Guerilla Art [Arts Explorer #9]

Community Arts Project Guerilla Art
Made of Breakfast - Egg Cartons, Milk Carton, Granola bar & Cereal Boxes

        What do the items in the picture look like to you? Junk? If that's what you answered, then you're only partially correct. While it is junk (milk carton, egg carton, cereal/granola boxes) all strung together and tied between two trees trunks, this piece of "junk" is the guerilla art my CAP group and I left behind. The intent of it was to provoke thoughts. I mean, it's not everyday that someone witnesses a string of breakfast containers hanging randomly in such a busy part of town.

          Strung in place with our breakfast junk were 3 signs that said: 1) Eat Breakfast!, 2)What did YOU eat for Breakfast?, and lastly 3) If you did eat your breakfast, was it healthy?
As I mentioned, these questions are to stop people in their tracks and provoke them to think about whether or not they had breakfast - the most important meal of the day - that morning. Although this guerilla art was spurred from our Community Arts Project to advocate for Breakfast In Schools for all children, we wanted everyone - not just children to enjoy a hearty breakfast each morning. We placed our piece of artwork right by the busy intersection of Church and Gerrard St. There's always a lot of traffic, a lot of people walking by so we thought it was the perfect place to set it up.

        After hanging it up we walked away and took pictures from afar to people's reaction as they walked by this hanging piece of artwork - to see whether they even noticed it at all. Here were some of the snippets that we caught:

           The whole process of this assignment was quite fun I must admit. Stringing a bunch of random breakfast food containers/reminders was not such a difficult task to complete. Initially I felt very nervous and scared about doing a guerilla art in public as it's not something legal per se. Leaving garbage behind is definitely not something that is encouraged by our society. There's always security and police officers around Ryerson Campus, what if they approached us and questioned us? Fortunately, we didn't run into that problem. When we finished assembling our art together, I felt excited to display it in public. It's interesting and fun to see the kinds of reactions we got from it. Most people walked by and cranked their necks to one side reading the signs as they walkd by, while others actually stopped in their tracks to see what this was all about.

            I think Guerilla art is a great activity to introduce to children. It gives them the opportunity to think of something that they individually, or as a class care about and are interested in. Additionally, it gives children the chance to explore different ideas of how they can bring what they care about to the public's attention using their creativity. In the process they will learn that anything can be art and that it can literally come in any shape or form and still be considered art. Since guerilla art is spontaneous, and a form of street art, absolutely anything random can be used to deliver or express personal views and opinions to the public. It doesn't even have to be extravagant; anything simple will do.

ART WORD OF THE WEEK:
Space [speys]
Space is referred to as "the total area defined by the size of the artist's paper or canvas" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p.143). Within the space, many things must be taken into consideration regarding the arrangement of elements. Schirrmacher & Fox (2009) suggested the following questions to consider: How many shapes or symbols will be used? Where will they be placed? How much room will be left?

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. E. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning.

Pretend Play & Magical Thinking [ Arts Explorer #8]

        I know what you're probably thinking. A house? how is THAT pretend and magical thinking? Well I'll let you in on a little secret. When I was in elementary school I had to walk from my bus stop - situated at the end of  my street - to my house (I live in a court). Everyday as I approached my house, I visualized my house as well as all the houses around it as a face. A face with eyes, nose and a mouth! The windows above the garage door are the eyes, the single lamp slightly above the garage door is the nose, and finally, the garage door is the mouth. When the garage door (mouth) opens and I walk in... I'm eatened and swallowed up by my house. I thought I was pretty genius and creative - others just didn't see what I saw.

       Now you're probably looking back at my picture and trying to figure out the face. Am I right? Or you're looking at it with a blank face and don't see anything at all...

       Still don't see it? Let me try to show you what I saw as a child (I tried making it obvious).

Still don't see it? That's unfortunate, it's my childhood pretend play and magical thinking at work.

