Wrong! Nothing could be farther from the truth! Our adventure began on March 16th when myself, Sylvia De Brecos and Gregg Westly took 28 Art and Latin Western Canada High School Students to Italy. The trip was a whirlwind of adventure- experiencing many sights and putting all my senses into overdrive! Even though Italy is home to many of the world’s greatest art and architecture, my favourite part of the trip was watching the new friendships that were formed by students who would not normally hang out togather. All in all, Italy was inspirational and educational and created memories that I will never forget!
ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER SUCESS!
Celebrate Western was a great evening of art, music and dance. There was plenty of food and drinks to go around and a lot of silent auction items to bid from. We managed to raise 52,000 for the school! This was my 18th year to be involved and only four more to go till I retire!!!!
Indigo
The indigo dye comes from a plant. The beautiful blue dye is made from the leaves of the plant through the process of fermentation. When the fabric is removed from the dye vat, it is initially a yellow green colour but begins to turn blue as the oxygen reacts with the indigo. In art club today we had our first taste of indigo dying and we are now totally addicted! The most exciting part was waiting to see what the patterns looked like after we took off the string, elastics and popsicle sticks. I will totally be doing this again!
Humainologie- "We Are All Cut from the Same Cloth".
Humainologie uses art (including film)to increase human connectedness. It is their belief that the more we truly connect with ourselves and with others. the more we will naturally create a more humane global community. Humainology works to promote the” recognition of tour shared humanity”. They do this through engaging people with story, facilitating learning and action, and connections with a variety of audiences.
Humainologie will be opening up a Gallery/Store right next to the art store Mona Lisa on March 15th 2019 and Salima Stanley-Bhanji/CEO has invited the students at Western to be a part of the opening. They have created a piece for the store called “ We Are All Cut From the Same Cloth”. The students made random marks on a canvas throughout the first semester. We then cut various sized circles from the “cloth” and strategically placed them on a black stretched canvas. Our idea and belief is that we are all born the same way, without making judgements and prejudices regardless of our culture, race, or religion.
"We Are Family!"
Every club in the school has apparel except for us- so it only made sense for us to make some ourselves. Over the course of three months, my art student and art club member, Miriam, sketched some of the students that she saw attend art club on a regular basis. As you can see, the results turned out amazing! I plan on printing it on transfer paper and ironing them on t-shirts. No one can ever accuse us of not having fancy swag again!
My Little Pinch Pots
In keeping with my organic theme, I made little pinch pots out of clay. I am hoping to fill them with homemade dyes - stay tuned! ( Super cute huh?)
Oh, How I missed This!
I learned how to type in grade 10 in Mr. Danyliu’s class- he was a great typing teacher. At the start of each class, he would put on the most popular song at the time ( Rod Stewart- If you want my body and you thing I’m sexy) and we would all type in sync and rhythm. His class was the highlight of my day! I was nervous when I first sat down- after all, it I had not touched a typewriter since 1986 but soon I was on a mission and my fingers flew across the keys. Oh. how I missed this!!
Addicted to Book Binding!
I purchased a book on book binding and book making because I thought some of my students would like to make their own sketchbooks. Little did I know that I would become addicted to the process myself! The most important stitch in the whole process is the “Coptic Stitch” used the bind the papers and cover together. I am really not a great follower of instructions so I watched how to stitch on Youtube. I have to admit, something like this is really out of my comfort zone because in order for your book to look like a book, everything has to be perfect. The papers cut perfectly, the holes evenly punched, and the stitching neat and tidy. This is everything I am not!
In in second image, I actually made my own covers out of tea bags and tea and also used the stained paper they sat on. I am really excited to make more and give them away as gifts!
Going Out Of Your Comfort Zone
My advanced art students produce excellent work. Their technical skills are strong and they are very creative BUT they tend to work small. This week I challenged them to Go Big or Go Home! My first student to take the challenge was one of my grade 11 students- not only did she go big ( 8 feet x 6 feet) but I put a time limit on her. She was afraid to start at first, but I told her to approach it like she does when she draws on her tablet- but in a bigger scale. “Approach your work like it is an experiment and focus on your process and not the end result. It it turns out, great and if not, oh well!” She used charcoal and an ink wash and in 60 minutes her finished piece was finished. You can see from the results, her work looks full of life- anything but boring!
Scanography
I happened to stumble across this word and it immediately peaked my interest. Creating printable art on a flat bed? What fun! Only one small problem, my scanner at school was not compatible with windows ten and it did not look like it was going to be fixed anytime soon. How could I possibly make this work? I have a scanner on my phone…I wonder if that would work? I asked two of my students to help me out with my experiment. I put them in-front of our canvas paint board and have them move around while I scanned them with “PhotoScan.” I was more than pleased with the results as you will see from the first two pictures. Definatley Pintrest worthy! I then thought, “What if I took a pano of one of my students while she twirled around me and I move with her?” Another great result and next time I am going to try standing on a chair and moving around a body of students while they move around me- should be interesting!
