done? Ok. I know rap and hip hop as a genre that I have grown up with since I was a young boy as a quickly evolving genre. My musical influences vary greatly from my mother, my step-father, my real father, my culture, MTV, Muchmusic, and community gatherings. I'm talking about Roxette (I do not know why Roxette was the first to be on this list, and I will not edit my selection process to emphasize any one group that comes to my current mind space), Deena Carter, Chicago, Boston, Whitesnake, CCR, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Wu Tang Clan, Eminem, Bon Jovi, Smashing Pumpkins, Pantera, Slayer, Tool and the list can go on and on. The one genre that has dominated my headspace is rap or hip hop. It is forever changing and evolving into new and exciting forms. I remember back when the Beastie Boys were so game breaking because they were a white group coming into a black dominated game. It is known that rap and hip hop are dominated by the African American culture and will continue to do so into the future. I think that the genre often gets a bad rap (no pun intended) for it's content considering many people deem it to be all about disrespecting the female gender and glorifying drug use and gang warfare. I can not be ignorant to the fact that there are certainly many "artists" that do exploit these avenues, however any truly good artist is not going to be simply "spitting" out any old lyric. 

Some true artists, such as Kanye West, have the ability to bring the art form to another level. Rap has always pushed boundaries in politics through cultural expression, and this is one of the main objectives in the art form of rap, which is a platform from which to express yourself and your issues. Having said this, and I am having a hard time keeping this short, but Kanye West's new album Yeezus is another boundary pusher. His album previous to this, was considered to be one of his greatest achievements and could be considered almost perfect artistically. Now he feels like he has the free reign to try new things with his art form because he has already made "perfect." Now he can make "different" and force people to think about new ways to change the sounds and move the genre into a different direction because at the moment it can be considered stale, or stagnant. I think people really need to be vulnerable when it comes to art and making things that matter. I think that people need to be brave and trusting when it comes to expressing themselves artistically in controversial ways. Not all art work needs to be controversial to be great, but for those that do provide controversial pieces, are important because it forces one to see things in a new way, and that in itself is very important. I can respect Kanye for that. 

This is an interview that I watched, that helped me understand Kanye's understanding of his process and what it means to him. He is articulate and really takes his art work seriously. I think writing and poetry can be a great art form from which to express yourself. Moving into the future, it is difficult to say something new and exciting. Regardless, it is fun to try and it would be a great activity for children to practice rhyming and getting their point across.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2T0fMkZoMo