Jo Murphy's BlogPosted by Jo Murphy The tag on Clark's email says ,,,,Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead anthropologist and writer. If you would like to be involved in this mini interview please send your answers and a .jgp of yourself directly to me and I will upload them for you. The answers will be displayed in a book throughout the exhibition. An Exploration of Identity will be opened @ Banyo Campus Catholic University 7pm 10th Nov. N Block and remain on display until 27th Nov 2009 Clark has said
Hope to see you all at the exhibition on the 10th Nov '09 7pm ; but if you can't make it get involved send your answers and a .jpg be a part of the exhibition. Be a part of the book!
Posted by Jo Murphy If you would like to be involved in this mini interview please send your answers and a .jgp of yourself directly to me and I will upload them for you. The answers will be displayed in a book throughout the exhibition. An Exploration of Identity will be opened @ Banyo Campus Catholic University 7pm 10th Nov. N Block and remain on display until 27th Nov 2009 Elise has said
Hope to see you all at the exhibition on the 10th Nov '09 7pm ; but if you can't make it get involved send your answers and a .jpg be a part of the exhibition. Be a part of the book!
Posted by Jo Murphy If you would like to be involved in this mini interview please send your answers and a .jgp of yourself directly to me and I will upload them for you. The answers will be displayed in a book throughout the exhibition. An Exploration of Identity will be opened @ Banyo Campus Catholic University 7pm 10th Nov. N Block and remain on display until 27th Nov 2009 Kays says....
Hope to see you all at the exhibition on the 10th Nov ; but if you can't make it get involved send your answers and a .jpg be a part of the exhibition. Be a part of the book!
Posted by Jo Murphy The answers will be displayed in a book throughout the exhibition. An Exploration of Identity will be opened @ Banyo Campus Catholic University 7pm 10th Nov. N Block and remain on display until 27th Nov 2009What would make me a more productive Australian?
Cheers Jo – having read your blog and work – you do magnificent things Fran
Posted by Jo Murphy Sr Mary Cresp says ...Congratulations on a wonderful portrayal of contributors to the welfare of our country, Julian Tenison Woods, Catherine Gaffney and Mary MacKillop. I love what you have done. I hope it gets lots of positive feedback. You won’t know the half of it – people’s conversations will float in the breeze but touch hearts on the way. Unfortunately I will have left Brisbane by November 10th and I won’t be returning until December 1st. I would love to have been at the exhibition. I wish you all the best for it. I notice you invited us to respond to the questions “What would make me a more productive Australian? What do I mean when I hear the words Be More? What is my greatest hope for Australia?”
Wishing you every blessing Sr Mary Cresp RSJ
Posted by Jo Murphy Father Wally Dethlefs (click for portrait) is the creator of Marginalised Students Believe In Us shares his ideas about Identity in the lead up to a collective exhibition to be opened on Tuesday 10th November at 7pm D block Banyo Campus of AU Catholic University. Qld. It is called An Exploration of Identity. I have been conducting mini interviews with artists and other participants of this event asking them a set of questions. The questions are
Perhaps you would like to have a go! Feel free to email me your answers and if time permits I will feature them here. One of the many portraits exhibited will be a painting, recently presented at Our Lady's College, Annerley by a guest speaker from the Be More Campaign. (Caritas) Bianca Hines. It is a portrait of Oscar Romero who said “Aspire not to have more but to be more.”
Posted by Jo Murphy So what does Erin Kennedy who will be the MC on the night of the exhibition called An Exploration of Identity think about our questions?
I would be a better Australian for meeting, sharing stories with and connecting with people from all kinds of Australian communities, and building friendships with them. If I’m going to be a productive Australian, I can’t do it alone, and I can’t do it unless I understand life from perspectives other than my own.
I think of the phrase, I am more than a human doing, I am human being. It reminds me to “BE, more” – in the sense of simply being still, stopping to think, reflect, learn, observe, embrace and most importantly to BE present to and with others.
My greatest hope for Australia is that we will recognize more than simply our Aboriginal history, but also our Aboriginal present and future. My hope is that sorry is not just a word, or a day, but a living commitment to making Aboriginal Australians a priority, and in acknowledging that by embracing Aboriginal culture, we will be a better country for it. On Tuesday 10th November at 7pm there will be an opening of an exhibition on Banyo Campus of Catholic University. Qld. It is called An Exploration of Identity.
If you would like to know more about how Erin thinks read this article:
Erin Kennedy is an Advocate For Youth
An interview with Erin Kennedy where she talks about using drama and creative art when teaching and when on Edmund Rice Camps. She discusses the meaning of her image of the Holy Spirit.
Posted by Jo Murphy So what does Steph Unger who will provide the music on the night of the exhibition called An Exploration of Identity think about our questions?
To understand our Aboriginal sisters and brothers more by working with them and learning about the complexities of their heritage, ancestory and culture. I could then pass this knowledge onto my students and help build understanding, tolerance and respect between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
We all have the opportunity to be more, it is simply a choice that we each have to make time and time again; Will I stay in my comfort zone and continue to live comfortably, or will I challenge myself to reach new hights, achieve new things, learn more and grow more? I believe that it is when we choose to be more that we really choose to live.
That we will be at total peace with each other, truly embrace all that is different and face all that challenging together with a common purpose.
On Tuesday 10th November at 7pm there will be an opening of an exhibition on Banyo Campus of Catholic University. Qld. It is called An Exploration of Identity. Steph Unger will provide the music. If you would like to read more about her; these articles will explain how she works.
Steph Jorna, music teacher from Our Lady's College, in Australia, claims that music is a challenging yet rewarding subject to teach.
Steph Jorna, music teacher from Our Lady's College, talks about writing lyrics. She says,"Keep it simple, and stick to what has stood the test of time."
Posted by Jo Murphy On Tuesday 10th November at 7pm there will be an opening of an exhibition on Banyo Campus of Catholic University. Qld. It is called An Exploration of Identity. One of the many portraits exhibited will be a painting, recently presented at Our Lady's College, Annerley by a guest speaker from the Be More Campaign. (Caritas) Bianca Hines. It is a portrait of Oscar Romero who said “Aspire not to have more but to be more.” As curator of the exhibition; I have been conducting mini interviews with artists and other participants of this exhibition asking them a set of questions. The questions are
Not to be feint hearted I have kicked off this process by answering these questions myself. Perhaps you would like to have a go! Feel free to email me your answers and if time permits I will feature them here.
Posted by Jo Murphy Debbie Flood is a prolific painter. Much of her art is equine related and this has "led to many equine art exhibits and acceptances into the world of equine art." Readers will find a rich world of rustic texture and colour as they cruise this world of country life. They will see horse events such as show jumping and even circus venture. Deb presents an ever growing gallery of her paintings of children with their pets and children playing. In this gallery called Painting a Child a Day, you will see how Deb follows her love of painting children with their pets. Her work is light hearted as she captures a whole world of children at play. To compliment this pathway, Deb has ventured into the world of children's book illustrating. She recently self published a book titled, Children and Their 4 Legged Friends, which is a series of watercolor paintings and poems. It is obvious that Deb loves to work in this genre. On her website Illustrative Paintings by Debbie Flood, readers will be introduced to the past of Belfast, Maine. This informative offering is through an on going watercolor series called 'Belfast's past'. The artist has created a series using images from the early to mid 1900's. Giclee Reproductions are available from her site, and a percentage of the proceeds are donated to the Belfast Maine's Historical Society Museum. The other galleries on Debbie's website offer a wealth of characterisation and what is often whimsical expression. In the canine art gallery you will see dogs captured in natural poses and in relaxed people friendly atmospheres. Her seascape and landscape art is excellent in execution and profound in its serene composure. The paintings offer a fresh perspective and viewpoint from a technically excellent and deeply inspired colourist. The wildlife paintings are also the work of a deep thinker who has a firm connection with the land. The painting Broken Silence shows a respect for environmental relationships and a profound ability to capture expressions and glimpses of life lived "in the minute."
Posted by Jo Murphy
In 1984, Barry Levy moved to Australia from South Africa because of his abhorrence of apartheid. In 2004, Levy had his first fiction novel published called Burning Bright [Kwela Books]. The narrative is about young love, family friends and child abuse. In an email interview Levy says it is "a very different coming of age story involving child abuse in a middle class environment and set against the brutality of the apartheid years in South Africa." [April 2009]
Levy crafts his novel around the universal themes of love, loss and need. His work shows the reader what the world is like for young people who live in a society misunderstood by their parents. He invites readers to view the younger generation’s struggle from an insider’s perspective, and we walk with the main character as he attempts, unsteadily and awkwardly, to make his way into adulthood and full participation in society. The book recreates a shadowy world of terrible secrets and the confusion of a teenager being drawn into an abusive relationship.
Australian Human Rights
The Award Australian Human Rights Award for Journalism was awarded to Levy for a multiple series of stories on child sex abuse, domestic violence and homelessness. He was also a winner of the Anning Barton Memorial Award for Outstanding Journalism, which was awarded to him for a series of stories on child sex abuse (incest-rape). On another occasion he was a Walkley Awards Queensland State finalist for a series on homelessness. These themes are starkly portrayed in the popular book titled "As If!" [Interactive Press, 2008.] Of this book he says, it is “a fiction story based on observation of Australia's teenage homeless, it concerns the individual's need for love, identity and recognition, and is set against an adult world that is not always as honest or moral as it should be."
As If! describes disadvantage and its resultant pull towards waywardness. Levy paints a vivid picture of the lifestyle of Australia’s young homeless in a graphic manner. Set in the Brisbane (Queensland capital) fringe town of Ipswich, it is a world that many middle Australians live away from or choose to ignore. I have from time to time lived in and around the city of Ipswich because I teach art in a nearby prison, and perhaps as a result of that I found I could relate to the book with ease. I also recognise the tendency we as residents of the district, and indeed as middle class dwellers in the Western world, have to deny that this kind of existence can be playing itself out right under our very nose.
Levy’s portrayal of the hidden life of the socio-economically disadvantaged suburbs and towns, illuminates for readers the desperate ways teenagers respond to the stress of being forced to live in a manner "not of their choosing."
Resources:
Levy.B. As If! Interactive Press, Bris, AU, 2008.
Levy.B. Burning Bright. Kwela Books, South Africa, 2004.
Posted by Jo Murphy “Composition,” according to Lori McNee artist and teacher,” is the selective arrangement of elements in a painting.” The artist’s goal, she says, is to lead the viewer’s eye into and around the painting while keeping interest in the focal point.
"Think of it like feng shui. Most artists make preparatory sketches using pencil or charcoal to record the light and dark (yin/yang) masses and positive and negative (yin/yang) shapes,” she continues on her blog called Lori McNee Fine Art and Tips. Opposites Attract When she talks like this, Lori is drawing our attention to the idea that opposites attract. It is through the tension created by their relationship to each other that a pleasing and well balanced composition can be developed by the painter. This balancing of relationship can be an intuitive process for artists who work with "ying/yang and don’t even know it!" Once this balance has been achieved, Lori says, artists use their painterly skills to work with the elements until they become settled, developed and harmonious. Lori pursues this Chinese way of talking about yin/yang philosophy, when she explains how visual pathways indicate the energy of chi in the painting. This dynamic tension creates a lyrical movement of opposing forces, which govern the balance and movement of the composition.
In Spring Dream the viewer’s eye is pleased by the way it is asked to move through the painting. Within the image the eye can be caused to move about by many qualities. In this picture the audience is immediately caused to look to see where the birds are looking. “Are they looking at each other?” The flow of the twigs and sprigs that the small creatures are perched on also encourage the viewer to wonder, “Are they in the same tree?” Focal Point This painting has a soft, subtle aura created by a very light focal point which emanates from behind the two birds. Illuminated by this light source they work together to produce a feeling of presence. The lines of the twigs lead the eye in a meandering fashion to the edges of the painting. The softness of the flowers that sit upon them produces a kind of solidity that adds strength through the random patterning. There are many more bird pictures in the gallery on Lori McNee.com and many fine informational articles updated frequently on the Blog Lori McNee Fine Art and Tips.
Resource:
Article About Lori Lori McNee on Developing an Arts Based Practice
Posted by Jo Murphy Carl from CAKUart describes Sydney as a "living breathing ball of energy that is truly inspiring." He demonstrates his painting techniques on the CAKUTV clip saying that he has "tried to capture the opera house as night closes in." He wanted to abstract the design of the Opera House so that it suggested the building and its environment as a blurry adition to the mass appeal that is the city as a whole." He says that he has captured the Harbour Bridge as an accomodating backdrop to one of Australia's geographical logos. . "Opera House" was painted by Carl (CAKUart) It is acrylic on canvas and is 121.8 x 91.4cm It has been painted onto a 4 centimetre deep gallery wrapped canvas. Throughout the cleverly constructed video you can see the way that Carl sketchs the design. After blocking major areas with colour, he develops the abstract qualities of the seaside symbol by pairing back the forms with white. This creates a lyrical composition that is rich with soft suggestion and nuance. It is a joyous painting and it captures the look and feel of the Opera House as well as the sporty outdoorishness of popular Australian culture. . As you will see from this lesson plan about scripting artist's statements and this article about how to teach students to develop their arts based practice, Carl has a lot to say about management of an artistic career. When you watch the video called The Rejection Letter, you will see the clever way that Carl talks of the history of the opera house. He compares the trials of that project to the personal struggles artists have with their creative projects in general. . If you would like to know more about the Australian iconic architecture, read The Sydney Opera House a Theatre Surrounded by Water.
Posted by Jo Murphy If you look at this picture of a horses head, you will see that the artist Sue Goodall has captured the fine detail of the horses mane. She has been able to contrast the feel of hair against the sharp look of shininess reflecting off the horses metal bit, as well as contrast it to the grainy texture of the leather halter. Skillfully she has been able to use the same medium to deal with the soft gentle luster of an equestrian eye with complete artisic control.
Who would have thought this the medium used to draw this picture on to high quality acid free bamboo paper was a simple black biro?
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The Qualities of Biro Art
Sue says “Biro pen can be used to create amazing detailed sketches. Invented in the fifties the humble biro hasn't been around too long, so not a well used medium for art but sketches mounted in dark colours look perfect wherever they are hung.” Other images by Sue in the Art to Heart, Biro Gallery show evidence of the versatility and quality that can be achieved using the simple, humble biro.
Sue Goodall
Sue, who comes from Whitby in the UK, works mainly in colour pencil, watercolour or mixed media. She uses other mediums but this is her mainstay. Her interest in biro art which she believes produces stunning detailed images. Sue likes to mount her biro art on black which gives it a contemporary look. It is amazing to think that an artist can draw forth from such an affordable medium such highly detailed and artistically exact results. Posted by Jo Murphy It was Erin Kennedy who drew my attention to the movie on Youtube called The Advent Conspiracy at Christmas. Since then the Be More Challenge has also drawn me into the idea that we as individuals can make a huge difference to the wellbeing of the world. The idea is to unite and in a concerted effort - contribute what we can - where we can. In response to this idea, I have taken more care this Easter in the way I write my card making articles. I have set this Easter activity called Christian Easter Traditional and eJigsaw Cards for students, so that they think about what the message of Easter is really all about. This Christian Easter card; Jesus Easter Jigsaw Puzzle is designed to remind recipients about what the Easter message has always been. Once the artwork has been created as a beautiful hand made card, it can be converted into an eJigsaw card so that families can send it as a home made Easter message via the Internet. Teachers can take this idea even further if they want to. Maybe they can encourage the students to make recycled paper to use in the card. Perhaps they can link the idea to Project Compassion or another worthwhile cause. Perhaps students can be encouraged to think about who might be lonely at this time of year. eCards are wonderful for delivering instantly anywhere world wide. Perhaps what is even nicer is to hear a knock on the door, so that such a thoughtful card is received special delivery!