Temporary Body Art
In art club this week we used Henna to decorate our bodies. Henna tattoos are one of the most popular tattoo designs in India and in some Indian cultures, Henna plays a very virtual role. Like before marriage, the night of the Henna ceremony is organized to celebrate the fertility of a young woman. It is believed by the Hindus that Henna brings happiness, joy and good luck:)
Impaired is Impaired
The students in my art classes and art club have been provided with the opportunity from AGLC to create messages on the outside of paper bags. I will bring the bags to a local liquor store on 17th Ave where they will be used. I am going to keep the most creative and artistic message and send it to AGLC where it will be entered in a province wide contest. The winner will get $500.00 and have their message and art work printed on 1,000,000 bags!!!!
A Face is not a Face
Today in Art Club we used plaster glaze wrap to make plaster casts. It is made of pre-shrunk cotton glauze fabric that is infused with Plaster of Paris. Working in groups of two, the students applied vaseline to their faces ( to make removal much easier) and then dipped pre-cut strips into water and applied them to their faces. It took about 30 minutes for the plaster to dry and were taken off. The masks will be used in their other art projects!
Art Like an Egyptian.....
I just finished reading the book “The Organic Artist” by Nick Neddo. It is a book that encourages you to return to those days when art was made with all natural materials, like charcoal, wood, inks, dyes and clay. So, as I was walking my dogs, I kept my eyes out for pieces of sticks that I could make into pens for inking. I then took an exacto knife and whittled the sticks to various thicknesses. I also wrapped the smaller and thinner sticks to make brushes. The tips of the sticks were soaked in water for half an hour so that when the ink was used, it would not suck up the ink. I have to admit I was skeptical to try this- how could something as barbaric as this, actually give me a clean line? As you can see from some of my doodles, my wood pens actually work better than a store bought pen! “Of course,” my husband said, “ What do you think the Egyptians used?” My students have also made some for themselves and we now plan on making our our inks with coffee, berries and beets!
Figure Drawing
In art club today, we practiced our figure drawing. It was such a beautiful day, that we were able to draw outside. We did a variety of drawings that were timed and then for fun we did a collaborative piece where we rotated and drew on each others piece. A great day and some great drawings!
A Creative Journey
I have been reading a lot of books lately about how to improve my creative juices and how to focus on the process not the out come. Bottom line- Don’t think, just do! The next three pieces were done with not any planning- they were impulsive and I just followed my heart. The first piece kind of looks like the eye of a crocodile or a raptor. I found onion net bag at home and I applied it to a re-cycled canvas with modelling paste. I then applied random color with a stippling brush. As I worked, I noted a few shapes appearing and I just went from there! The second piece started off as a dirty pour. Our maple leaf tree was losing it’s leaves, so I used the leaves as stencils and then painted in the negative space. The third piece was inspired by my inability to sleep at night. I always wake up at 3:00 and can’t get back to sleep. Two words that I repeat over and over to myself are, “Don’t think” so I used these words and wrote them on a re-cycled canvas in all different directions. I then covered the whole canvas with a gold paint and this caused some amazing cracks. I decided to paint the shapes with pastel colors and add some depth with black chalk. All in all, super fun to do. I plan on doing more and hopefully I have been able to umpire my students to go out of their comfort zones as well!
Collaborative Collage
Today in art club we made a collaborative collage. Just a few rules- the students were to find 10 images and 10 words or phrases that spoke to them. We then thoughtfully placed them on two sheets of water color paper- and added some final details with markers, paint, charcoal and pastels. A project defiantly to do again sometime!
Paula Timm
Last weekend was Culture Day’s at Cspace and I attended an image transfer workshop at Paula Timms studio. I also wanted to tell her that I was totally inspired by her “wall of waste not” and that I had incorporated it into my art class. She was thrilled! Her attitude, “ Don’t think, just do” has once again inspired me to pass on my knowledge to my students and use image transfers into my work as well.
The Sounds of Construction
Twelve Advanced Art students, Daniel Kirk and I , finished this mural in three days! Our source of inspiration was the Cyanotypes that we did with Ashley Bedet in June. It was a real challenging project for us all- an interpretive, conceptual piece where no one took ownership on any given area. I have to say, I am really proud of how we pulled this togather and it turned out better than I could have ever imagined!
"Zines"
What!!???? How come I did not know about this?? Zines are a small-circulation, self published magazine. Their emergence can be traced back to fanzine, a term used by science-fiction fans from the 1940’s to set their amateur publications about popular cultural forms apart from the official fan magazines published by media organizations to promote their products.
Zines can really be about anything you want it to be. They are not out there to make a profit, but rather to add other unheard voices into the mix. The Art Club plans to display their zines in the library at our school. My idea’s for my Zines are “Pool Etiquette” and “Laws that Exist in Canada”- should make for an interesting read!
