Category: Art Class

Went in and wanted to stay with clay in the hope that the learners would resolve the formal aspects of making animals. The regular learners came in Tamlin, the two twins Kirsty and Kirsten and Hafsa who I had interviewed and little Navannah. I was feeling more at home with the learners as I knew there names. After a year of having so many learners coming through it felt like an achievement to know a few on a first name basis.

The second term started with an upset as there were demonstrations on the field opposite the Ottery community centre. Reports of squatting caused meetings with the Mayor and community leaders as houses were requested.

Heinrich Jacobs contacted me as an art teacher and I decided to stay away for a week. The SPCA meeting for the children was cancelled. When I went this week things were calm, but there were policemen around and the children were less.

Human Rights Day and I was happy to go in and meet my kids at the Ottery Community centre. I had put together an exhibition of all the work we had done learning about what Human Rights are. I took my treasures out with me to show them what that had done that term. A wall hanging, a text collage project and colourful paintings.

They seemed more rested as they were on school holiday. I announced the final 10 most regular attenders for the SPCA outing. They were very excited to be choosen and others said they would try be more regular to get in. The lesson was clay mandala to get the learners to work in a group. Each learner took their own piece of clay and was asked to contribute it to a central mandala structure. I found the learners hung back quiet a lot and did not contribute easily. I was hoping one would do something and the next person might react to it but instead they each kept very solid on their own piece.

Art class continued to focus on Human Rights day in a build up to a celebration/ exhibition. Human rights are a chapter in the constitution the highest law of the land. Human rights need to be discussed and then presented in a public forum. The right to privacy helps you talk out your case with someone who has the learning to guide you. Associating with people of the correct standard of learning before putting forward a valid case helps. In that a naïve/innocent case is not strong, as people around you need to agree with you and understand your meaning. This brings to question the value of money and the association that it allows.

I handed out the cards made of individual human rights so that one right could be selected and meditated on by a learner. The exercise was to cut out the letters from a magazine and use these to make the human right. The next step was to draw the text to carefully construct it visually. Treat it as a visual object of geometary rather than seeing it as text.

I included various human rights including the right to fair trial and the right to privacy. I noticed the learner who choose the eye depicting the right to privacy kept on looking at what her friends were doing and got side tracked and didn’t finish. The containment of sitting with a person and discussing your view until it is your own and you can hold it in an outside environment is not easy for the learner. The learners chatted with her friends and kept pace in building up the sentences of human rights but many did not finish before they followed the crowed out the classroom.

Ten stations as usual, this time with a pencil, scissor and cloth. The mission to trace your hand and neatly cut out a material hand. I went down to games hall and announced art class.  A Jolly queue of 10 learners were came forward and we marched up the stairs to Art Class. Learners were reminded what Human Rights are and I gave them a few examples. We then started a collaborative Human Rights artwork for an upcoming  celebration.

I have the rest of the week to meditate on how to use the hands. I have a good iron on technique so I will put them on fabric and that could be a celebration in the games hall.

Another Thursday another art class. It is already the second half of term, three more weeks to holiday and Human Rights day coming up. Ottery was overcast with a bit of drizzel I headed for Ottery Community Centre, entered the games hall as it was set up and busy. I saw a new group of volenteers that had come in for the day. I chatted to one bigger girl she and her group were from the United States. We had a conversation, it was good to see her and her friends making the effort to come out to South Africa for a stay. Spotted Ryan in the hall and said hello, found out Heinrich was not there and headed up to prepare for painting this today. I had planned a talk on Human Rights so that each of the learners could prepare for Human Rights day on the 21^st March. I am aiming for an exhibition up for it, maybe in the games hall. I set up all the stations for them with paint, paper, paint brush and the three primary colours. When they get to class they know where to sit and how many can be accommodated.

The learners arrived slowly. I had time to work with two and then a few more came and I re-explained the painting theme of the day. Human rights is a universal concept held by the United Nation and set up in Paris in 1948. They outline the basic rights any Human has, one being the right to education. The list includes “Freedom from discrimination” , “Right to life” and “Right to fair trail”… there are many more. They selected a Human rights that they felt strongly about and created an visual around that. They were calmer with their colours this week, progress. They started mixing their primaries well beautiful greens, oranges, purples and browns emerged.

Went into class today after the womans church meeting. Feeling a bit tired after a get fit session at the gym but kept regular and made the effort to go through anyway. I arrived and went almost jogging into the main hall to get out of the hot sun. I found Ryan there. He was very friendly and we chatted a bit about the up coming outing in Seekoeivlei. However reached no sure conclusions of how to get the money. I mentioned I had done quiet a bit of legwork to get the current proposal together. I remain positive and will try and work on some contacts that will help with funding this week.

