Category: Art Class

I still have not made sense of the money but I am working towards a show. If you work long enough in a non verbal way you make connections you would never have foreseen and things come together as the time is right. I have been starting many different threads with the learners to get an idea of what they prefer. The hubs that introduce me to different media have been inspiring as I had something to bring to the kids.

I am having to solve how to get an end of year show together. I put up Kelsey’s work in a frame on the wall, before the class and she was the first to arrive in my classroom yesterday. Wearing her cheetah T-shirt, not a sweet kitten as we discovered in the SPCA outing. Kelsey brought a younger boy with her who she introduced to me. It was such a pleasure to see her including someone else into something she enjoyed.

The art class brief was ‘MAKE A CAR’. It was in the usual Thursday 14h00 to 16h00 slot on Edward Road in Ottery. The regulars are feeling at home with me. I have been hanging with them long enough not to feel self-conscious. I have not been able to do this anywhere else in Cape Town, which I find vexing. I does take alot of effort to set up, one year regular. I am going to have to start charging people, it is so difficult to feel at home with people and charge them.

I set out the art class and went down to check on Tiarra but the office was full of people already so I headed up again to wait for my kids. Tiarra has been coming in more regularly and I am liaising with her to get a holiday workshop with the kids, ‘MY KIDS’. The first to arrive was Katlyn with a friend. She saw the car project and was not as interested. They left and then some boys came in and we settled into making. The cars did not take that long to make. After they were finished the learners still wanted to stay in. I was not sure if I should keep them in as they didn’t sit patiently and wait. They want to put red electrical tape on the cars. I put out a few magazines to make a paging section. I demo-ed a bit . This is how you turn the page. They were a bit active today. They could make the cars to quickly?

I will bring in more containers next week. May be we can assemble something new. Put many carriages together for a train or make double decker cars. I just need to work out all the parts first so they can play. It is funny to call it ‘PLAY’ as they usually do exactly what I plan. I hope they will take the logic further in their own time.

Back to recycling this week as Mara brought it to life for me in her workshop. The first attempt was tough as the results did not consume the learners so they wanted to make their object better. I put in the effort and made a car myself before I went in. I know that the practical information I gain is better than any book. Learners need to know I can do it and they can ask how. It is important to have empathy gained through making. I can then push them through if they lose heart or notice what they are good at.

They each got a set of wheel painted this week. I did not have the time to organize all the other component parts that connect together. The learners were naughty as usual and took along time to finish the brief. The secret is to give them more to do and know they can do it in the time. I am fine with them parking off and socializing a bit as long as they get the hand ins done. The first step of the car is there, the wheels. I have to search for places to find containers and tops this week. It takes a bit of effort but if I see the potential in rubbish they will to.

I went into Class with my lap top and big screen that I had just set up and started playing around with again. I wanted to show the learners the possibilities of working with recycled plastic. They all sat infront of the screen and went completely soft in bliss at the bright funky visuals. I then said okay you do it. Then is gets chaotic. I must show them how and they don’t sit and watch and do it with me, they want to jump ahead and do it on there own. I must come around one on one and tell them what to do. It’s like they jump into their cars and then want full driving capabilities and one on one directions. The idea of waiting in their cars is completely ludicrous as they can drive. They get the milk bottle start cutting and then yell at me to give them instruction. When it comes to instruction. I use my own experience of making a milk bottle soap dish, as I need to be able to work sequentially.

I had hoped they would stay soft and quietly struggle with their plastic containers so that I could come around and help them once they had shown initiative but it doesn’t work out like that. If it doesn’t look nice like on the video right now they lose hope, it is very sad to see as they don’t get there. They don’t get to that end point they fell in love with right in the beginning.

To make up for the inability to cut the containers and plan how to connect them some of the learners decided to paint them. They sit with them and put a green slimy paint and glitter on it to make it more acceptable. I hung them up as I am sure they will look fresh next week. It was a tough start to the recycle project for me as they don’t really show the right mind set to the recycled containers I brought in. They say they can wreck them as they are worth nothing but they are not bringing in there own recycled finds to work on. I hope I will have a car set up I can make in the next session. Four tops and a milk jug.

