Featured on the Blyth Academy Brochure

This month I am featured on the cover of the new Blyth Academy, Thornhill brochure!  This shot was taken in the fall during my first week as I was helping a few students with a computer problem.

Tree Mural Video

                                         

Last term, my Integrated Arts class painted a mural at our neighbouring Fun Community School. We enjoyed working on this project and I made the film above as an example of a high-speed movie for my grade 10 Communications Technology class.

Metalworks Field Trip

Last week I took my Communications Technology classes to visit Metalworks studios and institute to see how audio engineering is done at the post-secondary and professional level.

We were taken on a tour of the studio to see where artists record, where engineers use the million dollar soundboard to mix music, the post-production equipment and even the stage and lighting warehouses. We saw where musicians such as Rush, Prince, Feist, and Drake have worked and recorded and how many different kinds of jobs there are in the industry.

The million-dollar soundboard:

The sub-woofer that Prince gave the studio after recording with it:

The final production details are added in the final mixing room:

R.O.M. Field Trip

Last week I brought my classes to the R.O.M. for a guided visit  in the morning and a small group photography exploration in the afternoon. 

The museum offers such diverse exhibitions that there is something for every student's interests. 

Here are a few of the highlights: 

Graffiti in Toronto, Downtown Field Trip

The Torontoist recently posted an interesting piece about how the Mayor has selected a panel to judge whether grafitti around the city is art or vandalism. The city will destroy the vandalism and keep the art. There are so many different kinds of grafitti in our city and different standards of acceptability and legality. Here is the article: http://torontoist.com/2012/10/city-staff-will-decide-whether-these-murals-are-vandalism-or-art/ .

These photos were taken in Graffiti alley on a field trip with my art classes last week. They are a good example of the variety of graffiti that we have. Much of it is protected but who knows how the panel will vote.

Global Cardboard Challenge

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the remarkable story of a 9-year old boy, Caine. You may have seen the short film that made him famous: Caine's Arcade.

The story is a testament to the power of creativity and reminds the viewer of the ingenuity and imagination that all kids have. We need to provide kids with the opportunities to tap into this power.

The filmmaker of Caine's Arcade raised enough money in one day to pay for Caine's post-secondary education. That effort has spiralled into The Imagination Foundation, that hopes to share this good work with kids everywhere.

Even if you are not interested in the fundraising part of it, there is the creativity, and anyone can participate. It's called the "Global Cardboard Challenge". There are events all over the world. I dedicated two days in my grade 10 and 12 art classes this week to present my kids with the Cardboard Challenge.

It was interesting to see how even at high-school age, accessing creativity was a challenge. The kids are so used to technology and art equipment to get inspired about a project. The task of creating something with nothing but cardboard, tape, string, and some toothpicks- was different and took them some time to get into it. But eventually they did, and we had some fun and produced some great results (above) with a material that is reused, recyclable and free.

Next year I am planning to host a bigger community event for the Cardboard Challenge...

Ai Weiwei show at the AGO in August 2013

Great news: it has been confirmed that the artist Ai Wei Wei will be making the AGO part of his North American tour of According to What? 

The Globe covers it briefly here.

I have always been intrigued by his work, but, like many others, it seems like work best appreciated up close.  I'm definitely looking forward to this one.