I got into the classroom with Ryan and it was neat. He and Heinrich had covered 3 of the table with newspaper and plastic and it was looking good. Good workmanship always makes me feel better. I sat a while to take in the classroom and felt lucky to be in such a well positioned place. I had the children close by and I had gotten to know where all the materials were in the room. Ryan assured me he would send the up at 14h30 for 15hoo. However I still had to go down to fetch them in the gaming hall, with all the kids you lose track of time there are just so many.

Before that in my quiet time waiting I had read the diagrammed visual on the functions and benefits of the wetland. I though it was relevant as there were so many vlei’s in the area, that is where the Hippo lives. I assured the kids that Hippos need no shops to survive, even if all the houses collapsed the Hippos would be quiet at home. They had a family group and food and water.

The class went well I touched base with all my friends at Ottery and got them in a room where they could relax and express them selves with art. The class was calmer.

Clay animals is the lesson. I got into the class and felt comforted as I saw Blue Mountain from last week. Some learners had created depth by shading the blues from light to dark. I had checked into the games hall and said hello to Ryan. The games were all set up and people were looking organized and prepared.

I set up the clay and faffed around the class room laying things out, and waited for the kids. At about 14h30 I went down as class started at 14h00 and no one had arrived. Their were lots of kids in the hall. I stood around a bit and it wasn’t easy to select kids from such a big crowd. I decided to do a one on one Talk Time with Hafta, a good quality interaction where I find out a bit more about who she is while she draws. After and during that quiet a few interested heads popped through the door. They weren’t the regulars though.

I then invited kids in and got them to sit down at their clay stations. Each with a ball of clay, and card platform with water bowls scattered about. I got the class started as it was late. I started demonstrating quiet fast making a clay Hippo, to calm them down and settle them into working.  They all got through the body and legs of the clay hippo keeping up, two were the strongest they had made the same as the demonstration.  They then start to cover each other so that they got the weaker ones looking good. I finished the head of mine and then go so many requests to make heads as they needed to finish fast.

Once I had finished making they kept on going but the hippo form was no longer what they were making. I suggested they make a hippo but noticed they stated making mud messes.  I ushered them out the classroom down into the games hall to cool off.

Walked into the art class and the place felt better more held and calm, not to much activity. I saw the clay hippos we had left upside down last week to dry and turned them all around and they all stood on there legs very well. I felt hopeful as the kids were handling the clay so much better there was a generous sculptural feel of moulding and creating.

Then I went down to the main hall to catch up with the people I knew. I asked Ryan up to continue our conversation from last week just to get to know him better. Conversation has a much better ring to it than interview it doesn’t sound as clinical. I then made up the ten stations for the kids. I was feeling hungry and tired but organizing a paint pallet, colours, brushes, water , paper and a cloth made me feel better. Everything was organized and I would have place to put the kids when they came.

I used a lesson I had learn from Sanet as the learners needed to start mixing graduations of colour and picking up subtlest. These nuance’s in colour create depth in a painting. Blue Mountain is very simple. You hand out pics of mountains receding into the white distance and explain how to paint each range from dark in the foreground to light at the back.

The learners looked calmer after the class. They had sat with each other and talked quietly but also stayed internal while they worked. There was a moment in the middle of the class when I sat behind my desk and watched them, each at there station working. It felt calm and peaceful. I hope to get it to last longer next time.

 

I had another clay class. This week it was directly after my woman’s meeting at the church and I felt calmer going in. I focused more on the people and had two very good conversations with people assisting me. Ryan who I have known since the middle of last year mentioned he was leaving, he said Jayden who was much younger than him would replace him. People come and go but don’t really contribute. I came out of the interview with very little I could write down, hard content. I felt I had a better relationship with them as we had spoken. I need to talk to them again as I have to give a hand in to Angela at the Butterfly project, a questionnaire.

I have repeated clay class a couple of time, with 10 kids. I was very pleased with the results of the learners. Some had definitely improved how they handled the clay. They had done it before. They could smooth and merge the pinch pots together and add the legs of the hippo. By the end of the class there was a row of standing hippos. The learners were able to get to a better end point by the end of the class. They were surer with how they handled the clay they could merge fuse and shape it.

Hippos always live next to water to keep them cool and camouflaged. If there is no water they will use the mud to keep the baking sun off there skin. The class has not seen a hippo yet but hopes to see one at the next outing.