Posted by Jo Murphy What is Scaffolding? The term ‘scaffolding’ comes from the works of Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976). Imagine ‘scaffolding’ to be like the structured supports mural artists used as they work on their murals. This structured support acts like and lookes a bridge. This is a metaphor to describe the type of assistance offered by a teacher or peer to support learning. In this supportive process the teacher or peer tutor:
“Scaffolding is actually a bridge used to build upon what students already know to arrive at something they do not know. If scaffolding is properly administered, it will act as an enabler, not as a disabler” [Benson, 1997] How Is Scaffolding Done? Although facilitators have their own styles of working, common characteristics of the bridge building process are:
Facilitators aim to:
Example : How To Draw Animals by Susie Hodge ............. 10 progressive drawing exercises designed to build the confidence of aspiring artists. more... Resources: Benson, B.[1997]. Scaffolding (Coming to Terms). English Journal, 86(7), 126-127. Shuster.C, Emotions Count: Scaffolding Children's Representations of Themselves and Their Feelings to Develop Emotional Intelligence(2), 89-100. Wood, D. J., Bruner, J., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17
Posted by Jo Murphy The articles How to Plan Diversely Structured Music Classes and How To Teach Guitar Using YouTube.com Vignettes clearly indicate that the Internet has made a tremendous difference to the availability of quality resources freely accessible to teachers and students throughout the world. One of the consequences of this freedom is that students can race ahead of the teacher if they are passionately enthused about playing an instrument. So long as the teacher is equipped to deal with this it makes teaching all the better. Some teachers may struggle to
Both of the articles call for teachers to keep experimenting until they find a balanced approach that works for all members of the class. One of the rewards of learning to manage the digital revolution is that classes can participate in online communities. This gives them the opportunity to upload their own musical work and to receive and give feedback to others. Well equipped classrooms experience a rich source of inspiration once unheard of.
Posted by Jo Murphy Harry Broudy was considered a major philosopher of his time. He wrote mainly on the field of Visual Arts but also talked of Music Education. Broudy saw the Philosophy of Arts Education in his era being about the struggle of art education to move from the periphery to the core of schooling. It still is!
He expressed this as tension between creative arts and other subjects that were seen as more essential. He wanted arts subjects to move to a more core position. The Creative Arts, he said, should be described as "necessary " rather than as "nice." As described in an article cited below, he claimed that imagination cultivated through Arts Education provided essential support to other functions of the educated minds.
Community Excellence
Students can cultivate awareness and understanding through aesthetic experience. This awareness serves to broaden and differentiate student repertoire of feeling and values. This means that students have more chance of becoming compassionate citizens. It is in the awareness of citizenship issues that Broudy talks of democracy and the compatability of excellence. On this account excellence becomes a group phenomana, in much the way that acheveiment of excellence and attainment Level Five functioning are described in Tribal Leadership.
The Value of The Arts
When heightened aesthetic experience penetrates the educational process, illuminating every mode of experience, students become much more tuned in and engaged by the entire curriulum.
On this account of education, mere fact recall is not sufficient. To be good members of a democracy students must acquire the ability to seek knowledge (inquire), and to understand issues with empathy and compassion. It is only then that young people become ready to make the informed choices that inclusion in social politics requires.
These articles
discuss the ideas outlined above at length.Posted by Jo Murphy Think of the Art World is as being like a set of little Russian Stacking cups as pictured on the Matrushka toys website. Perhaps the Russian inventors were trying to portray global inter-relatedness. The creative art world is like this; smaller groups exist within other larger groups that operate within online global community interconnectedness.
If throughout the world artists were to operate as one, would the creativity of the world will be lifted? Can we as a global artistic community be harnessed to pull together as one? An example of one such enlightened community is EnlightenNext. Through an online portal great creative thinkers of the world join forces in a community to which one can subscribe.
In the book Tribal Leadership, [Collins Business 2008] researchers Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright found that tribes are not only powerful, but that tribal dynamics can be mapped. This understanding can assist arts teachers talk with students about how they perceive success.
Changing the Way Students Think about Success
The saying “The higher you climb the harder you fall,” evidences a way of thinking prevalent in some artistic communities. The idea is that if what you want to be the best in your field, you are naturally come up against opposition. This paranoid way of thinking evolves in competitive cultures cultures. It is natural to assume that there will always someone else who wants top position too. It is reasoned therefore, that it is necessary to always be working harder faster and in a cut throat mode of survival. Negative Aspects of Competitive Cultures
Self interested competition is counter productive to the creative arts classroom. If students see others in their field as "the competition," this outlook can be counter productive because it is:
Management of Leadership Stages Tribal Leadership [ibid] is about helping members of groups move through stages of development and self awareness. Hopefully they will arrive at a level of co existence that is proactive, productive, harmonious and enlightened. For "Stage 4" to turn into a productive and healthy learning platform it must be managed proactively and overtly with the cooperation of the students involved.
Posted by Jo Murphy Create a Photoshop Club that is empowering for students and teachers, using the methods outlined in the articles How To Learn Photoshop Online and How to Design a Photoshop Club
Set up the club so that members become a strong empowered, motivated tribe. Show them how to be capable of achieving varied styles of inspired activities, whilst maintaining an attitude of camaraderie.
Create a Tribal Atmosphere
An attitude of gratitude would result in the feeling that “Life is Great!” It should not be hard to convince students that access to Photoshop and free instruction of the quality offered by Watch and Learn Photoshop.com is something to be grateful for. This attitude of gratitude will motivate students and help them to feel welcome. Well spaced, well paced lessons will also incrementally lift the bar of achievement thus create an ethos of empowerment.
Stage 4 :”We Are Great!” (Tribal Leadership)
Creating images for “our” magazine, creating a community library together that will be valued for time to come brings about a feeling of belonging. Members of the club can work together to preserve history of the past and conserve images and memories of now for the future. This will build pride and an ethos of valuing community members. With thorough preparation and planning the club could easily oscillate between stage 4; “We Are Great!” and Stage 5; “Life is Great!”
Creating a Shared Language
The activities engaged by the club facilitated by Photoshop will create common group languages
An Evolving Learning Community
It is possible within this scenario to value both the personal individual at the same time as the communal colective achievement of the project. The structure of the learning community means that teachers can be quite comfortable if they are learning along with the students. If they don’t know as much as, or more than the students, this can be seen as a good thing. The context of equality will not be marred or hampered by a lack of knowledge because of the structure. Teachers can share the gift of discovery with their students
A sense of equality and egalitarianism will be further enhanced, because all images will be housed in online galleries. This means that there is no need to grade them - all can be equally valued. All images created can be enjoyed as different from but not better than those of their peers.
Posted by Jo Murphy In the book Tribal Leadership, [Collins Business 2008] researchers Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright found that tribes are not only powerful, but that tribal dynamics can be mapped. One of the aspects that these authors map is the common laguage that develops when a team or workplace moves from team to tribe. What Would Be the Characteristics of This Common Language? Leaders (classroom teachers) can improve understanding and motivation of their classes by using team language to develop a "we" culture instead of an "I" culture. The result is called "stage 4." A culture that embraces synergy above individual success, develops an ability to accomplish more within a streamlined harmonious environment. Happiness and a sense of well being is predicted. How Could Teachers Develop Class Aptitude for Harmonious Synergy? One way is to literally model valuing peace, harmony and serenity. Running a simple class activity showing students a way to destress and stay calm and focused might just be the key to achieving a class sense of well being. An activity such as How to Make a Finger Labyrinth in Clay, would be one of the many ways of modeling to a class that the teacher values every member of the classes emotional wellbeing. Providing students with strategies that show them there are choices they can make about the levels of stress they are willing to accept in their own emotional landscape, could precipitate the development of harmonious group language.
Posted by Jo Murphy If teachers have read the book Tribal Leadership and have listened to the free download from Zappo's.com they may come to a point where they would like to introduce the concept of "Working as a Tribe" to their drama class. This would not be an easy thing to do. Tact would be required when facilitating a process whereby students self assess their own ability to work together. With care a teacher could guide her class to a point where they may wish to assign themselves a level when engaging in group projects. Using "Die Weiss Rose" as an Historical Example The movie Die Weiss Rose [1982]provides Drama teachers with a perfect model with which to exemplify level four behaviour as descrbed in Tribal Leadership. [Logan et al 2008] The story of the White Rose is far enough removed from the everyday common experience of the average student, that it comfortably provides a context within which they can see the point of asigning levels of behaviour. There is little risk that the students take the point personally.
Encourage the Students to Assign Levels Stage Four cultures and leaders exhibit the following behaviors:
When discussing the movie, students wll be quick to see that Hitler experienced life from the point of view of a level three person. "I am great and you are not." They may find it harder though to pick their way through some of the trickier aspects of level four and five, when discussing baviours of the White Rose group of students. .
Posted by Jo Murphy Authenticity and the Creative Arts is about quality leadership within the creative arts. Leaders develop an ability to facilitate a listening ear so students learn to tap into their own Authentic Voice. "Leadership Education has much to say to the Creative Arts. Faced with the daunting task of creating public expression, students develop faith in their authentic voice." In "Finding Your Voice", Covey says "One word expresses the pathway to greatness: voice. Those on this path find their voice and inspire others to find theirs. The rest never do." Leadership Wired. 2008 Vol 11, Issue 10] The focus points are
Tribal Leadership – Leveraging Natural Groups is a research project that mapped the key leverage points of tribes to ascertain whether they are more powerful than teams. Voice is an important element within this framework. All members of a "tribe" are treated as important members of a "life is great" culture. They have passed through the selfishness of a mindset that says "I am great and you are not." With direction they move to "we are great and they are not," to "life is great because we are dedicated to a noble cause." It is at this point where enemies drop away and care for humanity takes hold that true creative synergy evolves. Posted by Jo Murphy Making pop up cards with classes and showing students how to turn them into digital eCards caused me to think about what is important at Christmas.
How do our communities stay connected to humbleness and original good to cheer throughout our family celebrations. Perhaps the antidote to consumerism is to spend time rather than money when creating cards and presents each year. A day at the beach might just be remembered with more fondness than a more expensive but less meaningful gift. Young people might find that giving the gift of time spent cleaning up the yard or some other active chore, might really impress the family in a way that typical gift giving has not managed tp in the past. Enjoy Christmas and New Year. Remember to stay safe personally and be generous with both of both time and love and you cannot go wrong.
If you would like to make cards with your children here are some articles that offer ideas:
Posted by Jo Murphy The Advent Wreath is a device used to hold community focus over a period leading up to Christmas. The shape of the wreath speaks symbolically about eternity. In the article The Advent Wreath, [2007] Fitzpatrick talks about the symbolism of the wreath and the way candles are used to hold focus. Symbolism of the Wreath Captured and Accentuated
Sustained focus. The staggering of the lighting of these candles symbolises a listening and awakened pose. People light candles for Advent to represent understanding that Christ is the light of the world. This community spirit can reach its natural culmination in a receptive state, when a white candle is placed in the center of the wreath. This candle is usually lit on Christmas Eve and it completes the visual statement with a final flourish of complimentary design.
Posted by Jo Murphy When explaining how to listen deeply he says,“Always pay attention to what you love most. You will go in the direction that you put your deepest passion - your deepest love.” [Conversation with Bill Isaacs 2001]
The background to the story of Maria Goretti shows how key players built worlds within which there grew a contrast of extremes. Goretti was selected as a patron saint of World Youth Day, because she exemplified 'conscious choice.' The young man who attacked Goretti had saturated his waking hours in pornography and his crimes are reported to have been the result of this saturation. Addiction to pornography is often described as being "lost."
Posted by Jo Murphy When people are having a hard time, they often turn to their friends for compassion and support. At times like this, it is important to choose the right person as a companion. It is important that the person is empathetic and supportive - someone who knows what the sufferer is going through.
Trust, understanding and comfort is always available to us, when we pray to angels and saints who are always close to God. Also important are the other aspects that we always hope a good friend will bring to a relationship; love, respect, admiration and enthusiasm, camaraderie and gratitude.
Saints have been so called, because they lived fruitful lives. Because of the way they lived when on earth, we know that they are close to God in heaven. Praying with saints is a cool thing to do because we know we are on the right pathway due to the company we are keeping.
People ask particular saints to pray for their cause. They know from the life story of that saint that he or she has a particular interest in that special problem. When a little primary school at Ekibin in Australia, named their community after St Elizabeth, they were choosing her as a model to follow. They ask God to help them act as she would have acted were she here. On her Feast Day, November 17th 2008, a community celebration was held and the students had fun by concentrating on raising funds for the poor.
Well before 17 November, a process was put into motion, to create a sculpture. The students also made plans to create a surrounds for that sculpture, to keep this icon safe. Creating this grotto like environmental piece will keep her image before the school population. This will remind the children about what is important to the community spirit. It will take quite a while longer for teachers and students to complete the project. That is the point – they will be working as a team to build a memento to keep the spirit of their patron alive and thriving amidst them. If you would like to read about the process as it has developed so far, this article explains how the clay tile was designed. How to Make a Clay Tile Backdrop For a Sculpture: Symmetrical Tiles Adhered in Formation Create a Patterned Background Later, after much refinement, a plaster cast was taken from which the children could cut tiles in the manner of cookie cutting. How to Make a Plaster Cast of a Clay Tile: Casting a Prototype Tile So That it Can Be Replicated keep a watch out for the rest of the series.
Posted by Jo Murphy Garie Sim is an artist and designer who taught himself how to become a "clayman." He teaches in Singapore. He has been making models from Plasticine since he was a child and discovered of the versatility of Polymer clay in the early 1980s. Garie recycles discarded items, such as tin foil, springs, magnets from damaged motors and transforms them into art and hobby pieces. He creates visually interesting artworks from elements such as recycled film spools. As he became more popular, Garie he began to conduct play clay classes at the various schools, shopping center and clubs. He was having problem with a shortage of basic clay tools and in order to resolve the problem, fashioned his own tools. “Looking at my treasured rubbish and other stuffs in the clay workshop, I created the various types of tools,” he says. [Sim.2008 GarieInternational.com.sg/] The tools, created at various times, have now been compiled on his website and they are there to help others to resolve similar basic clay teaching problems.
The article, lists a whole range of cost effective tools that amateurs and professionals a like can make. Tools such as Ergonomic Steel Bristle Brush Tool, use for texturing smaller area or Round Head Bamboo Skewer Tool, and the Replaceable Toothpick Ergonomic Tool are easy to use and cost effective to make. This means that teachers can create tools for the entire class from found material.
The articles
provide clear concise instructions about out how to make the tools and illustrated by clear imagery, provide tips and tricks that will make the experience easier for teachers and students alike.
Encourage the class to think of original tool making ideas for themselves and to share with others. This clay fishing line cutter made from fishing line and discarded pieces of ply was made for no cost in about 10 minutes.
Posted by Jo Murphy In a paper called What is the Meaning of The Medium is the Message? Federman discusses McLuhan's maxim "The Medium is the Message," He defines medium as "any extension of ourselves." [Creative Commons. PDF Download. 2008] To illustrate simply, he uses examples such as a hammer to explain the idea of extension. With a hammer we extend our arms and in the way that wheels extend our legs and feet. Each of these inventions, enable us to do more than with our bodies that they could normally have done on their own.
The medium of language, and the many forms of literacies such as dance, have the capacity to extend our thoughts from within our mind out to others. Our thoughts are the result of our individual sensory experience, and so therefore when we talk, act, make music or in any way express ourselves, we are "outering" our senses. This can be considered a reversal of sensory experience or reversing senses, because usually our senses bring the world into our minds. Speech takes our sensorially-shaped minds out to the world. Federman goes on to interpret McLuhan as meaning that medium can be represented like a "growing medium." An example of this being the fertile potting soil into which a seed is planted. We could regard it as agar in a Petri dish. In other words, "a medium - this extension of our body or senses or mind - is anything from which a change emerges." [ibid, p2] Some sort of change will always emerge from everything we conceive or create, all of our inventions, innovations, ideas and ideals can be characterised as what McLuhan would call media. The article The Dance Expression of a Filipino Prison: Lines of Prisoners Dancing Becomes A Hit On YouTube.com, presents relevant questions for those who seek to understand the message/medium paradox. In the article Garcia was quoted as saying, "They (the prisoners) are just not hostile anymore." He claims that his prison is a model for prison authorities all over the world, because the experiment has shown that there is a way to "crack the plague of violent prison gangs." [Sept 5, 2007 Cnn.com Asia] The biggest benefit of this style of ministering to the prison population is that there has not been a violent incident in nearly a year and a half.
Posted by Jo Murphy The article Whale Watching As a Creative Arts Project gives an example of a whale watching experience and talks about ways to create multi-modal projects designed to explore the experience of a nautical tour. Readers may wonder why environmentalists are prepared to venture into the terrain of these beautiful creatures. They may ask, “Aren’t teachers modelling behaviour that is detrimental to the environment by organizing such tours?” Environmental Conscience The trick for these tour companies is to organize sound educational experiences, whilst avoiding or minimizing damage to the environment. The creators of Sea World have responded with sensitivity to the need to care for one of Australia’s most precious resources, the Australian coastline. They see it as a duty of stewardship to be respectful and to proactively protect the natural beauty that exists within it. The Sea World Official Whale Watch Gallery portrays imagery of a whale being freed from a net. This tension between fishermen and environmentalists is a dilemma currently challenging Australians who would like to protect their coastline. The topic can be a stimulus for debate and documentary projects about our relationship with oceanic waterways.
Respecting The Australian Coastline
Because Sea World tours enter the world of the whales every day operators wish to make as little impact on the environment as possible. An approach to responsibility for protection of the environment is explained on the Sea World Website, “Sea World, through its Research and Rescue Foundation, has made a meaningful contribution to marine conservation by conducting internationally recognised research studies, promoting marine education and rescuing Humpback Whales, which have become stranded or entangled in nets.”
By taking students on these educationally designed tours teachers are modelling stewardship in a simply, practical but profound manner.
Posted by Jo Murphy In Queensland, Australia the coastline offers opportunity for enjoyable educational fieldtrips. On nearby islands, students experience the fun and excitement of creating sand sculptures, learning to surf, walking for exercise and for charitable purposes such as Walk For Want. Fertile cross disiplinary projects are designed such as a fishing sessions where the experience of the catch can be depthed by an explanation of fish anatomy as the fish are cleaned and gutted. Cooking sessions demonstrated on an open barbeque makes the lessons seem worhtwhile. Arts teachers are wise to prime students about capturing immediate impressions of the experience. Upon return students will have gathered a wealth of material upon which to explore the experience. Ways to Capture Experiences
Posted by Jo Murphy The New Masters Of Fantasy provides a trailer of featured images from the third volume of artwork created by contemporary masters of fantasy. View featured artwork as a Volume III Trailer. It is a movie that scrolls, accompanied by fantasy music to create atmosphere. Be sure that students view the clips on full screen mode. The article Vixy.net Saves YouTube Clips provides instructions that will make this process easier. The Fantasy Art Genre This is the art of the fantastic! You will find heroes and maidens, elves and unicorns and imaginary creatures such as dragons. These beings inhabit strange and fantastic landscapes, such as lunarscapes, dark forests and "other worlds". The combinations of realistic drawing with imaginary inventions are ingredients that promise to stimulate student imagination. Fantasy Art Projects After viewing the film clip, invite students to create a world of their own. This will engage the students because
"The New Masters of Fantasy” provides teachers with creative stimulous which is a magical and timeless inspiration appropriate for all ages and for students from all cultures. Posted by Jo Murphy Particular graphics software packages are intended for unique purposes, so artists need to be aware of the difference between file types that they offer. If you become unsure about why files are behaving in a certain way, go to the help menu of the graphics package you are using. The information about Vector and Bit Map Files has been paraphrased from Adobe Illustrator CS Help Files. Vector Images "Vector graphics are made up of lines and curves defined by mathematical objects called vectors." Adobe CS Help Vectors describe an image according to its geometric characteristics. This means that vector graphics are defined by a specific width and length, set at a specific location, and filled with a specific color. They can be moved, resized, or there can be a change of color without losing the quality of the graphic. Because they are resolution-independent, they can be scaled to any size and printed at any resolution without losing detail or clarity. This is why they are a good choice for logos and other graphics that must retain crisp lines when scaled to various sizes. Bit Map ImagesThese raster images use a grid of small squares known as pixels to represent images. The pixels are assigned a specific location and colour value. This creates a kind of mosaic of pixels which give an appearance of the object drawn. When you edit a bit map image you are working with pixels rather than objects or shapes. Bit map images can represent subtle gradations of shades and color, but, unfortunately they are resolution-dependent, which means that they contain a fixed number of pixels. This means that they will lose detail and appear jagged if they are scaled on-screen. If they are printed at a lower resolution than intended they will appear fuzzy. Posted by Jo Murphy Al Jazeera is the largest and most controversial Arabic News Channel in the Middle East. The channel broadcasts news 24 hours a day from around the world. Founded in 1996, and based in Qatar, it has become the fastest growing news network among Arab communities and Arabic speaking people around the world. Criticism from varied governments has helped the channel garner credibility from an audience that is used to government-imposed censorship and biased coverage. Troubled History After its dissolution in April 1996, Sheik Hamad who was disappointed by the lack of press freedom in the Arab world, pledged to let Al-Jazeera "report the news as they see it." "I believe criticism can be a good thing," the emir said in a 1997 speech, "and some discomfort for government officials is a small price to pay for this new freedom." Allied Media.com Breaking Barriers Al Jazeera's now has a team of dedicated journalists. They have a multi-national education and they come from diversified backgrounds. The aim is to present news, which is objective, accurate, and truthful. Now, Al Jazeera has gone a long way towards breaking down the language barrier by launching an English language Al Jazeera station. The station has a goal of bringing “people and continents together.” One such story talks about a dance programme in the Phillipines that has radically altered the level of violence experienced by the inmates there. Posted by Jo Murphy The Problem With Utube Using YouTube in the class room can be a bit risky. Utube is a fantastic resource and there is such a range of video clips to choose from. There are timely modern videos as well as age old classic clips. The risk is that the clip might drop out due to a "blink" in the internet transmission. If this happens during class it can be both frustrating and embarrassing. Many teachers avoid using Utube clips in the classroom for this reason. The Solution is Vixy.net Vixy.net is a simple solution to this problem. This free online open source technology will facilitate a simple download of the clip. It can be saved to your own disc space. Once you have done this, you can play it when and where you want without the risk of losing the connection. How It Works
Open Source This service allows you convert a Flash Video / FLV file (YouTube's videos,etc) to MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP) file online. When you submit a URL, it will download and convert to the video format, and then you can download the converted file. TheFLV to MPEG4 Converter engine is now OpenSource. (Information taken from Vixy.net website.) Posted by Jo Murphy The purpose of the International Conference on Critical Literacy in Visual Culture is to critically examine what it now means to be "literate in a world that is continuously being re-shaped by the enormous array of printed, digitized and transmitted images and visual communications systems that contextualize our perceptions of ourselves and our world. " Conference Website Challenge To Educators The material explored at the conference will be about the challenge educators face when they attempt to understand the relationship of literacy to power. There will be papers presented that attempt to understand the power that unmediated media exposure can wield over students. It is hoped that breaking down barriers, which separate theory and practice, will help to achieve a clearer understanding of the created visual environment. It will be an opportunity to attempt to redefine literacy so that it empowers rather than subjugates subjects of visual culture. Venue The conference will be held at the Universities Center, Main Street. Dallas. It is hoped that it is the first of a series of trans- and inter-disciplinary conferences. Art Exhibition There will be an exhibition called "Keywords" in the reception (UCD Main Lobby). It is an art exhibition highlighting work using pre-existing images or information and electronic media in their work. The artists are Nora Herting, Jonathan Harris & Sep Kamvar, Penelope Umbrico, Jim Bumgardner and Brad Kuhl. They will receive a curatorial statement presented by UNT College of Visual Arts & Design Assistant Professor Paho Mann. Browse Content The conference will host two pairs of keynote speakers. If you would like to glean an idea of the variety of disciplinary perspectives, the Abstracts provide an educational smorgasboard well worth browsing. Posted by Jo Murphy The theme for WYD08 is: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8). It highlights the promise made by Jesus to set fire upon the Earth by the power of the Holy Spirit . It is this fire, which "inspires the pilgrims who come to Australia, to believe and witness to Him. " Celebrating World Youth Day Logo Symbols
The cross in the centre of the logo is white. This represents the light of Jesus. There has been a Journey of the Cross & Icon , which will lead into Sydney, the site of this years International celebration. The cross is raised in victory.
Tongues of fire have elegant and undulating form as they rise as though they have been fanned by the breath of life, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The colours of red, orange and yellow flow throughout the design, symbolising Trinity and Unity.
The colours of the Australian outback are parched and earthy. These contrast pleasantly with the blue of the logo. The blue represents the oceans that surround Australia, the waters of Baptism, and the sea of humanity.
The Sydney Opera House is the symbol of Sydney, the host city for World Youth Day 2008. The sails are interwoven with the other symbols. They bring a familiar cool peacefulness of the seascape to the hot parching flames. Posted by Jo Murphy David Swinton is a sculptor who offers his services as an Artist-in-Residence. He works in Primary Schools helping students enjoy the art of Paper Sculpture. David has over thirty years experience of working in schools, museums and galleries. He also works in a discipline called Environmental Sculpture. This is a creative endeavour that enables schools to enrich their immediate surroundings. Schools commission him to design and excute three-dimensional and bas-relief artworks in hard and softwoods, stone, mild and stainless steel, non-ferrous metals, ceramics, cast concete, plaster of Paris and fibreglass. David has a personal approach to creative thinking. He matches what is already avaiable in the school so that his work blends into the environment, thus enhancing both the hard and soft landscaping. His book , "The Magic of Paper Sculpture" provides templates you can make available to your class. It is about encouraging a way of thinking and seeing. When a teacher gives sheets of blank white paper to a class, and asks the students to design sculpture from them, he/she is taking the students to a creative space within which they will need to use the right hemisphere of the brain. When students are fully utilising this side of the brain they become more creative. The incessant chatter of the mind ceases and instead time passes pleasurably. The feeling of accomplishment that students experience when they have worked in this way is empowering. Once you have tried working with your class in this way, I am sure you will want to develop the skills, style and medium further. Posted by Jo Murphy I have recently trialed an E-course written by Jerry Lopper and begun bringing an awareness of the need for balance to the Creative Arts Students I teach. When teachers talk to Creative Arts Students about living a balanced life, they are not “talking about achieving an outcome or arriving at a destination." Lesson 4 Artists need to monitor feelings throughout the day. By monitoring how comfortable they feel, students can gauge how they react when faced with set backs or challenges. Because the artistic life is thwart with competition, it is calming to focus on what Jerry calls the five comfort zones.
When students feel tense or overwhelmed, it can be helpful to stop a while and look at the way they spend their time and the amount of energy being given to different aspects of their life. When one aspect of life goes astray, remember the Five P's …purpose, passion, personal power, principles and perspective. Posted by Jo Murphy Paper beads featured on Tania's Habitat are so attractive it is difficult to believe that they could be so cheap and easy to make. Threadbanger on Utube shows us how to make simple paper beads using only a glue stick. A more versatile glue medium would make even classier results. Materials
Optional Extras
Cutting Cut the paper into triangular strips so that they roll evenly into a twirled ball. Before you begin arrange the strips so that the twirling will create an attractive design. Gluing Lay the glue out onto a tray and drag the paper through, covering both sides and remove excess. Cover the entire surface of each piece of paper. Where there is no glue will eventually bubble up or buckle. Rolling Roll the paper onto thick toothpicks that have been greased with vaseline to prevent to beads from sticking. As you twirl it will turn into a thick bead. Use thick tooithpicks meant for spiking cheerios, so that when you pull them out of the beads, the hole will be large enough for the thread to go through. An orange or a flower sponge can act as a stand for the spiked beads. They are not to touch up against each other . Finishing Once dry, paint the beads with acrylic paint. Spray them with varnish, or, shellac for an antique look. Experiment. with 'stick ons' such as glitter letters or stencilled coloured paper. Glue them so that they spell names or words. The articles Handmade Beaded Jewelry For Mother and How To Make Rosary Beads show you how to put your new found skill at the craft of bead making to good use. Posted by Jo Murphy This recipe requires a cooking session either with your class or as preparation. Both the Artful Crafter and Pioneer Thinking describe the recipe in the same way. Materials
Method
Drying For a finishing touch gently sandpaper or smooth with an emery board.
Finishing The rough beads are have a rustic aura. Lightly sanding with an emery board will smooth the beads but that could turn out to be a tedious endeavour. Painting them with both acrylic or oils would also work well. The articles Handmade Beaded Jewelry For Mother and How To Make Rosary Beads show you how to put your new found skill at the craft of bead making to good use. Posted by Jo Murphy Clay beads are very easy to make. They are either rolled in the palm of the hand or rolled out to make a clay coil, which is then sliced to make even cylindrical beads. An inexpensive way to pierce the centre of the bead, is to gently push a moistened wooden skewer through the centre of the sliced coils. Cheap wooden skewers can be left in the beads as they will burn out in the kiln. This makes the project easy to manage and the beads easy to count. Materials
Timing It does take a while to make beads this way, because you will need to allow them to dry before firing. Firing will take a few days depending on the style of kiln you have and your 'kiln roster ' within the school. Because beads are so small and light weight, it might even be cheaper to have them fired for you commercially . This can be done at your local pottery supplies company. If you choose this option there can be a delay, because the staff will fire the kiln when they have a full load to heat. If you are planning a beading project such as making rosary beads, leave at least a week between when you make the beads and expect to be able to use them in a creative project. Using the Beads When you are finished you will have attractive beads from which to create your projects. If you want a glossier look , the beads can be glazed or spray painted. The articles Handmade Beaded Jewelry For Mother and How To Make Rosary Beads show you how to put your new found skill at the craft of bead making to good use. Posted by Jo Murphy A thumb piano is an African musical instrument. It "has a small sound box fitted with a row of tuned tabs that are plucked with the thumbs." FreeDictionary.com Because its use is so widespread across Africa it has acquired a variety of names, such as kalimba, sansa or mbira, Free Simulated Online Learning Experience The Africa Kids website has an interactive interface with a variety of options for exploring the thumb piano. If you would like the students to learn very simple tunes, and you have some thumb pianos for your class they can play along. There is a print function so that you can print the music. If you do not have access to thumb pianos, there is a simulation of the instrument for the students to play. It is possible to record music and play it back. With practice the students could become quite proficient at writing and recording simple melodies. An Attractive Instrument The thumb piano is an attractive instrument,. (Image from Overstock) It is easy to make. It is held gently between two hands. The thumbs strike the keys making a sound, which reverberates from within the wooden hemisphere through a hole. The difference in the size of the keys makes the melodic sound. It is usually made from wood, (perhaps a seed pod) and the keys are beaten to their correct size from metal. A metal bar holds them in place. The instrument can be tuned with this bar. Posted by Jo Murphy One type of early Australian Art is called “xray art.” The form is drawn as though the viewer can see through to the skeletal structure of the animal and its entrails. p 220 "Spirit and Art: Pictures of the Transformation of Consciousness," by Van James 2002 Steiner Books Xray painting is not only widely known of Aboriginal Australian art but it is also common to other tribal cultures. The images are more spiritual than simply being useful pictures created by hunters. Although the nomads would certainly have opportunity to become familiar with the inside of animals that they regularly carved, the art is thought to be more "essentially spiritual" than this. Van James indicates that early tribal cultures could see phenomenon much more deeply than contemporary people who merely relate to the outer exterior of objects. The stories of aboriginal people, like the one related on page 201, talk about the dreamtime and the creation of the world. It is thought that xray, line art drawings were a way of recording creation stories. The drawings may be of even greater spiritual significance. Tradition would have them "produced only in part by the living," as the spirit of the deceased and the dreamtime gods were said to assist in the creation of the artwork. In this way messages of spirits from the dead were channelled through the living. To show an example of what is meant by this van James shows older, simpler spirit drawings called "MIMI." The spirit are said to have left their images on the rocks as they "melted into them." fig 263 page 202 Google Books Explore further examples of xray, line art on page 201 (figures 262 and 263) of the same text and then try this class exercise from Enchanted Learning Posted by Jo Murphy This simple humerous animation of an Easter Bunny rapping can be the focus of fun and laughter in the classroom. The rabbit parodies "Rapper's Delight"!? while clearly spelling out the word Easter to the hip hop beat. Integrate Dance, Music, Literacy and Art into your lessons by using the resource in a variety of ways.
