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.

New and improved Elements and Principles of Design icons

Here are my new updated elements & principles of design sheets. I've added a few terms from the ministry documents that were missing on the original and I changed the icon. 

A full Elements and Principles of Design Unit plan (complete with lesson plans) is available on my Teachers Pay Teachers site, here.

The letter-size worksheets by themselves (without the lesson plans) are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers site, here.

I also have high-quality prints of these charts available for purchase here:

The Elements of Design

The Principles of Design

- Patrick

Michael Snow: Objects of Vision

Here's a video from the AGO's youtube channel of Michael Snow discussing his work, which is featured in the show that has recently opened at the Gallery: Objects of Vision.

It is interesting to hear him speak about the various ways that he has approached making sculpture, which is based on how we experience 3D objects.

The show is on until December, and there is more info here.

How to deal with boredom

This fascinating article from the Behance blog "99%" tackles the subject: why boredom is good for the creative process.  Many creatives, teachers and students face boredom on a regular basis and this article provides some helpful insight on why it happens, and how to deal with it.

The name of the blog "99%" comes from a great quote by Thomas Edison: "Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration." It's easy to relate to and reminds me of an earlier post, featuring a great video of Milton Glaser : "Art is work."