       Allow me to introduce to you Housdon. Born in October 26, 1994 he will be turning 17 years old this year! Both his parents are from Hong Kong, but he currently resides with them in a beautiful, and diverse neighbourhood in Mississauga, Ontario.  At home he speaks Cantonese and Mandarin, but outside with his friends he speaks English. He's a really strong fellow and can seriously endure all kinds of harsh weather (literally). He loves to travel, drink ice cold slushies and munch on ketchup wish chips. He dislikes homework - math especially, and the smell of after rain. However, he's not your ordinary teenager. No! Every night when everyone is fast asleep, Housdon transforms into a rocketship and launches off into space each night to the Planet Housse where he operates a mighty fine factory of talking microwaves...

TO BE CONTINUED...

         Pretend play and Magical thinking is I think the best part of every kid's childhood - it was for me, atleast. As an early childhood educator we have to give children the opportunity to pretend play. Children are creative; they can make just about anything come to life. They too can create their own story about an inanimate object or toy and let me tell you, when they do, it's going to be out of this world! It's so important that their pretend play and magical thinking are not simply brushed aside. Teachers need to encourage pretend play because it opens the door for increased creativity, use of language and social skills.

Art Word of the Week 
Mass [mas] or Vol·ume [vol-yoom, -yuhm]
Schirrmacher & Fox (2009) described mass or volume as something that can be:
- heavy, bulky, massive; or light, delicate
- solid, impenetrable, block- like; or open, penetrable
- opaque or transparent
- geometric or organic
- static or dynamic
- angular or curved
- hard or soft
- stationary or moving
- large or little, big or small

Links:
The Importance of Pretend Play
Ways to Encourage Fantasy Play

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. E. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning.

Grocery Shopping with a Twist! [Arts Explorer #7]

        When I first step foot into a grocery market, the first section that I am most drawn to is the fresh fruit. Fruit is part of my daily diet (which should be for all of us) and is what I usally choose to snack on over junk food. They're sweet (for the most part) and  healthy!

         I LOVE FRUITS - Watermelon, Kiwi, Blueberry, Strawberry, Raspberry, Cherry, Mango, Orange, Grape, Peach, Plum, Pineapple, Dragon fruit, Pear, Star fruit, Pomegranate, Apple, Honeydew melon, Cantaloupe - I love them all! (Except Durian - The smell of it makes me run the other way...) Fruits can take many form; it can be made into fruit juices, smoothies, fruit salad, and fruit preserves - just to name a few. Fruits is a very broad category, but each kind of fruit come in different colors, shapes, textures, sizes and varieties. Even within one single type of fruit come various shapes and sizes since no two fruit is exactly the same. And when I say variety, I mean that one type of fruit can have many variations. For instance, a watermelon can have red or yellow flesh, range in sizes and come with or without seeds, kiwi's can be further categorized into golden kiwi, or green kiwi (which by the way for those of you who don't know - looks and tastes very different), and grapes can be green, red, or black, and again, with or without seeds.

Different shapes & sizes of watermelon grown in Japan.
Photo taken on a trip to Hong Kong in 2009.

    When you look in the fruit section of a grocery store, the first thing you will probably notice is the range of colors - from red, orange, yellow green, blue, to purple (pretty much all the colors of the rainbow!)
I have chosen to sketch a starfruit, dragonfruit, and pear to emphasize some of the various shapes of fruits. It's a little difficult to describe each of their shapes, but from my drawings you can tell that they're all very unique. These fruits are all non-geometrical. However, when you cut the starfruit open, it produces the shape of a star, thus making it a geometrical shape. As I mentioned, fruits come in a range of shapes. The next time you go grocery shopping take a look and see for yourself!

      

There's so much to look at in a grocery store. There are so many different shape, sizes, colors, textures, and FOOD! And come one, who doesn't like food? This can be an opportunity to stir up a discussion or conversation with children about these different elements. You can even play a game of eye spy with them while strolling down each and every aisle. Ultimately, it promotes the use of langauge.

Art Word of the Week

Shape [sheyp]

According to Schirrmacher & Fox (2009), shape refers to the outside form of an object. It may be characterized as: simple or complex, circular or angular, geometrical (circle, square, rectangle or triangle) or nongeometrical (irregular, free-form), big and large, or small and little, solid, heavy, massive; or open, light, hard or soft, symmetrical or asymmetrical (p.140).

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. E. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning.