Instant Sculpture [Arts Explorer #2]

      I don't think instant is quite the word to describe my sculpture. This was quite the task. First of all, thinking about what type of sculpture I should make and which materials I would include was hard enough. I was inspired by a movie where I wanted to make a sculpture to represent an individual from the movie. But I guess my man made of money could represent any man (made of money).

     Getting to the torso and building the arms outward was very difficult. I watched my sculpture fall to pieces on more than one occasion. One time I knocked the table, that was my fault. But it seemed that gusts of wind were coming out of nowhere knocking my friend over. Here are some pictures of the process and my final product!

    

          Right from the beginning of my creation, I knew what my art word of the week was going to be: Mass and Volume.  Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) define this as "criteria for critiquing three-dimensional art, which has height, length, and width" (p142) and "can be portrayed as solid, geometric or organic, static or dynamic, angular or curved, or hard or soft" (page 142). While creating my money man, I was using different coins in different patterns creating a three-dimensional scultupe. It not only had to do with making it look nice, but also figuring out which coins worked best for certain parts of the body. Trying to figure out how to put the head together was the most difficult part. When the sculpture fell apart (three times) when I reached the head, I really had to use what was left of my frustrated brain cells to figure out how it would stay up. Needless to say, many hours later I managed to complete my sculpture and get a picture of it before he collapsed again!
          This is also an activity that can be done with children. You don't need to have them create something exactly the same as an example. Children need to express their creativity in many ways. If they're making a sculpture, allow them to use a variety of materials and let them create whatever they feel. All children have different experiences and perceive things differently. Having them create something that looks exactly like an example they're working off of does not allow them to make decisions, problem-solve, and pick what they truly like.

References:

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

What does creativity mean to me [Arts Explorer #1]

     I believe every individual has one or more creative bones in their body. I have friends, for instance, who are comprised completely of creative bones. I on the other hand, have a select few, but am very proud of them. Creativity is a hard word to define, but it is easy to see. Creativity can be seen in a dancer choreographing a number, an interior decorator furnishing a large space, an artist creating a sculpture, an architect planning a building, a student colour coding their notes or an entrepreneur creating a new business deal. I agree with the definition that Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) have for creativity which is "the ability to see things in new ways or combine unrelated things into something new" (page 6).

     While reading the Mississauga News, I saw a picture of a mural that was painted by Daniel Seagrave in a pedestrian underpass in the Port Credit area. If this mural isn't an example of creativity, I don't know what else could be. According to the Mississauga News this piece of art was created from an old photo.  This means the artist took something, the photo, which is not something new, but created a wonderful piece of artwork. It was amazing to stand in a tunnel covered in art that someone worked very hard on for weeks. The pictures above does not do the work justice.
     It is important to understand how you see creativity as an ECE, or teacher, or anyone who works with children. You must understand that children are all creative, and can be creative in a variety of ways. A child expressing their creativity might not do so through painting or drawing. They may do it through dance, or storytelling, or other ways.

    

References:

Le, J. (2010, December 23 ). Mural completed tunnel. The Mississauga News. Retrieved from http://www.mississauga.com/community/article/921336--mural-completes-tunnel

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