This animated resource is easily available and free online. This means that teachers throughout the school can teach the same dance steps across the board. Easy access means that a whole school could be practiced for an Easter Presentation with out fuss or bother. Or,the rap could become the basis for a dance the entire school population could have fun with together at the Easter Hip Hop. If you can suggest other ways this animation could be used as a class resource, please post to the discussion. Posted by Jo Murphy Open this Hip Hop dance lesson featured on Yahoo Videos.com in another tab. You will have time to read this article before it is fully loaded. The dance instruction video is called "Dance Lesson - Hip Hop-Bunny Hop." It is an ideal resource for teachers who want to incorporate dance into their "Lead Up to Easter " units of creative arts activities. The Bunny Hop is a repetetive line dance.
The dance could be featured when teachers unveil the Easter Bouquet as described in the article. Or the activity might be the early morning 'heart starter' for your class. If you are thinking of a longer term project the article Modern Dance Research Assignment is full of suggestions.
The video originated from Learning 2 Dance. It is a dancer's website that has something to offer everyone. No matter whether you teach Prep School or make a living as a professional dancer, this site has something practical to offer. It is a membership site. Some of the videos offered are free. If you like teaching dance this way, or, if you are an enthusiastic student and the style of learning suites you, the site offers a variety of options. We would love to hear about your experience! Posted by Jo Murphy This article "How to Make a Huge Easter Bouquet " inspires and guides students as they create a composition from a collage of hand drawn Easter images. If you choose to do this project, you will need to make some strategic decisions about how you would like the project to turn out. Do you want the central character of the composition to look realistic or would you prefer it to be very funny and cartoon like? This step-by-step instruction called "How to Draw a Bunny" is from www.cartooncritters.com. The artist uses a variety of guidelines to show you how to shape a cartoon rabbit. A simple search of Google will turn up a host of drawing sites that will show students ways to teach themselves to draw bunnies. This instructional video by Jan Brett is also a wonderful resource for teaching young people how to draw a real animal from life. Places like www.Utube.com will turn up instructional videos, if you do a simple search through their search engine. If you can’t decide how you want the bunny to look - why not set a challenge to your students? Ask them to find an instructional site so that they can teach themselves how to draw a bunny. Once they feel confident, ask them to teach this method to at least one other student in the class. Arrange an exhibition of bunnies and bring in an independent judge to select the one to be central character in your Easter Backdrop. Put the other bunnies to good use as Easter Cards, by means of a simple cut and paste on to a folded piece of coloured card. Place them around the Easter Display and retrieve them before the holiday to send to a special friend. Posted by Jo Murphy The Graffiti Creator website is set up like a hobby club. Students of all ages love the interactive software. The lettering generator is simple to use, and designed so that users can spawn original and personalised graffiti. As students generate their own text, the variety of options makes a huge range of unique, attractive designs possible. Like a combination lock, the generator can spawn an endless supply of interesting concoctions that will keep students engaged for quite a while. Vandalism or Artform? Before you begin, read Graffiti Tag Writing as an Artform and talk with the class about being responsible artists. Simplicity The software is very simple and even quite young students can learn how to operate it. Students
Classroom teachers can incorporate the use of the software into class assignments and learning experiences. Assignments
The Graffiti Creator website has forum and gallery so that students can share their work online. If you have examples you would like to share, please post them to the Hip Hop discussion thread. Posted by Jo Murphy If a stained glass artist is skilled and versatile, it is possible to combine techniques and materials to create highly innovative sculptures from the combinations. In the article, Designing for Stained Glass a sculptural work is featured. It is a turtle that channelles water in a fountain which has lilly pads floating on the surface. The fountain is an amalgamation of a variety of materials and art forms. This creates a collaged effect. Once combined, the work is integrated to become a unified whole. The water feature is an example of the way stained glass pieces can be combined to create a sculptural form. The fountain is a functional item as well as a beautiful artistic statement. The image featured on the cover "Water Works" by Tracey (Walrus Publications.) illustrates, how lead lighted glass can be combined with other materials to create sculptural works. The artist made the turtle fountain by
Often, though not always, artists will plan these types of projects with the environment into which they will be integrated informing the design. These projects can be exciting and fun, but they can also be expensive and time consuming because
Posted by Jo Murphy Pop-up cards can be very complex or you can set exercises that are simple and straightforward. They can be plain, quick, and easy to make without mess or bother. But you can also give the students time and material to turn them into specimens that are stunningly attractive and greatly adorned. This article will also show some ways to bring in humour. Ease In With Patterns This pattern from robertsabuda.com is extremely simple, but with just a little effort, it can be quite a stunning Valentines Day offering If you photocopy the pattern, you can give it to the class. Encourage the students to use it to make a card appropriate for their own age group and ability level. Process
Brainstorm Ways To Finish Cards Uniquely
Extension Ask the students to do a simple Google Hunt for other pop-up Valentine designs and patterns from sites like eHow.com. Ask them to bring examples and share them with the class. If you have students that need to be challenged, ask them to design a pop-up version of their own. Posted by Jo Murphy An Aspiring Artist Sir John Campbell Longstaff (1861-1941), artist, was born at Clunes, Victoria. He showed great talent from an early age. In 1873, he won a junior division prize in the Victorian schools of design's freehand drawing competition. He entered the art school of the National Gallery of Victoria in 1882 when Henry Butler recognized the young man's talent. He won the school's first travelling scholarship in 1887 with 'Breaking the News', a figure composition depicting the tragic aftermath of a mining accident. In 1889, he lived at Belle-Ile and under the influence of Russell's Impressionism he temporarily "lightened his palette and loosened his technique." Astbury. 1986 Soon after in Spain he studied the art of Velasquez. Careful craftsmanship and subtle dark tonalities were to continue as an influence on his portraiture style. Rise To Fame Longstaff was a highly valued portraitist. He painted King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1904. By 1906, he had a 'magnificent studio' at Carlton Hill and he became a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1902-20. He also exhibited with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. In 1911, the acclaimed artist appears to have spent considerable time painting portraits in Sydney and Melbourne. Throughout In 1918-19, he worked as an official war artist with the Australian Imperial Force. 5 Times Archibald Winner From August 1920 Longstaff lived permanently in Melbourne and according to the NSW Art Gallery; Archibald commissioned John Longstaff to paint a portrait of poet Henry Lawson. Later Archibald's fascination with portraiture led him to leave money in his will for an annual portrait prize. Because of his great skill, Longstaff won the Archibald Prize for Portraiture. He was honoured in 1925, 1928, 1929, 1931 and 1935. Posted by Jo Murphy In Creative Arts Computing Plan, I suggest that Teachers look at successes and difficulties experienced with past projects. Devise a plan with your class to map out the year. Some of these articles about theatre projects suggest ways that computing has been used to enhance learning. I also suggest Theatre Teachers streamline projects so that they are quicker, more practical as well as easier to store and to share with others. Digital Projects
Digitalise These Projects
Use an Inspirational Journal keep track of the various aspects of your projects. Posted by Jo Murphy A check list is a way to discuss computing with your dance classes. Map out use of digital process as a tool of facilitation. Preference
Practice Sessions
Performance and Recording
Presentation and Albums
Posted by Jo Murphy Context Day Four of a five-day comic strip workshop called “The Funniest New Years Resolution Ever” will draw heavily on Tech Drawing Skills and this way of seeing. It is a day of exploration and experimentation. How Stuff Works has a fantastic drawing section. Here you will find illustrated Instructional "How To Draw" articles. This tutorial shows How to Draw a 1957 Chevy. The use of geometry and geometrical shapes as guidelines is the key to Cartooning and Comic Strip Creation. It is worthwhile for any artist who aspires to writing comics to practice Tech Drawing. Practice all styles of drawing things mechanical, from simple water jugs to complicated helicopters. After a while, that way of thinking and seeing will become natural. Budding artists will experience a real boost to drawing skills. The Process By now, artists have
Participants will be asked to use perspective and technical drawing to plan an environment that has objects as its imaginary architecture. When it feels right place characters within the scene. As the workshop has progressed, participants were continually reminded to be thinking of a little script about “The Funniest New Years Resolution Ever.” Day Five will see that quip created. NB*. The story does not have to take place on a tabletop. That was just a teaching device. Let us see what happens. Posted by Jo Murphy Over the course of a five-day comic strip workshop called “The Funniest New Years Resolution Ever,” participants have been given enough information to
Read the articles How To Make A Comic Strip and Multi Variant Story Boarding. Devise the short quip by using a storyboard as a planner.
Here are some tips and tricks to help you finish the quip
When you are satisfied, create a proof copy and share it. Friends can give valuable feed back about how funny the gag is. When you are satisfied,
Once the story board has been finalised
Posted by Jo Murphy Day One of the five-day workshop is simple. The story board for “The Funniest New Years Resolution Ever” will be uncomplicated. “The Basics of Perspective;” is a short two hour lesson focused on “What goes back in space gets smaller and darker.”
This is the first day of a five-day workshop. On Day Five artists will be ready to create a comic strip called “The Funniest New Years Resolution Ever.” Posted by Jo Murphy This is part of a five-day comic strip workshop called “The Funniest New Years Resolution Ever.” Context This is Day Two of the project. On Day One The Basics of Perspective co inquirers investigated perspective and found how easy it is to create a simple object such as a Coke Can. Now we explore how to "Set The Scene When Telling A Story." This exercise further develops the process so that participants use these skills in context. They are going to make a whole tabletop. This is so that they can come to
Process
As participants draw, encourage them to think of a cartoon character that will spring to life on this tabletop world such as:
Content Demonstrate for participants the subtle techniques of drawing
As the participants develop confidence, keep the line work very feint so that it can be erased easily.
Posted by Jo Murphy This is part of a five-day comic strip workshop called “The Funniest New Years Resolution Ever.” Context On Day One - The Basics of Perspective participants investigated perspective. On Day Two they explored how to Set The Scene When Telling A Story Now it is time to create characters for the comic strip. Method Read Creative Character Creator. These are the stages for each character
Developing The Character There are many ways to make a character look funny.
Take your time and have fun. When ready move to Day Four of the Five Day Workshop. Posted by Jo Murphy Here is an example of a funny personalised Christmas Card. This funny card has been created from a portrait of a family animal. This image is a photo of a painting of a cat. The artwork is a Christmas present and the card has been made to compliment the gift. First Gather Your Materials You will need
Assemblage Instructions Either cut and paste in real life or cut and paste these images on the computer, in this order
As an added bonus you can turn the image into a jigsaw to send as an email card to add loads of fun to your Christmas Party. Posted by Jo Murphy Bennelong Point is the name of the small jutting piece of land that stretches into Sydney Harbour. The Sydney Opera House proudly stands as an Australian Icon looking regal but blending harmoniously with the aquatic harbour seascape. Bennelong was born in 1764 of the Wangal people. His story is a sad one. He was one of the first indigenous people forced to live with the early Australian convict settlers. The intention of Sir Arthur Phillip was to ‘civilise' the indigenous people into the European way of life so that they could enjoy its 'benefits'. “Bennelong was captured in November 1789 as part of Phillip's plan.” Looking back, one could now interpret this capture as an arrogant plan to teach these people the language and customs of the English. Phillip also wanted to learn the ways and customs of the ‘locals. ’ Like Arabanoo, (Windows media download) Bennelong was able to adopt much of the European dress and ways of behaviour. He was also able to learn “fair enough English.” Bennelong was able to communicate the language of the Sydney Aborigines. He also cooperated with Governor Phillip bestowing him with the Aboriginal name Wolawaree, thus locating him in a kinship relationship. “in order to enable communication of customs and relationship to the land. “ The Governor built Bennelong a hut on what is now Bennelong Point, the modern day site of the Sydney Opera House Ironically, a theatre that hosts a variety of world stories – was the site of an early Australian Encounter. Here, Bennelong “entertained the Governor,” and the battle with regard to the rights of the Indigenous Population of Australia began. Posted by Jo Murphy Think of the way some people roll their "r"s or the way some birds warble in the evening stillness. These sounds are beautiful and interesting. This trilling sound adds interest, depth and a lyrical quality to classical music. The famous Opera singer Dame Nellie Melba was renowned for her ability to hold a trill for a long time without losing the pureness of tone or the timber of her voice. If you would like to understand the history of the trill Neil Howlett talks about its development, history and includes some examples of the written music on his site. He says that "Contrary to expectation, fast agile voices are not always those which trill easiest. " Because the technique is so difficult to master it is considered a sign of excellence in Operatic style. According to Howlett common defects of the trill include
The trill was once popular and frequntly used. Nowadays it is not so commonly penned and very rarely do we see singers master it to same excellent standard of singers such as Melba. Posted by Jo Murphy Although dragons come from the imagination, there are some conventional characteristics that we recognise as 'dragon like.' See image of dragons from Herb's Metal Blog. Characteristics They traditionally have long necks and wings somewhat like those of a bat. They can have horns, long snouts and flailing tails. Usually they seem to have four legs with talons. They can be any colour although often they seem to be golden, green or brown. Activity As an end of year activity start this exercise with your class by
Functional Use For Drawing When they are finished their work, scan it or save it and create a Christmas Jig Saw to send as a card to their friends. They will now have a skill to share with their family and friends. Jigsaws such as this Christmas Dragon will give them loads of pleasure over the Christmas break. Posted by Jo Murphy To crop means to clip or cut. It also means to neaten up or trim something. When talking about computer art the term refers to neatening an image by cutting some away. Why Photographers and Designers Crop Images Cropping an image in a computer software programme is similar to composing an image when taking a photograph. During the photographic process the artist will focus the lens of a camera to zoom in on selected subject matter so that it is centred creatively within the Composition. Graphic Art Computer Programmes help artists to perform this function artificially. This process gives the photographer a second chance when composing a design. The process of selection allows the designer to select out the part of the picture that is wanted and to carve away the rest. When To Use The Crop Tool Many software programmes have a crop tool which has handles that computer artists use to slide in and out so that they can see what the picture will look like when cropped. It is almost like an artificial frame or window through which the designer can look. This allows her to play around with the image until she is satisfied with the way the image ‘sits’.