I headed out to the Ottery Community Centre to continue the Sun theme, constructing a sun rather than painting it. I found the result of the structural work stronger. That could have been due to the amount of clay work I have been doing with them. They have more control of the clay versus colour paint as there are less options. All they have is clay and there is no color work to choose from. With paint I find they quiet often paint their arms as they lose focus on their page. They start the brushwork to big and then as they get into it need to stand back and wait to get into the details. If they started more cautiously the painting work might continue for longer. The attention span in clay is longer. They finished the entire sun shape. I explained how to divide the clay out into a middle round lump and them separate 8 ray lumps. I then made a pinch pot and attached the 8 rays to it. The clay results were very pleasing as the learners were happy with what they had done when they left the classroom. They did not clean up after themselves though as I wanted them to work into the faces more.

Snow on Ceres mountains and a rainy day in Ottery. Entered the hall surely and was happy to see faces I knew. I was focusing on art class as that was the responsibility I had taken on. Worried a bit about if the learners would come and then went upstairs to prepare. I had not prepared that much as a theme has not come up. Pumas could be a good theme as it is a bit bigger than black cat. We still have not seen the Hippos at the vlei and those are big. One can’t see a mammal much bigger than that unless you find elephant. Those are more inland.

Kept my mind off who was coming, setup. Did a bit of colouring in, asked the American guy to put the tables together with me, cut out a big yellow sun. It made the room feel warmer.  The class was to work at fulling that  sun with colour. I wanted them to use just pastels as I did not want to deal with wet paint, however it did not work out that way. Hafsa found the crayons to messy. I should have stopped her from covering the colourful line work with yellow paint. She got manic, uniform, repetitive. She didn’t see the line work she just covered. The outcome was a big yellow sun.

I have come to accept this is just a recreation 2 hours for the learners so they like to finish the project in that allocated time. I must not expect too much of them but praise what they do. I showed them the basics of mixing paints and very fast there individual personalities came through in how they painted. The Art Facilitators group helped alot. The Butterfly Art project brought it to my attention. I posted and got a bit critical instead of making it to Disney happy endings and got some good coaching. They said those kind of results are normal and I got I can get quiet competitive in my kids outcomes. I want the best for them.

I took my Hilty out as I liked the idea of woman hanging. It’s good to get stuff up it looks better. The framed work up in the classroom had a nice feel it looked monumental. I hope to give heart to the learners that they can paint and must keep trying. I do not like hearing them say I can’t paint. The painting did not have a lot of mixing of secondary colours. I think it is partly to do with attention span and the kind of energy they bring in.

Today was the day of painting the composition from last week. I had waited a week for the next step as that was the regular art class time. If they wanted the class they would wait for the next step and keep regular and get further. However this week the same 10 learners did not come back, I replaced some as others did not pitch and there were many keen ones. Perhaps I should have waited one more week and gated the new comers. I do prefer people who refine as they come back to something and work on it. They make themselves vulnerable; they show a softness that could be praised. I think a once a week class should be able to come up with the same out comes as a 4 day consecutive class, if not better as there is more time to research and think. If I finished the project in 4 consecutive days it helps keep the group together for that time. But the question is for how long. Why can learner not commit to a weekly class over a month?

The learners came back fresh after a weeks break. They were going to take the drawings that they had done at the SPCA further. A large scale composition on a round format of the kitten tank. The first step was the drawn composition on a round format.

I tried to get them to talk about it but they preferred using the khoki, it made their response more original. They didn’t copy or agree with what I had said. They found it difficult to draw the cats but once they started to make an attempt it got much easier, I praised them. We looked at the drawing they had done at the outing as that was the source material to take further. The lines were more careful and conscious as they were from life. They had to use those drawings to create a composition.

It took them about 15 mins as it was just outlines. When they started to scribble I disagreed strongly as they were destroying good work and I sent them down to play.