I know, I know – there are a lot of things that weren’t so good about 2017. It was an upsetting, completely off tilter year to many, not least me. Still, it would be churlish to not admit that there were some moments of happiness and beauty in there. I’m really happy that 2018 is …
I never managed to blog last week; May is always the busiest month of the year for me. I had my babies in May and, weirdly enough, so did many of my friends, so there are birthdays to plan and attend, and many, many presents to buy and give. May is also a month of …
This week’s camp was all about the five senses, so the kids spent a lot of time being hungry (taste, and smell seem to be the all round favorite senses, hands down, no big surprise!).
We looked at Wayne Thiebaud’s heavily textured paintings of cakes and other desserts, and used palette knives to ‘frost’ our own paintings. We learned about Synesthesia, and discussed how artist, Wassily Kandinsky visualized sounds. The kids produced drawings of music, and sat bent over paper furiously scribbling to The White Stripes, Bob Marley, Tchaikovsky, and hot jazz. We learned about color theory and color symbolism. We drew objects, while feeling them, and not looking at them. We gawped at pictures of scarification, and body art, and made a horrible mess working with clay. We made a lot of horrible messes.
The campers loved ‘Lick and Lather’ – Janine Antoni’s chocolate and soap sculptures, and had some amazing insights about her work, which led to a need for an ice cream party (any excuse!). On Friday, we sniffed and identified different scents, and made little scent jars to take home and experiment with.
Yup, a lot happened, and that’s just the art. But, if you ask me, some of the most important learning happened during break times.
On Monday, after a morning of working indoors, I told my students to go out and play in the sunshine – “But, what should we play?” they asked me, “I don’t know, whatever you want to!” I said, “But, we don’t know what to play! they retorted, “This is boring, can you make up a game for us?”.
I refused flatly, and mercilessly threw them out into the wild jungle that is North American suburbia. What happened? Well it wasn’t pretty, there was awkwardness, sulking, whining and a few fights at first, but by the end of the week, the kids were begging for more play time. They made up complex games, hashing out the rules in long, drawn out negotiations, and bonded beautifully. They even organized an end of week performance, made posters by themselves, and practiced relentlessly for it the whole of Friday afternoon.
I think free playtime is really important for kids. Sure, teacher organized play activities have their merits – I often organize games and activities for my students, but I also often step away a lot during break times, and that’s when the good stuff happens.
Who needs a teacher looking over your shoulder all the time? Alone, kids learn to solve problems and counsel one another. Free play fosters the building of skills such as negotiation, team work, conflict resolution, imagination, creativity, and problem posing and solving. My classroom is almost always a better place after a long break. I remember devising so many new games during my long recesses at school, so let’s let our kids get a bit bored this summer, and see where it leads them!
So, the Spring camp happened…just like that. One minute I was busily stocking up on art materials, next thing you know the kids are waving goodbye and running off into the horizon. The camp was very much like a whirlwind in more than one way. Exhilarating, noisy, windswept (thanks Mother Nature), messy, and over way …
My blog has lain fallow for a good month or so. When this happens, it means that I have not been on top of things as much as I would like. I work for myself, from home, which means that at any given time I am stirring a big pot of projects, both work and …
“Oh! I love these shirts, they are so vintage looking!! Said the young woman before scooping up a couple and buying them. Vintage looking? I guess she was referring to the low-tech printing process that I employ. Or maybe I really am aesthetically stuck in a different era. You really learn a lot at fairs. …
“What was your favorite part of the trip to Chennai?” I asked my six year old. “Dakshina Chitra” She replied without even blinking first. I’m not surprised, it really is a wonderful place. Dakshina Chitra is a heritage center just outside Chennai, on the way to the beautiful beach town of Mahabalipuram. According to my …
A couple of days ago, I came across a T-shirt company whose slogan is “Perfectly imperfect”. I gaped in mild dismay “That should be my slogan” I thought ” They have my slogan!! Imperfection is definitely MY thing!” It’s true, I do like my design a little under-cooked, which is why I love printmaking so …
When I was 19 years old, I convinced my parents that I was mature enough to travel around Northwestern India on my own. I obviously possessed greater powers of courage and persuasion then.
My idea was to travel around with a sketchbook and camera, and produce an amazing portfolio of work that would help me to get into an Art college of my choice.
It worked.
While on this trip, I often ran out of art materials in places where there were no stores that sold them, so I improvised. I painted with spices such as turmeric and chilli, and used old pieces of fabric and packaging to draw on. But my favorite of these ad hoc materials by far was a stick from a neem tree that I had carved to a point. I happily filled sketchbooks with big, drippy ink drawings, and actually had a period of mourning when the stick finally broke, exhausted by my furious scribbling.
Many years later, I would range around woodlands like a crazed yeti, collecting sticks and branches for my students to dip into ink and draw with at school.
I have recently rediscovered the joys of drawing with ink. It is really so much fun.
It is hard not to relax when you draw with ink, because you have less control over the sorts of marks you produce, every line has an unexpected beauty to it. Try it.
I have become a White person. No this is not a statement about my racial identity. It is purely aesthetic. I have recently discovered my love of the color white in all it’s variations. Ivory, cream, jasmine, titanium, I love them all. The simple pop of a clean color print on a white background can …