When students are learning about design they may not realise how much of a picture plane can be wasted dead space. By asking them to crop images the teacher facilitates an awareness of the possibilities that juggling Positive and Negative space can bring to a design. Designs can be enhanced visually as well as functionally. Posted by Jo Murphy The way that www.theKidspage.com presents free online Christmas jigsaws is especially helpful for teachers who want to send kids to the computer to do jigsaws as a reward after a task well done. This allows the teacher stay with those students who are not yet finished and need extra attention. Easy To Use - Self Direction The jigsaws are set out so that students can
Students can be self-directed without feeling stranded by a jigsaw that is too complex. Nor will they be bored by puzzles that are not challenging. For the younger children there is also the extra benefit of a great "Well Done!" that is played when the jigsaw is completed. Class Interaction If you have the time and would like to become involved in jigsawing as an activity with your Art Class, you can set challenges for the class such as
Other Activities and Printable Goodies The site offers a wide variety of jigsaws presented with a Christmas theme. They are visually appealing and highly colourful. TheKidspage.com site also has free printable activities and colouring pages that will serve as great boosters for the classroom during the PreChristmas, end of year teaching season. Jigsaw for Other Times of Year Jigsawing is beneficial for the students all year round so please add any jigsaw resources you have found to the discussion boards. Posted by Jo Murphy This Lesson Plan about Halloween masks is a good one. They are fun to make and would keep the class happy on a Friday Afternoon before the Halloween Festivities. The Lesson Plan comes from Hobby Craft.co.uk. Craft lessons are fun and they are a great way to engage the children especially when they are tired or 'revved up' awaiting a celebration.Craft lessons are worthwhile and easy to link to desired curriculum outcomes. When making masks teach the Seven Elements of Design as you go. This lesson about How To Draw and Paint Bats will explain ways to talk to the students about texture and present ways to work with positive and negative shapes. While learning about these important aspects of design the students will also create images that can be turned into craft projects. Method To make the Halloween Masks teach this lesson and then use the Bats created to develop them into eye masks. Tell the students to
This is an effective way to teach Design because if the students know that their designal efforts are to be developed into a fun craft project. They are likely to approach the task with enthusiasm. Posted by Jo Murphy The Lens Flare in a digital painting is a point of light. Used as an abstract element of design, it would not be attached literally to any elements of the design. But if an artist means to use the flare in a painterly manner it is important to remember what the flare is meant to do. Imagine what this simple drawing would be like if a Lens Flare was added to it. It would give it a new dimension. The glare from the flare would shine on the character's face. The flare would be placed directly inside the lamp, shining from the inside out, illuminating the image. Each star in this Halloween picture could be given a light source. The impact of this over use of a device would be the loss of dramatic effect. The scatteredness of the technique would dilute it. There are only a few little pin pricks of lens flare used in this starry image and the light source has been diffused. It is not suggested that the light is shining from any one place with in the picture plane. In this Bat picture though, the Lens Flare has been placed to depict a glare shining right on the bat. The bats face is screwed up as if it is trying to block it out. The viewer can see where the glare is coming from. Visually we can track the light on the face of the bat and see the shadows that have been cast . Computer artists must always be conscious of what they are trying to depict. Visual clues are hidden every where in a picture. It is the job of the teacher to show the student how to read these clues and to be able to describe what is happening. Posted by Jo Murphy Here is a Cat On A Bridge and The African Widow Bird. In this article students are using these prompts as an inspiration as part of a Multi Variant Story Boarding project. The images are from the articles How To Create Cat Characters and Cardio Dance Lesson Plan Ideas. "What Are You Looking At?" has been created by combining two images so that the cat and the bird are looking in the same direction. They have been combined in this way.
Now you have the picture of a bird and a cat looking in the same direction. "What Are You Looking At?" Posted by Jo Murphy Taking the text apart teachers amplify the way the artist has developed each element of the artwork. The class can examine the way each part has been stitched together to create a synthesis. The synthesis will ammount to more then the sum of the parts, because they interact with each other. Deconstruction is a Teaching Technique Appropriate for all Genres. The idea is to
Why We Deconstruct Deconstruction deepens understanding of the artistic process
Posted by Jo Murphy Spray cans had not been invented in the days of Mary MacKillop. Parents wanted a photo of her spraying grafitti to comermorate events that had happened throughout 2007. This was to celebrate the year seven passage of rites. The drawing will go on the cover of their magazine. Here is how I placed a spray can in her hand. Image of a hand holding a spray can.
For this exerices the Eye Dropper tool becamse crucial in both the MSPaint spray can drawing and the finishing in Photoshop. When ever an artist has to blend two pictures the matching colours need to be fairly technically achieved. You will also need to use the Magnfying Glass extensively.
Once the drawing was into the hand and the appearance was neatened I transferred the picture back into Photoshop and placed it on a layer above the original. I then set about blending the two pictures with the Eraser Tool set on Soft Edge. I used the Free Transform Tool to make sure all was in place and then saved the picture in PSD format so that I could work on it further to create the cover Posted by Jo Murphy When making Flash Cards teachers can change the time on the face of a clock. Here is how
Change the time on several versions of the same clock and hold up as Flash Cards. For Making Clocks With Toddlers I used this technique to create the clock on the wall. These are the steps to create a basic but adaptable clock in Photoshop Elements or Photoshop.
To change the time on the clock
You can not only create Flash Cards to use when teaching the time but you can renew old ones by
As your students get older you can teach them this technique. They can use it when cartooning or writing comics. Posted by Jo Murphy The image of a Preying Mantis illustrated at the bottom of this article was created in MSPaint. Once it was drawn simply it was then transported to Photoshop CS and the Filter Tool was used to enhance the background.
When you have Dance, Drama or Singing as part of your schedule it is often appropriate to allow the students 5mins Drawing straight after. This is to take advantage of the stimulation of their creativity and to allow the theme to be expressed in another form. Simple drawings taken from the images you have been working with can give you acess to a quick Art Starter that is not too much fuss or bother. Posted by Jo Murphy By making your own Flash Cards teachers can save money. All you need is
The two software programs are suitable for different aspects of the task.
When the image is transported into Photoshop the Filter Tools can be used to enhance the image The Crop Tool can be used to crop away any unused areas of the illustration so that the children focus on the content desired Below you see two pictures
Posted by Jo Murphy The paint brush tool in Microsoft Paint is much more versatile than most teachers would ever have thought possible. This is because there are so many sizes. It is made more versatile because of the Calligraphy Styled Brushes at the bottom of the Specification Palette found at the bottom of the Tool Bar.
Posted by Jo Murphy This article shows you how to teach MSPaint to little children. The theme of the unit is Under The Water. You can see the images of divers swimming and floating are very simple. It is possible to turn this activity into an extended challenge that requires young and old work together to make combinations and collages by overlaying and blending layers of images in Photoshop
This is an example of Proximal Learning in the style of Learning Community. Posted by Jo Murphy
Posted by Jo Murphy When she writes articles Rebekah Lynn shows both the right and wrong way to capture the effects she talks of.Creating Tangible, Touchable Hair is a very comprehensive tutorial about drawing hair. I recommend you follow some of her exercises with your students. As always, keep it simple, it is better to tease out each elements of design the students need to grasp, as you talk about each drawing exercise you give your students. Your students will have been taught about texture from the article What Is Texture? and they will know that Texture is ”When you make something look like it would feel if you touched it."
The students will enjoy Rebakah’s reference to helmet and haystack hair. In her humorous way she is showing the students how to be discerning about the harshness of their lines and the cropping of shape. When the students bring in the funniest bad hair day photo they can find, it can be from a magazine or they could even go out searching for research material in the wind, or at the pool or even at the hairdressers. Again I caution you to teach them about boundaries and make sure they don’t burst into the local hairdresser and click away at the poor unsuspecting clients. As always teach them to ask first, telling the respondents what the photos will be used for. As a prize for the best drawn sketch – perhaps you could laminate and display extra especially well drawn ‘hair do’s or especially funny ‘hair do’s. Make as many certificates as you need to really give incentive for this to be great project. When the students have had enough fun and they feel comfortable with drawing hair you could develop the exercise by asking them to do coloured sketches of animals or birds such as Chinese Chickens. Shaggy, cropped, soft and silky or rough and bristly – colours, tones and textures - the possibilities for interesting drawing projects are endless. If you want to explore drawing further you might like How To Draw The Easy Way or to take this course Posted by Jo Murphy This image was created to illustrate a Year Three Pop Art Project. The Pointillist Style cartoon has not been created mechanically but has been stylised and flattened so that the students go through the motions of spacing the dots themselves. Very simple colours have been chosen and the entire painting has been flattened and simplified. The process from quick rough sketch to cropped stylised Pop Art Image has been recorded. (Placed at the bottom of the article.) Teachers can make use this project in a variety of ways. They can choose to teach students the theory of Pop Art as well as show them about technology. They can also use the opportunity to tell them why these stylisations used to occur in printing methods. They can explain that Digitalisation has meant that processes are simpler, quicker and more accurate than before. Old style printing was beautiful and this project helps us “remember when!” When teacher talk with the class about Pop Art they might want to talk to the students about
They may prefer to look at the project as an explanation of one of the Seven Elements of Design …pointillist technique They might look at the technical aspects of the project such as
Or they may keep the whole project as a simple Cartooning Exploration. If the teacher is in the process of explaining assessment systems to students, parents and other teachers the illustration can be a visual prompt in the process of Outcomes Based Assessment. Feel free to copy it when you illustrate the need for Pit Stops and Bench Marks to Empower Self Motivation in your Assessment System. Posted by Jo Murphy If you would like to introduce the students to the idea of Creative Synthesis, try teaching them about the ideas of Surrealism or Dada. Show them paintings that are combinations of unlikely subject matter. The artist will have worked with this unlikely combination until there was a synthesis. A creation of a new ‘whole’ that is completely different and more than the sum of the parts combined within it has been synthesised. Renee Magritte is an example of an artist who creates suggestive nuance by combining elements that would not otherwise be put together. This juxtaposition creates a “synthesis” that is poetic in nature and loaded with meaning. Surrealist.com not only shows images that you can share with the class when explaining the artworks, it abounds with information that will be useful when you discuss the intention of the artists. One of the ways we understand the word creative is to say that creative people think laterally. This way of thinking produces endless possibilities. Creative ideas are inspired by turning things over and viewing them from many different perspectives. Answers defines synthesis as “The combining of separate elements or substances to form a coherent whole.” Brainstorming is one way of stimulating creative synthesis.
It is up to the students to decide what medium they will use and how far the process of integration and reintegration will go. If you have suggestions about encouraging students to creatively synthesise material please post them to the discussion boards. Posted by Jo Murphy Outcomes Based Assessment moves fluidly around the idea that educators
To ensure justice for those students who may not be able to express themselves in the more left brained manner we can allow them to present a talk, video their play, as well as set multiple choice questionnaires. Different instruments facilitate gathering evidence so that the teacher can make an assessment based on a variety of data collection methods. The visual diary and a digital folio can bring together the information so that it can be gleaned for meaning. Outcomes Based Assessment System formalizes the idea that the student will always know what to expect and they will be ‘clued up’ to where they are within this system. To this end, the teacher will provide students with criteria sheets at the beginning of the process. By a process of class collaboration and negotiation teachers will ensure that students know when the check will be or that the teacher or others will be videoing from time to time. Because they expect and understand the reasons, they can relax around these checkpoints and even have fun presenting this material. You might choose to use slogans with them such as Brian Tracy’s “{Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.) In this article I talk about goal setting and helping students with preparation. In this article, Writing A Fathers Day Class Play, I have pinpointed two check in spots. I use the old racing pit stop as an analogy. Rather than scare the student the process gives them a sense of control and is empowering because they know when and how to prepare for assessment. Good practice will have the teaching setting these pit stops with the students at the beginning of the project. Posted by Jo Murphy Drawing teachers often tease out the Elements of Design and teach about them seperately. It is easier for the students if the Art teacher also demonstarates types of hatching giving each one focused attention. It can be useful to single out this element of sketching and allow the students to practice a variety of ways of applying it alone. This will avoid over complication. On the website Drawing Techniques JR Dunster describes hatching as .. "when an artist uses the pencil to render in a back and forward movement." Cross hatching is when this process has been set at cross purposes. There are examples on this webpage. When you set the students to explore these techniques;
I suggest that you
Because they have experienced each method or technique in isolation, they fully understand the power and efficacy of each one alone. As time goes by and the students have experience of all kinds of combinations they will be empowered by the thorough understanding of the basics of drawing. You might also want to read this blog Shading: One Element of Sketching Posted by Jo Murphy When teachers explain and guide experience of each drawing method or technique in isolation, students fully understand the power and efficacy of each one alone. If we build up sets of these skills and provide ready reference to them the students become masters of a repertoire. As students learn to combine approaches to shading such as hatching, cross hatching, (and today Squirkling) they become versatile and authentic in their creative endeavours. Students can start their own Blog so that it acts as a personal library of references to the styles they learn. A useful example of one such library is the Draw Space website of Brenda Hoddinott. Brenda has described her curriculum as being “designed to enhance various shading skills and the illustrated projects offer simple step-by-step instructions for rendering several enjoyable subjects.” One of the techniques she describes is called Squirkling (it) “is an easy method of shading, in which randomly drawn curved lines (called squirkles) combine squiggles and scribbles with circles to create textured values.” Brenda adds to her website regularly, offering free tutorials so that she can share her gifts and talents with others. Not only is this generous it is also a fine example to students, who, if they also share their work will learn many valuable digital skills. It is motivating to become involved in this kind of sharing. Students have good reason to hone their skills. It is illuminating for the artist to experience explaining their work and the practices behind their work to an audience. The process of sharing art practice can become another Literacy Booster – this is a win-win situation for all concerned. The interactive nature of arts based websites makes this a dynamic learning situation. Many of the online communities that grow up around this kind of endeavour turbo charge student learning. You might also be interested in reading Drawing Technique - Cross Hatching Shading: One Element of Sketching and in the course Drawing101 Posted by Jo Murphy Shading is a technique that artists and students use to capture gradation between light and dark. In this tutorial Shading Tutorial - Understanding the Art of Shading Rebekah Lynn tells us that her explanation is meant to teach shading techniques for realistic art. Other types of art may use different methods. The technique she explains is about subtle changes of tone and she shows how to capture this gradation in a step by step manner. To begin with I suggest that you set out to teach the students about shading by concentrating on that one concept alone, rather than teach other complex aspects of drawing at the same time. Here is a suggestion for an exercise that might be appropriate when you introduce the topic.
If you set this exercise up this way the students will be quite clear about the task at hand. If you want to make sure they understand and can clearly place this within in their own goal setting framework, have them decide the criteria for assessment with you. Like to talk about this exercise? Please post questions or comments on the discussion boards. Relevant Article Drawing A Language Like Any Other Can I really draw one day? Learn How To Draw The Easy Way: How Do We Learn How To Draw If you would like to learn to draw and how to keep a Visual Journal Drawing101 is the course for you. Posted by Jo Murphy When assessing art we often talk about a piece of work in isolation. When we do this we might say “This piece of work makes me feel.” “I like this artwork because….” Appreciative Inquiry When an Art Teacher makes a global comment it will by contrast be about a body of work or the process by which a artist comes to develop a body of work. There fore we would make a global comment about an artist when we refer to
Think it through!
