This is one of my favourite quotes by American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. It's a great reminder that, as individuals, we are capable of anything. If we really have the desire, we are only limited by our imaginations, and that our lives are a direct product of what we make them. 

In the classroom, this would be a great message to show the kids and to talk about with them. The word "canvas" in the quote opens up some possibilities for art activities as well. A student could draw their future dreams and goals on a template that looks like the picture above. As an accompanying project, students could research the steps they would need to take to reach these goals.

These shoes were worn by NFL player Patrick Peterson during this last Sunday's game. I have never seen athletic gear with artwork on it like this. I thought it was really cool and something out of the ordinary. In the classroom context, it got me thinking about projects with kids using clothing garments or shoes as a canvas for art. I'm not sure how you would do it but getting a bunch of shoes and letting kindergarten kids create art on the shoes would be such a fun thing to do. I think after they did this you could do a few activities, such as empathy activities (walk in someone else's shoes) or even just simple, fun art display things.

Art in the Archives

While researching and preparing for our art inquiry project, my group and I went to the archives to find some poems related to our chosen artist. I had personally never been up there. I learned that there  are lots of one of a kind works of art (in all mediums) there. I feel dumb having been here for six years and not ever having been to the archives and utilizing the resources that are up there. The work that we found was an original small book of poems. The staff told us that there was a huge amount of material up there. I think that, while this might not be suitable for elementary students, upper level high school students would be able to get use out of this resource for their projects.

Art Gallery Visit

I thought that the initial activity that we did at the art gallery, with the portraits by Will Gill, would be an acceptable activity for elementary aged students. Children are exposed to violent concepts and images all the time, whether they are watching TV, playing video games, reading graphic novels, or surfing the internet. While there is a general standard for what would and would not be acceptable for children, I think that this exhibit does not cross that line. I think that the activities the coordinator described would be totally acceptable, in my opinion, for a class to come and view. I think people are ignoring reality if they think children are not seeing images like this, and they might as well be exposed to them in a controlled, educational environment that is providing context as well.

I thought our art show was fantastic. People brought in so many different styles and ideas and I thought that it really showed how we have a really creative class. I found it to be an incredibly educational experience as well because so many projects that were displayed were things that I had never even seen before. I tried to take lots of photos of the displays for future use, hopefully on our long practicum. Im glad the show happened even just for my own learning.

These are some photos that I took recently. I think fall is a time of year to get outside and enjoy the unique scenery. I think it would be a great time to do some nature-walk type of activities with a class, which could be used for many different subjects.

The top picture is from my parent's house, by the side gate for the field where we kept horses. The two other photos are taken at Wilkins Park.

This will be a short entry commenting on how great I thought the students in my practicum class did with art in the time I was there. I was amazed at how creative they were. They took the project that I worked on with them in so many different and cool directions that I know I could not thought of. They really exceeded what I expected them to do based on the other work we had done in the class and I was really glad to see how art can be an outlet for some students. One student in particular who had academic difficulties produced some great stuff and it was great to see the sense of accomplishment that this student got out of that.

This is a picture of a blue duck. I made the duck blue because to be honest I'd never seen a blue duck before and I wanted to see one.

I think if a child made a duck blue it would show great outside the box thinking.

This is a picture of the magic school bus that a group of us (Heather, Jesslyn, Jordan, Ida Mae and I) made for our science class dramatic lesson last year. This was an interesting project for me because the creating of the set was something I was not used to. It was a giant project that took a lot of thinking in ways I wasn't used to. Luckily I had group members who are much more artistic than me to do most of the creative work. The project also involved drama, which is another thing I am not used to. It ended up being a very fun project and gave me lots of ideas that I think I could take to my classroom someday.

I love art that contains a message. I have this print hanging on my wall. While it is great to have to decipher deeper, hidden meanings from a piece at times, I love this picture because the message is great and to the point. I think I could bring this into a classroom and have students say what it means to them, and tie it into a language arts lesson and a fine arts lesson to incorporate some cross-curricular activities.

 I took these photos on Cranbrook Hill during July and the second set this fall of the exact same spot, and thought I'd upload them to show how important season and weather are in how we view a scene. I know that for myself, these things play a big role in how I will feel about a piece, especially literature. Almost every good book I can think of used these elements to create a mood and atmosphere for the reader. I think each set of pictures brings a different set of feelings with them when someone would look at them.

I thought I would use these two images I used in another class to talk about the idea of that is built upon: art that is built upon other works of art. We mostly think of this with music, and songs that are remixes of other songs, but it's a concept that exists in all areas of art. We tend to look down on things that are obviously built on other works, like remixes, thinking that it doesn't take much skill or effort to create something so closely linked to another piece. However, no art really comes from a truly original concept; in one way or another, everything is built upon past ideas or methods. That doesn't mean they didn't take any skill to create, it just means that they borrowed ideas to create something wonderful. With this in mind, we should recognize that all art takes skill to create and should judge each thing separately on its own merits, recognizing that it may have borrowed elements from other works but is its own piece and should be looked on as such.

This picture I took of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum made me think about how some art is so respected and known for hundreds or even thousands of years, while so much art that is created never gets noticed. In this case, the original location of these sculptures and their travels have helped make them famous, but the age and incredible skill and detail that went into all of them are the real reason why. They were very impressive to see in person.

I like this picture because it's a quote from Oscar Wilde that I think is very true: art is, in and of itself, useless. It gains its value from the way that each person views it. A piece of art has to speak to some part of our experience in order for us to appreciate it. A painting might depict a scene that takes someone back to a happy place in their life, or a song might have some lyrics that deal with an emotional issue that the listener can identify with. Even though these are both negative and positive emotions, they are powerful and make a person relate to the art that is inspiring those feelings. This is how art gains its value; without a person attaching some personal emotion to the art, it has none.