The articles cited above outline how to gather together a body of student work for assessment. Once this work has been entirely gathered and collated it is time to make a global comment. An art teacher usually doesn’t feel confident about making a global comment based solely on one piece of work. A collection of work ensures that the teacher can know the artistic approach and have a very general idea about the trends and themes the student is following. In the formative stages of an artists career it is unwise to give advice about career choice, directions or future pathways with out access to an entire body of that students work. One aesthetic piece of work can be misleading if the student does not have evidence of sufficient self direction to follow through on themes, or to create more of the same, or develop new innovative pieces. Clear mapping of process ensures teachers feel confident to make assessment comments. You might find these articles helpful. .... Posted by Jo Murphy A criteria sheet for assessment is a well balanced explanation to the Creative Arts Student about what is expected of them.. The sheet sets out clearly an explanation about what work is to be completed during the course of
For conciseness they are often laid out on a grid and dot pointed. Usually they are clipped to the assignment when the work is handed in for assessment. If the work is in a journal they will often be pasted to the front page of the unit. This
As the students grow and mature, look for ways to allow students help plan these sheets. If this ownership is gradually released to the students it may help them to feel empowered. Everyone feels released from stress when students claim ownership of their educational process. You might find these articles helpful. .... Relevant article Teaching Art to Community Groups Posted by Jo Murphy People create albums of photos, original artwork or prints because they are precious. The materials we use need to be suitable for the purpose or damage to the treasured pieces may occur. When creating the Zillmere Story Book we used Double Sided Tape to adhere the images to the pages. Traditional glue or spray adhesive glue was not suitable for this purpose because the artwork may have
Conventional tape could not have worked because
How Double Sided Tape Works. In the preparation phase of the project we
The result of using this tape was for the most part precise neatness.
If you would like to read more about how the book was made please explore these articles The Zillmere Story Book (How it was made) The Zillmere Story Book Project: Getting Involved In The Arts Through Your Local Library Posted by Jo Murphy An avatar is a small identification image that appears when you post to forums or when you comment on any posts. It is an accepted convention of online community participation. Here are some ways to create your own Hand draw and scan finished avatar
Hand draw and scan the work in black and white.
Draw in MSPaint
Draw in MSPaint
Draw with a Wacom
Photograph a painting.
Make a collage
Create an avatar at an online site.
If you would like an exercise to give your class this competition has been offered by The Learning Place. Creating Avatars for a Competition "The Learning Place an Australian Education website is offering a competition where the prize is a work shop by the Creator of Swamp Gary Clark."
Posted by Jo Murphy Gary Clark was born Brisbane 1954 and graduated in commercial art in 1972. He worked in advertising; progressing to cartooning in 1978. Swamp has been appearing in newspapers in Australia, New Zealand, and Scandinavia since 1981. A funny, lively but simple cartoon strip has captivated audiences ever since. "Led by Ding Duck, the Sludge Surfing Dump Rats - Wart and Mort Frog - Swamp is a down-to-earth look at a bewildered society thriving in an ever-increasing complex world." Readers can check in each day or subscribe to the comic strip to be delivered by email. Some teachers might want to post it to the white board or the window and start the day with a classroom chuckle. Posting a cartoon and challenging the students to come up with a 'funny' daily is a good way to get the creative juices flowing and hone the drawing skills in daily exercise. Perhaps you could challenge the class next door. The website has
The Learning Place a Queensland Education Website is running a competition to bring Gary Clark into a Queensland classroom. The winner of the competition will be learning how to cartoon from the icon himself. Stay tuned as I talk about that competition and the benefits it will bring to all classes that attempt to master the art of the avatar! Posted by Jo Murphy If you are living under drought restrictions it is a good opportunity to teach students about the exhaustibility of natural resources. They can see the water levels of local dams dropping by the day. They are experiencing rationing and can gain a sense of value for the importance of natural supplies. When teaching students clay techniques programme recycling as a natural part of the lesson. Teach the students that firing every piece of work is not wise use of resources. This will encourage them to plan their designs so that only the very best will be fired. This will conserve the energy that fuels the kiln as well as maintain a plentiful supply of clay. Here is a simple management strategy
Recycle clay that has been soaking during class so that the students see what recycling really means
If you continually recycle clay during class the students will soon gain an understanding of the process. If you have each student experience the process by helping you, or being in charge of recycling for the day, they may also realise that if recycling takes so much work it would be good not to take too much clay! Posted by Jo Murphy Begin this exercise by asking the class questions that will make them curious as to how the accepted Art World developed.
Keep on brainstorming. You will find that the factors which influence the shaping of history are inexhaustible. Give the students a framework for investigation. So you could pose a hypothetical framework for investigation such as.........
Posted by Jo Murphy When teaching Computer Art to Prep school students (4-5 year olds) you may need to sit by their side and make sure they know where all the tools in MSPaint are situated. You might have to show them how to use each tool time and time again. If the teacher can find a way to stay with the kids to ease their frustration - there will eventually be an AHA moment. Once they have a solid understanding of how to get started and can create pictures alone, the class will be very easy to manage. As you arrive at the Computer Art Lab
Now the room is setup for you to teach them how to draw a simple bus.
Take them through these steps
Time the class so that they can change places at half time. This way they will all have assistance to experience this simple Computer Art excercise. Posted by Jo Murphy Investigation of dance forms can be great fun. Watch videos of dance styles or select movies that have great dance scenes in them. Students can gain a feeling not only for the dance but as well for the era from which it came.
Information about dance styles to begin investigations or impersonations is handy. Here a two websites to help you enjoy the adventure Central Home Website has a lot to offer. There are fun diagrams of dance steps as well as the The History of Dance Dance History Research and Scholarship Dance History, Ballet History! Let this page serve as your Dance History Bookmark Follow the links to great ideas about teaching dance. This page is about the work of Degas and you can see that the topic is ballet – but from a behind the scenes viewpoint. Posted by Jo Murphy A drawing of mother can be simple and almost cartoon like. The students can snap shots of her until they find a characteristic pose that speaks best of 'Mum.' It can be painted in acrylic on paper or hand drawn. There are many ways you can go about planning your drawing.
To make a very simple gift frame
If the students choose to colour their drawing, encourage them to think about colour schemes. They can make sure that the colours are reflected in the frame they have made If they would like to make this a really effective gift why not get them to think outside the box? Perhaps they would like to tape a flap to the back of the frame so that it can stand up as a place marker in front of the lovely meal they serve as a treat on Mother’s Day! Here is a card suggestion that might go with it too. Tying Ribbon Through Gift Cards Posted by Jo Murphy Scott has developed the art of painting waves and the Australia coastline to perfection. He captures the translucency and the richness of the clear crystal waters. His colour work is amazing vibrant and his ability to sketch out crisp clear composition breath taking. “His work has been described as “stylish, photo-realism”. It is unique, and very Australian.” Scott Christensen now paints full time as a studio artist in the Redland Shire, Queensland. He is not taking classes this year but may well do in 2008 he said. If you would like to start learning from him before then the March 2007 edition of International Artist does have a spread about his painting method. He walks the viewer through the steps required to create seascapes in his style. One of the aspects of his work that lends contrast and spark to his composition is the Pandana tree. Pandanas are featured as a frame through which the viewer looks out over the water. His ability to capture splash is admirable, as is the masterful blending he achieves when etching out vast expanses of sea. His paintings are soft and fresh but also have a quality of solid construction. His clever handling of rocks seems to solidly anchor the paintings in a grounded and earthy fashion. If you go to Scott’s website and scroll down you will see some small step-by-step images that give you an idea of his style. The list of the competitions winnings and the exhibitions both solo and group he has participated in also give an impression of accomplishment. Scott is loved and admired as an Australian artist. He is also recognised and acknowledged on the contemporary International scene. Posted by Jo Murphy
Posted by Jo Murphy There are times within any teaching environment when a teacher wants students to focus quietly rather than seek to impart knowledge vigorously. Often, if there is a settling activity before an orienting or enhancing activity, the information is absorbed and consolidated much more quickly. If the teacher couples meditative techniques with a relaxing drawing task, students who may have been feeling apprehensive about new learning become still and more receptive. Examples of relaxing and focusing art tasks:
When would teachers want to use these kinds of down time activities?
When might students be looking for down time?
In the article Art For Meditation on the Yoga for Meditation website The author talks about meditation techniques and asks “why art is the most powerful (form of meditation)?” The reason is that images such as sunsets, the oceans, clouds and other peaceful visual depictions trigger calmness and bring us peace. “That is the power of vision on the mind. “Images stimulate our mind with signals that transport us into an inexplicable state of bliss and calm. Various meditation techniques use symbols and colors to soothe the mind.” If you look at the paintings of Oscar Basurto you will find examples of healing art. One of the advantages of encouraging the students to create their own is that they will experience the powerful meditative effect and perhaps come to habitually use the technique for self-soothing as well as create a portfolio of their own work to display in the work area to keep this powerful influence permeating all of their creative endeavours. Posted by Jo Murphy The marriage of sensitive and brilliantly executed images of women into ‘panoramic scapes’ of pattern, colour and texture create a multi-dimensional imagery of the richest and kaleidoscope kind. Kilmt's images and creations provide the digital arts teacher with a cohesive example of how to use Digital Photography, scanning and computer generated imagery in Photoshop, Painter or other digital packages. His style is to create a world of blended poetic representations creating composites and compositions from them. If you look closely at The Maiden 1912 - 13 you will see at least five women woven through the field of flowers and flowing patterns colour. Landscapes like After the Rain, 1899 show that the ability to render perspective as relevant and useful for the figurative and spatially oriented artist and graphic artist alike. Both of these classics can be sent by email from this site called Kilmt Expo Shop.com Lesson Suggestions Peer Assessment Idea.
“Whoever wants to know something about me -as an artist, the only notable thing- ought to look carefully at my pictures and try and see in them what I am and what I want to do." Kilmt Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten, near Vienna, Austria 1862 and died of a stroke 1918 His compositions speaks eloquently about the attraction of the sexes.
Posted by Jo Murphy I would project the painting on the wall using LCD Projector and ask the students to analyze each actor within the panorama. To allow a detective like ambience arrange the students in teams of "Think Pair Share." Provide a list of questions like this.
Questions about each of the seven elements of design would look something like this,
As they look at the composition in this way the students will refer continually to the story of the last supper. They will be trying to unpack methodology and experience the contextualization of the pictorial representation. They will find themselves attempting to explain how the artist was trying to influence the viewer emotively. They will gain a sense of evocation. This will stimulate realisation that perhaps they too can influence the viewer of the artworks they create. As you teach and companion persist with this way of viewing artwork. Over a period, the students will become more discerning when ‘decontextualising’ art and other forms of media. The process will bring them to an understanding of the psychology of influence. Continually guide them through the idea that we as consumers are subject to the same intentional psychologically constructed influences. This type of learning is often called 'resistant reading of text.' The ability to read text resistantly is desirable because it allows children and adolescents a sense of personal chosen identity. They begin to choose sets of personal values rather than passively absorb ideas and core values from their environment. The idea of resistance gives them a sense of empowerment when faced with peer pressure or other forms of exploitation and undesired influence. The student becomes mutli-dimensional when he or she realises that there are many ways to view the world and that “how we choose to see things” can be a matter of personal choice. If you would like to read more about this way of seeing ‘resistant reading’ you might want to read Henry A Giroux “Stealing Innocence.” More activites for Easter Posted by Jo Murphy Easter is a time of celebration and as such lends itself to many well integrated themed Creative Arts Units. This four-week theme will be published as short descriptive articles. They will fit together like a conversation about the magic of the Easter Celebration. There will be
Dance. Some of the stories developed as dance will be about natural situations like the birthing of a butterfly. The children will work through movement in teams. They will develop the themes to culminate in an enactment of their ‘hatching.’ Visual Art Other stories brought to life in workshops will be totally fictitious. An example is the “Chicks Do Tricks Wall Mural” ©Busywomen This will be facilitated by a brainstorming process with the participants. This mural will be an example of the use of Digital Muraling techniques within a fully inclusive classroom. Story Writing. The intention is to unveil the mural for parents at Easter. It will be accompanied by enactment of the story the students create. Animation. So that the art work is manageable and not too daunting the simplest form of animated gif can be used. It is then possibl;e to assemble these into a larger moving image on a large external hard drive. The animation will be devised from simple animated gifs the students create. These moving (fluttering) images can then be superimposed over a static or perhaps slightly changing background and accompanied by original music. The music is also an area of creativity and improviational possibilities for the students. The animated gif is a proactive way of showing children and parents the potential of the animated medium So that there will be something for everyone in this smorgasbord of Easter delights there has been an emphasis on the symbolic traditions of Easter. Inquiry Into Easter Symbolism (Multi Cultural) “What is Palm Sunday?” Is intended as an investigation of the symbols that are associated with Easter. What at first take appears to be a Christian inquiry can be about tracking symbolism throughout other cultures? Children/students and their families can compare and contrast how the same symbols occur in other cultures and how and when they are used. As the articles are created, I will turn some of the images into coloring pages so that you can download them to use with your classes. How we turn work into coloring pages is also a topic worthy of an article. If you have feed back about these lessons I would be appreciate your input. If you have images you would like to share please post them to the discussion boards or email them to me and I will upload them for you. If you are looking for other Easter Activities Posted by Jo Murphy Poetry to match Why wait you here With witching in mind? Why look you out What prey will you find? What do you do On eerie dark nights What sparks you off What sets you to flight I'd rather not know I would rather hide Off you go then Get off on your ride 000 An interesting way to stimulate creativity in the classroom is to place a large image in a prominent place in the classroom and invite the students to respond to it in whatever mode suites their mood. Some may want to act out; some may want to draw from the theme others may write poetry and others students might be challenged to write poetry in response. If a play develops perhaps it could even be pushed as far as animation. Perhaps the students might like to create atmosphere in the room and carry the theme throughout the week. If you have the energy to inspire and maintain enthusiasm Blogs in the classroom is a great idea. The example below was entered as a response to a Blog I keep Fondling frogs and feeling soggy ( Owed 2 Tonyzonit) That hat Belongs to that fat old crone Sighing in her room Laughing on Hallows' Eve at the cross disowned I suppose it matters she was born Even though she just pours scorn Hiding in the night all foggy Fondling frogs and feeling soggy This poem from Tony Zonit is represented by illustration here http://www.busywomen.com.au/slobber_frog... 0000 Blogs have an organisational impact on the classroom students can stay in contact and often write on their blogs even through the holiday period. Now that UTube allows students to upload movies, any thing is possible. The International Communication has benefits in the areas of Languages, Cultural Understanding, Geography, People and Society and of course throughout all of the Arts. The world of the Internet is for an Art Student a Mecca of cultural and expressive interaction - the sooner you tune the students into it - the better! Posted by Jo Murphy Go out into the field looking for textures. It would be great if you could provide a camera for each student or group. If they cannot have access to a camera drawing textures is an interesting way to challenge students. Spend a lesson collecting drawings of texture and then in the next lesson you can ask them to choose one to paint. They could use a variety of techniques so have sponges, scrapers, straws, atomisers and challenge them to come up with other interesting implements with which to make marks and impressions. It is very challenging for a student to try to convey the impression of a texture with out giving any other visual clue to where the texture comes from. For example can you draw
Ask the students to come up with challenges and perhaps play a Pictionary type game calling out textures instead of words and phrases The tricks when trying to achieve texture is to focus on
These types of challenges are fun. When you have practiced, experimented and explored it is time to set a real drawing project. Ask the students to choose a still life sporting high textural contrast. A cob of corn surrounded by cut onions is a good one. Or a horse with a silk cloth under its saddle. Angels with white wings is taking the idea to a more difficult level. What ever the project don’t forget to draw the student’s attention Posted by Jo Murphy Colour appeals to the emotions. Feelings stimulated by certain colours seem to be universally acknowleged. It is important to teach students about this and to have them think about colour as they go through the course of a normal day.
This is a very simple colour wheel.. Encourage them to use it in other classes not just Art. When they are cooking students could use it when planning the aesthetics of the meal. If you teach the students about the emotional qualities of colour they will be able to plan the right colour scheme when they are illustrating stories and scripts. When we teach about colour schemes we look to various combinations from the wheel. Warm colours are variations of red, yellow and orange and cool colours are mixed from blue, purple and green. By consciously using these simple analogous colour schemes students can become quite proficient at creating ambience. This flower is an example of an analogous colour combination. The three colours sit side by side on the colour wheel. I think you will agree that the flower is a happy creation. By using a combination of colours that are beside each other on the wheel we can be sure of a harmonious outcome. Another analogous combination can be created by using cool colours. They are the colours along the other side of the wheel purple, blue and green. Cool colours lead us to experience emotions such as serenity, peace and femininity. Any three side by side from the wheel can be analogous for example red purple blue. Have the students experiemnt and see if they can name the feelings created by the combinations. Thery will be able to create all types of subtle variations. Complimentary Colours on the other hand give us a sense of stability. This is because opposite colours balance each other. Complimentary colours are to be found on opposite sides of the wheel. This combination produces the most vivid results. The mixture is very good for creating attention getting devices on the students assignments. They will enjoy playing with colours if they are engaged in a unit on fashion. Posted by Jo Murphy Have the students brain storm as many nouns as they can. The words need to designate people, places and things. Write these with a felt marker on paper in coloured columnes. The words need to be printed clearly in big handwriting on sheets of paper and then cut into strips and sheered into group catagories. The catagory for people might include : giant, fairy, gladiator, teacher, janitor, nurse, doctor The group of places could contain : hospital, desert, desert island, castle, iceberg, The collection of things may include : ice pick, rock, scissors, egg beater, heater, Make sure the class has generated a wide range for each category. Imaginations should already be sparking by the time you have created the list of nouns. Cut them up and spread them out on the floor. Make sure that they remain in their categories. Have the students choose one from each category with their eyes closed. Not being able to choose the words they want will stretch the creative potential of the students further.
Here is an example of how the exercise would work. Chosen nouns :
Witch Which Witch went to the desert alone? Flying on a broom Casting shadows across the grey sandstone Clothes all tattered and torn She was so very forlorn Riding through the night all starry Hairy, craggy and very scary What a terrible shock she felt when she looked at the clock Time she said I must take stock This eerie night makes me wary The students can bring their pictures out to the front of the class and recite their poetry. They may want to type the poetry out on the computer and place it into a border with their illustration. Perhaps they can mime the poem to the class after they have read it out aloud. Students might want to create a response to the poetry of others. Like this! That Witch That is the one! She’s flying home away from the sun The sun came up the moon went down Time to scatter she said with a frown. The idea of having the class write another verse to follow on is a very good one. Who knows where such a creative adventure could take you! If you would like to share the results of your creative endeavors please post them to the discussion boards. Posted by Jo Murphy The materials used to make this prop were bought from a $2 shop. This cute little treasure chest cost three dollars. The raw pine box was
I have used it as a background in Pivot http://www.busywomen.com.au/awake.gif If you are creating a backdrop for a play and the set and props are constructed out of boxes and large sheets of cardboard or the like the students will need
If however, the action takes place on screen or in the small confines of a puppet theatre the prop can be the starting point or prompt for the script writing to begin. The purpose of the lesson will dictate the starting point for creative endeavour. One lesson scenario is to
or
If you are designing an Art Tech Classroom, you might want to have the student’s think of five different ways they could make use of their treasure chest Examples could be
I can think of many more use for a prop like this one However, I would be more interested in hearing your ideas. If you would like to share similar lessons please email I am happy to load images of your work online for you. These related articles may give you ideas about how to extend your lessons. Posted by Jo Murphy Making a label can be very effective if you use all of the visual elements of the label in a strong, bold way. How To Write Simple Display Copy is a blog entry that talkes about keeping it simple. I will tell you how I made this example with tips about making strong visual statements
The volume of product required can influence the choice of packaging. These jars of chutney have a hand made local feel about them. If however, I was exporting them by the thousands, I may have choosen coloured stickers instead of hand tied labels. Ease of manufacture and lowered costs of printing high volumes would influence the decision. On the other hand, the homely quality may be the selling point of the chutney . The manufacturer might go to great pains to keep this packaging exactly the way it is! If your Middle School class group is engaged by marketing projects and you would like to display their Graphic Art - please post to the discussion boards or email the .jpg images and I will post them for you. Posted by Jo Murphy Ouch! Poor Lil Mango! Look at these lil' mangos in their chutney jar Hottest lil' mangos I have seen this far? Nippy lil' mangos you'll go hah hah hah hah hah When you chomp on mangos from the chutney jar You will find this poem set out with illustrations here. And more about its function here How To Make A Label For A Product When students are engaged in an Arts Marketing Unit they will be required to use simple art and poetry For this marketing example I have focused on the idea that this Mango chutney is hot. I have kept the idea central and the artwork and poetry feed from this idea. The reason we keep our work so simple is that
Cheep cheep lil’ mango you should sell real well Your the cheapest chutney I have seen the sellers sell.
The style of advertising has been sleek simple and attractive. This sleekness of message usually goes along with ‘designer’ brands. Purchasers usually spend a little more on designer brands. So I am not going to cross advertise Originally, we had a darker green dot on the bottle with the price heavily felted on. This served to take away from the simplicity of design. It became just "one more thing" the purchaser would need to do before giving the gift - take it off! And so we omitted this for the sake of simplicity. Students who are setting up displays as a ssessment for this unit are trying to get the best grades they can for the project. They might well ask....... "Well what can I do to make my product stand out against the rest?"
All of these ideas are simple so that they do not clutter up the visual plane. This allows the purchaser to see one clear simple message with no distractions. Some times these kinds of distractions are called visual noise or airwave pollution! Students could have a class discussion about advertising and its annoying aspects. This is a part of a unit based around this article Marketing Art Why Do We Teach Art? The Middle Schooling concept embraces the idea of real world experiencing. The students grow food, prepare it and take it to the table or the market more... If you would like to comment please post to the discussion boards. Posted by Jo Murphy Materials You Will Need.
How To Put It Together.
That's all there is to it! You have made your book. The Scrappy Journal is a different kind of drawing space to the Visual Journal.
What To Draw In Your Scrappy Journal.
Try It Now. Think of a word and get the kids to draw everything they can think of that is associated with it. For FIVE MINUTES jot down a little picture of every thing you can think of - nothing is silly just have fun. You can work up one of the drawings in your Visual Journal when it seems appropriate. Posted by Jo Murphy This picture shows two kinds of clay finishes.
The clay head was
The penguin was
The advantages of glaze are
The advantages of hand painted clay pottery
Disadvantages of Glazing
Disadvantages of Hand Painting
I think both of these ways of finishing clay sculpture gives great results. Teachers and parents need to be sure that they have the time, space, equipment and funds available for the effect they choose. Involve the children in the descision making process and they will learn about issues such as purchase of equipment, budgeting and organisation of projects. This is how they learn how to learn. Read this Blog Post when talking with the students about recycling and water restrictions. Posted by Jo Murphy In the article beyond Decontextualisation and Cynicism, Stanton.E. F. Wortham explores the possibility of truthfully and blatantly addressing the complexities of the power politics of schooling. Wortham argues for a “more complex account of schooling that reimagines the intertwining of academic learning and social identification without privileging one over the other. As I explore his reasoning, I will be showing cases where at Mary MacKillop we are preparing the children to be discerning members of democaracy. In my article Creative Arts Teachers In Year One I have shown how I use the context of communal visioning and the MIECAT Process to companion young children as we co create images for their wall. In the article, I talk about preferring the use of the word Conversation to the use of the word Therapy when describing what I do. The Visioning Wall was motivated by the desire for Transformational Change. I companion the children while they reflect, evaluate and image forward. Their work truly reflects their own ideas about the world, as they know it now and can imagine it into the future. I also challenge their notions of stereotypic roles within society and draw their attention to the wealth of role models we have available to us within our tradition. As well, we look to traditions of children in our midst who come from other communities. Vygotsky talked of (1934/1987) “Scientific Concepts” ...that “start from the abstract and grow toward making sense of experience, whether these concepts come from the humanities , the social sciences, or the natural sciences – they enrich human life. They are crucial for maintaining the disposition toward reflective thought and for passing it on to future generations.” Stanton.E. F. Wortham p15 The Visioning Wall was a part of a much larger process that sought to encourage middle schooling children to steer the curriculum for a day. They worked for many weeks to arrange and prepare the day. This gave them the opportunity to take responsibility and to experience roles, rights and responsibilities. Cooperatively they scripted a rap titled “You Can Be What You Want To Be.” During the process,
To read about another example of Authentic Scripting A Word About Scripting Comics Acknowledgement: Jenni Proctor Career Clarity the Careers Officer and Librarian utilised a sum of money that had been awarded to the school for the Careers Programme . She wanted to exemplify the spirit of Programme Achieve by creating what we later called a Visioning Wall. Posted by Jo Murphy The comic was called “After the Party” If you mess with drugs you are messing with your mind. Initiated by Child and Youth Mental Health Qld the comic book scripting process serves as an illuminating example of Decontextualisation. (See Image) The aim of the process was to engage three young people in a process where they
I was commissioned to illustrate this script.
I journaled the process
If you are starting out creating comics for the first time,
There is no doubt that the more complex the story line and the techniques the more quality will be created – however – learning about scripting and layout and presentation in incremental stages would be advised. To read about other Authentic Scripting Authentic Authorship (For copies or information Sophie Morson. Institute of Child and Youth Mental Health. P.O.Box 1507. Fortitude Valley.4006. Ph: 38351444 Email: mailto:sophie_morson@health.qld.gov.au)
Posted by Jo Murphy Art Area: You will find it easier if you have
Materials:
Technique:
Posted by Jo Murphy At Mary MacKillop Primary Birkdale we decided on the purpose of our mural. From the purpose we moved to how the process would develop and worked out the content from there. Jenni Proctor Career Clarity the Careers Officer and Librarian utilised a sum of money that had been awarded to the school for the Careers Programme . She wanted to exemplify the spirit of Programme Achieve by creating what we later called a Visioning Wall. One of the Key Phrases quoted from Programme Achieve was “You can do it” In a rap song prepared by the Year 6 students and presented on the day they rapped ....."You Can Be What You Want To BE!" "Empowering Learners of all Ages To Shape and Enrich Our Changing World by Living the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Brisbane Catholic Education Framework. was another of the slogans. "Never See A Need Without Doing Something About It" was also quoted from Mary MacKillop our Patron Saint. (Sculpture in the forground by Mardy Kearny a Qld Sculptor.) We had set out to consciously encapsulate the ethos of the school through words and images. Our moto is Reach Out... Embrace ...Achieve We collaborated to find out how the children viewed the world that we want to be so free and empowering for them. We invited each and every one of them to do a drawing of how they see their world in 10 years time. We ask them to image forward. As the Creative Arts Teacher I coordinated the project. I either facilitated the workshop process for the children myself or devised a workshop sheet for other teachers and children to follow. This was so that the process followed the same, consistent theme. From there I worked with Jenni Proctor and David West a Graphic Artist and parent of two children in the school to choose a representative sample of the work. We wanted to glean across all age groups to come up with a representation of the whole. The selection was difficult because the quality of the work was high and breadth was wider than we were able to assemble into the wall space. However after much processing the selection was finalised. A professional photographer was then hired to come into the school for a day to photograph the children in the course of their normal activities. He was also paid to photograph the artwork. We had decided that photographing the work would be much quicker than scanning it. The Photographer suggested the rainforest image for the background. It was enhanced with a golden glow and this created the ambiance carrying forward into every photograph of the kids. it had a unifying effect. The raw images were then taken by David to another technician and they blended the images into a collage. By the time the Photoshop file was created it weighed 2gbs! Posted by Jo Murphy Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme (AGQTP) is a $300 million flagship initiative for supporting quality teaching and school leadership. Its primary function is to “fund professional learning activities for teachers under agreements with state and territory government and non-government education authorities.” I was fortunate to be a presenter at the National Forum: Teachers Making a Difference in Melbourne on 28 November. This gave me the opportunity to showcase research conducted throughout 2006. I presented as a compliment to Jenni Proctor another teacher from Mary MacKillop Primary Birkdale. We were a part of the Building an Inquiry Culture team from Catholic Education Queensland. AGQTP funded this professional learning activity for teachers. Both Jenni and I conducted Appreciative Inquiries. Jenni undertook to “ascertain the impact that middle schooling practices have on the engagement of students and the effectiveness of their organising the school’s annual career awareness day.” I explored the empowering relationship Visual Literacy has to Literacy and Numeracy. “The school has a history of successful Career Education so both projects used the context of the day and worked together to create a Visioning Wall. (Picture) Throughout 2007 I will be exploring many aspects of this presentation and further explaining the context, the process and findings. This is an ongoing inquiry. Teacher inquiry is also known as reflective practice. It is hoped that professional development programs will encourage teachers to be more reflective and research oriented in their work. I found the approach beneficial. The Inquiry opened up the professional world for me because I was publicly encouraged to explore the potential of the Creative Arts to “Power Up The Curriculum.” The process enabled me to establish links and working partnerships with other teachers such as Jenni and this encouraged the creative potential of our students to be unleashed. You can see this reflected in the beautiful Visioning Wall. Partnerships with the parents also flourished in this fertile environment of collaboration. David West a Graphic Artist and a parent of two of our students coordinated much of the artistic side of the Visioning Wall project. Many parents came forward to talk with the children about the Literacies and Competencies that are a part of their chosen career pathways. The children themselves scripted and choreographed their dramatic contribution at the opening of the day. It will be a challenge to keep this creative momentum going and to record the effect it has on all aspects of the curriculum. Posted by Jo Murphy
Posted by Jo Murphy Once the students have learnt this technique and understand the process they may want to push it further. The two oval formulae is adaptable.
I moulded this simple line character in Photoshop. It is really handy if all classrooms have Photoshop installed. If you have access to Photoshop it can fit neatly, spontaneously and adaptively into creative arts lessons. Because it is such a versatile programme and if you have the Internet connected the students can try ways of creating collage characters.
The completion of the baby sleeping story is that this baby has had a brain reader applied to its head. Whilst it is on reading his mind the baby sits quietly dreaming. The students called the character Crainoh! The idea evolved very simply but the potential as a story writing stimulous is very wide. There is also potential for the students to evolve their stories in a multi variant way which allows them to push their creativity to the limits. Have fun! Please let us know if you come up with good stories. Posted by Jo Murphy Here is one way to encourage a sense of rhythm naturally using it as a springboard to other creative innovations. Take the students out to different spaces and facilitate their appreciation of the rhythms they hear. Amplify useful variations. Ideal places will allow musical reptiton to be highlighted
Wait until they are sitting very quietly and investigate what they hear.
“Squeak, clip, pop, slap All of us kids go clap, clap, clap. Don’t get bogged down don’t fall into the trap Of an old humdrum way of thinking! Walk, skip, run along Where are we when we sing our song? Running together we can’t go wrong as we create our art together.”
I would be interested to hear from teachers who try these kinds of improvisations in the classroom. Posted by Jo Murphy
Posted by Jo Murphy Creative Art Teachers aspire to direction learning that takes place in a meaningful fertile arena If the students are allowed to choose a topic about which they would like to conduct a personal or communal inquiry and the opportunity to create artistically from this inquiry will be motivating.
Let me give you an example located in Brisbane. We are now in drought and experiencing third level water restrictions. This means no one can use a hose, water their lawn and of course must take personal responsibility for their water use at all times. Brisbane is based on the banks of a river and it feels quite odd to be so water poor and water rich at the same time. Recycling, repurified water seems to be our only option for the city at the moment. This can create a scenario where some try to skirt around the restrictions. Some might try to water their lawns at night; others may wait alone in the house before taking long showers and the like. This provides the Creative Arts Teacher an opportunity to use the need for personal responsibility as an entry point for inquiry. Students can come to the problem from their own perspective. If they are angry about the restrictions they may want to give this anger voice through body movement. If they have design ideas about how to save water may be they can create a visual depiction and publish their results. One of the ways I like to engage my classes is to ask each person to brainstorm the way they feel about the whole issue. I then have all the students table their ideas, feelings, and issues. They can use what ever mode of expression they like to place inner thoughts out where they can be seen. Encouraging students to take the lead I now ask them to find creative ways to combine it all perspectives in one presentation or performance. Could we create a play using photographs enlarged as back drops? Would class artists rather use paintings and sculpture or think of a way to digitalise the set. Nothing is impossible at storming time! We will check for practicality and time management as the ideas are refined through group process. The outcome would be that students gain an insight into the issue from a variety of perspectives. If this is the way you work too I would love to receive feedback from you about ideas you have
Posted by Jo Murphy Amanda from E Europe/Russia Travel wrote ……”My husband's an artist and assures me that everyone can learn to draw (but not necessarily to paint). What do you think? Can I really draw one day or do I have to confine my expression to words and music?????” “I believe drawing is a language like any other.” Young students can indeed learn to draw as a class. The process will be less difficult if approached as though drawing is a language like any other. Learning this mode of expression is the same explorative (submergence) and repetitive (consolidation) process to be mastered in the same way as speaking and reading. Drawing becomes a part of the fabric of the communicative process. It will be an integrated aspect of the culture of the class. Eventually the school will find that drawing is ‘normalized’ if all children pass through this learning process. So the kids might say, “I need to draw you what I mean!” and I may even draw my reply for them. So yes the children can learn to draw. But they must be reminded not to compare themselves to others. I think professional and inspired artists are passionate, focused and draw daily. Not every body wants to be that devoted. Kids will get from the drawing process the results that match the effort poured into it. Some children are more naturally inclined towards visual literacy and therefore are more motivated by this form of self expression. If your school favours the idea of “A Community Of Learners” those that draw well can be of great benefit to those who struggle with the visual elements of design. If a child is being ‘held back’ or struggling with drawing as language it may be because they or their teachers have an over conflated expectation of what drawing is about. They might be attached to the outcome rather than delighting in the process. If drawing is seen as a natural aspect of the art of communicating then less framing and privileging would occur. This means that fewer students would be frightened of not being good enough. I like to call this a process of ‘normalization.’ If you want your children to lose their fear of drawing; start out drawing very simple line drawings everyday. If you do this daily for just five minutes you will be cheered by the results I think. I would be happy to walk with you through my Drawing 101 - free Suite101.com course class if you ever feel like getting creative. Posted by Jo Murphy Have you ever thought… “Gee whiz, I wish I could draw!” “Everyone can draw,” Mason explained “it is simply a matter of looking, analyzing, and pencil miles.” Mason has the same view of drawing that I do. He refers to basic primary Maths concepts. Perspective, geometry and proportion come together as one approaches the drawing process. “The most important tool you have is your eye. Really look at the subject and analyze the basic shapes. They will be circles, squares, and triangles. Or combine them to make tubes, cones, or pyramids.” “A tree is basically a big tube with cone shapes as roots going into the ground. Higher up the big tube splits into smaller tubes, the branches, and twigs. Then the leaves that grow off the branches and twigs are circles with points on the end. “ He explains. Cars are box shapes with rounded corners sitting on top four circles. Buses, trains, trucks are just longer rectangles. Windows are more squares. Buildings are made from the basic shapes too. “Most houses are boxes with triangles and pyramids forming the roof. The doors and windows are rectangles (long or short squares).” Have the children create houses from basic shapes. And so too the human body is made up of the same basic shapes, circles, squares, and triangles. Drawings See if this improves the way the children approach what they draw. Drawing lessons can be fun! Mason pulls a hat trick when he illustrates a rabbit hopping from a hat. So while you have the kids engaged get them to “analyze the basic shapes. Then lightly draw them stacked together and then round and sharpen and detail the drawing and erase the basic shape lines. Kids can do it. They often do it better because they’re not hung up about it...yet.” The kids will like this lesson. “What makes one an, “artist,” is simply pencil miles. Go buy a sketch book and do at least one drawing a day. When the sketch book is full, compare the first page to the last. You will see the improvement. It is just a matter of pencil miles… practice, practice, practice…. Now go do a drawing just for the fun of it.“ Email when you are done!
Posted by Jo Murphy Robert Masters makes the following distinctions between affect, feeling and emotion: "As I define them, affect is an innately structured, non-cognitive evaluative sensation that may or may not register in consciousness; feeling is affect made conscious, possessing an evaluative capacity that is not only physiologically based, but that is often also psychologically (and sometimes relationally) oriented; and emotion is psychosocially constructed, dramatized feeling." Masters, Robert (2000), Compassionate Wrath: Transpersonal Approaches to Anger One of the beauties of Arts Education is that depiction, enactment and dramatization help the participants 'get in touch' with how they feel about a topic, issue, or internal state. Here is an example. Sometimes in class I ask the kids to make a collage in Photoshop. They can gather their resources from any where on the internet or take digital photos. Perhaps they can scan parts of their own drawings or even flowers they have found. They don't have to know what the emotion is they are expressing at the time. After they are finished we talk about the composition. Once we have chatted the students write a short (or sometimes quite long) poem as an intrapersonal response. A brief Haiku is enough. It gives them something to bight into - emotionally speaking I mean. Sometimes these kinds of experiences can create entry points. Students might want to create a story. What was this collage about? Who was the stone talking to? If the children set about to answer questions about their pictures a whole world of emotional/artistic material can be encouraged. Educare means to draw forth or "to lead forth". When we start a pathway of inspiration like this one we need not always draw the students forward - sometimes it is enough to companion them while the create their script. Often the Educator thinks that at some stage he or she should be interpreting the work of the student. We can intersubjectively respond but it is always better to be tentative. This allows the student to define and own his or her own world. The student is allowed a sense of authenticity. These kinds of exercises can be great discussion starters and a great jumping off point from which to impart technique. No doubt at some stage someone will put up there hand and say "How do I?" If you have work you would like to share email and I will post it for you. Or alternatively post it at your Blog and invite my readers over. Posted by Jo Murphy Mentors often advise teachers and writers to practice their craft daily. Some find it hard to remain motivated when so many other distractions and demands cry out for their attention. Others find they are motivated and eager but for some reason their muse is blocked. If interaction with others and certainty of friendly constructive feedback sounds appealing please join in. Inspiration comes when people construct areas of serendipity. Synergetic spaces in the hypersphere can be fertile inspirational wells of energy. Images and word pictures begin to flow. Today I have revisited and old friend down on the shoreline where I take my Visual Journal for my daily poetic meanderings. As the slow old wandering Brisbane River carves its way through the South Bank Parklands my silent companion sits quietly watching. Everyday the scaly, thorny, horny silhouette remains erect and alert while joggers jog and runners pantingly plod past. There has been a friendship of sorts develop between us. A kind of teasing game we both willingly play. I sneak towards my mate who waits. I approach as my friend tenses and as I ease forward ???? If you have a relationship like this one (as bizarre as it may seem.) I invite you to depict it in your favourite medium. Email it to me and I will post it here for you. Or if you have a blog of your own perhaps you could post the poem or drawing there and invite us over. We can arrange Track backs as a way for readers to stay in touch. Yours in anticipation! Posted by Jo Murphy Surprise your students with an unusual photograph and kick start their writing by placing a time limit on their response. This will encourage free form association. Allow freedom of creative style. Example Students might appear a little taken aback at first if they are not used to this kind of scenario. Sometimes newness can jolt us out of a safe artistic mode and open up insightful doorways of exploration. Visual Journals are a great space to keep exercises like this together. Students can glue the photo into their journal and perhaps they will be inspired to further the imagery by drawing as an extension. If this mode of expression seems to suite your class the exercises can be made more challenging by asking them to take turns with a camera. Each lesson a different student could provide a photograph that they see to be fresh, innovative and imaginative. The variety of response will speak to students about the way each individual sees the world. Arts Education works best when it is steered by the students. Ask them would they like to find other creative ways to extend this modality. Perhaps they would like to form groups and create masked freeze frames or statue silhouettes. Perhaps they would like to create their own PodCast Album from the variety of responses to their stimulous material. Be sure to support them in their risk taking when they offer their ideas. Talk them through if things don't seem to work out at first. This will help them persist until the art emerges from the scruffiness that often arises when students are being truly authentic. At the realisation stage invite an audience and record spectator response. If you have artistry you would like to share. drop me a line I like to hear how art projects and ideas work out for others. Posted by Jo Murphy Often I am asked to explain how to be explicit when talking with students about how to develop resiliency through art projects. Here is an example. I took the original black and white drawing and cut it into five parts and enlarged them to A4 size. Colouring Page I placed them on the floor and told the kids to take the tree that best represented how they feel about art at the moment. We then took the trees outside and painted them. It was a good lesson and the kids got the point about commitment being a process not just a noun. Their trees were beautiful and they got to share their feelings about how much work it takes to really get into art and do a job of it. The kids worked out for themselves that if they tracked where they were up to in the feelings emotionscape - maybe they would be able to empower themselves to keep going until they finally realise their projects. Some of the parents who were present were quite impressed by the kid's ability to understand and dialogue about commitment. Helping children develop the ability to keep commitments is part of empowering children to become resilient. The page posted above is called Uninformed Optimism and it is about the honey moon phase at the beginning of any commitment. The kids all seemed to want to paint this one with lots of colour. Once it was dry they rescued the outlines with oil pastels. Next they really went to town with the glitter and sequins! Experience more of this dialogue as I post more colouring pages in Blogs to come. If you subscribe to the RSS feed you will be alerted when the next one is posted. Posted by Jo Murphy In my course Visual Literacy a Course in Drawing I wrote an essay about 14 Reasons to Keep Visual Journals. A diary has value and is relevant to any creative process. In the past it hasn't been as easy for some of the areas within the creative arts to keep journals as it has been for writers or artists. With the invention of affordable digital video cameras, Webcaming and Podcasting came the opportunity for the note takers of the other sections of the Creative Arts to spontaneously record their thoughts, intuitions, and impressions with out the loss of valuable material. These valuable recordings can be kept online in an electronic journal or online as a web log. Blog. Some of the reasons Creative Artists would take journaling up as a discipline include. Personal process. Posted by Jo Murphy "We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams." Kathleen Academy. I have come to the conclusion that dance can, but, need not be seen in the context of therapy. Dance can be the pre-existent freedom that comes before feelings of entrapment by society. If a child experiences a safe environment within which to express emotions she is likely to become more resilient. Dance is a safe way for children to express emotions. Attributes are Ritualistically the parent or teacher could schedule time to dance away conflict and tension. Processes allow space for the child to work through emotions. This ensures that emotions are acknowledged. Perhaps the kids can resolve them. It is likely this resolution will become a part of the emotional memory. We see evidence in our school for the idea that children are much more settled and quiet after liturgy and other communal sharing sessions. Maybe teachers or parents have become disconnected from this type of expression due to societal repression. The teacher may just not feel comfortable around this kind of activity. It is in this situation that we start to use the word therapy. Experiential Creative Arts Therapists can help people work through issues in safe situations using a variety of tools, one of which may be dance or movement. Music/sound /silence too can be a part of this tapestry. Some kids may want to start off in silence trying to scream their dance in mime? Others may use music to match how they feel. After feelings become comfortable they may turn to silent, gentle movement to close the session. Teachers often turn their classes to writing at this stage. Perhaps the children are now relaxed and in creative flow. Others may teach mathematical pattern or explore space and time. If you have experience in this area I would love to hear from you. Posted by Jo Murphy Karen Carpenter is an example of an artist who lost her life due to the stressful nature of fame and fortune. Fame Management is a type of personal vigilance where the teacher looks for opportunity to dialogue with students. Teachers model ways to nurture esteem from within rather than by looking to boost ego from outside. Addiction to adulation will develop a need to follow and court the tastes and wants of audiences. This can be odious and soul stealing. Artists who are drawn into competitive and comparative cycles of addiction suffer. It is better that they be eased into cultures of support and collaboration more pure in motive. Prep School is the time to commence dialogue with students about their 'life's career.' An artist's life requires a balance of work, fun and play. Students will be encouraged to think about the role of exercise, meditation, numeracy, literacy and the like. Aspects of everyday life such as love, value and esteem are essential if the artist is to be resilient Art students should be encouraged not to put all of their eggs into one basket and allow this "cache" to be the sole source of their self esteem. Resilience will be encouraged when At the low time after a performance when all the accolades have subsided; students may be asked to brainstorm how to deal with the deflation. Perhaps they will settle to writing about the experience, meditation, or be content to lose themselves to exercise or some other creative pursuit such as photography. I welcome feedback. Posted by Jo Murphy The book Presence. 2005 (Diagram of Concept) had a profound effect on the way I view teaching and experiencing art. Rather than stun me with new and exciting knowledge about the teaching of the Creative Arts it reinforced my way of seeing the subject as 'reflexive.' I understood that a Creative Arts teacher has to be ever developing a strong sense of self. The idea of 'Letting Come' swirls around nurturing ideas, projects and collaborations without temptation to force. A 'hands off' attitude to another artist's learning is essential. The teacher becomes a companion of the student rather than a container of knowledge. Not a guru or a sage but a co-learner in a process of co-creation. I see the Creative Arts as channelling, presencing and realising community ecologies. Together we dream, together we design, together we realise and direction our being. Optimal cooperation requires suspension of personal belief, so that 'we' can see the whole from within the organisation. An organisation can be any group of two or more beings that come together to share and experience. So a Theatre Company for example comes together to dream about a production. A couple can dream about an animation. No one part of any collaboration can be allowed to monopolise the creative process. Indeed sometimes the less featured parts can influence the whole very profoundly. Simple presence can be powerful due to its subtlety. Set design is one example of an artistic presence that can influence with little conscious awareness on the part of the audience. Even when the stage is left bare the very starkness itself can influence 'seeing' and thus the experience. The authors of the book encourage us to suspend prior belief and to 'look consciously at our looking' so that we can become aware of influences and triggers sufficiently to be released from them in an attempt to step back and take in the whole. Posted by Jo Murphy Animania began in NSW in 2002. It is now an annual event and is held in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. AU It is a festival that brings together young people from local, interstate and overseas to celebrate and participate in the popular culture that surrounds Anime and the Japanese Culture. 2006 has seen the first time this Festival has made its way to Brisbane and it is certainly attracting popular attention. The Festival has been designed to create an environment where young people can explore the phenomena of Manga and Animation in an exciting and vibrant atmosphere. As an Arts Educator I will be going along to see for myself how young people explore the Manga drawing style I am also interested to see their interaction in the making of multi media. Attractions will include 2006 also marks the 30th anniversary for cultural exchange between Australia and Japan. The event is endorsed by both the Australian and Japanese Governments. The benefits of staging this festival in Brisbane will be not only to the Arts, to the understanding of animation as a medium but to our understanding of Japanese culture. |