Another Week – Another Painting

Two days ago I spent the afternoon with the students from the Montessori House of Children. This was the second of three classes. I began the workshop by singing my song “The Bricks of Love” http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2008/09/bricks-of-love-song.html

I always tell my students that if we are creating a painting we need to know something about the subject of the painting. Having the students simply relax so that they can enjoy the melody and lyrics of this song is one way to fill their heads with ideas about ‘our home’. To ensure that the students continue to think about ‘our home’ while they are not in the classroom, I hand out simple homework assignments. Here is one of the homework sheets with the student’s answers included:

My Home
Where I Live, Laugh and Learn
Homework Assignment #1A

I want you to think about what life would be like if you lived in a subdivision. Many people think that subdivisions are bad for the environment because a car is needed for almost all activities and cars create too much pollution. Other people may see subdivisions as a good thing because people are employed to build them. Share your thoughts by answering the following questions:

1) Use one word to express a positive thought about subdivisions and explain.

SPACIER
In subdivisions there is more living space in the homes than in the main city.

2) Use one word to express a negative thought about subdivisions and explain.

DEFORESTATION
In order for subdivisions to be built, trees have to be chopped down.

3) Explain one thing that you understand about subdivisions.

Families like to live in subdivisions because the backyards are spacious for children and pets to play in.

4) Explain one thing that you don’t understand about subdivisions.

I don’t understand why so many are being built.

5) Please share any additional thoughts that you have on this subject.

I would like to know we can build subdivisions to be more environmentally friendly.


THAT WAS EASY!!!!!

I don’t want to create homework assignments that take up too much of the students time. I simply want to engage their minds to think about the subject of our painting in simple and uncomplicated ways. I want the students to collect their thoughts around the subject and to focus these thoughts in simple ways.

The rest of the class was filled with painting. The students had a great time and the painting is progressing very well. Next Thursday we will be completing this masterpiece! I’m very excited.

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I spent yesterday afternoon with the grade 4/5 class at Victoria Elementary School. This was the final day of the workshop and the students completed ‘Earth & Sun’.


Some of you may be thinking that this painting looks the same as the last painting that I created with the grade 4 students at Kensal Park School, a couple of weeks ago – and you are correct.

The ‘Art For Earth’ workshop is being taught in three different schools. Each month a different subject is taught and a new painting is created. With each subject only one design is created and the class is repeated in each of the three schools. This means that each month three similar paintings are created. If you look closely at the Kensal Park painting ( http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2008/10/ecology-matters.html ) and compare it to the Victoria School painting, you will notice slight variations in the design and colour layout. Although each of the three painting will be similar, I do try to ‘tweak’ the design and colours to make the next painting even better than the one previous.

Today’s class began with the student’s colouring contest. I created a fun homework sheet that allows each student to be uniquely creative. At the top of the sheet there are three different examples of how to draw ‘The Earth, Moon and Sun’ and the bottom portion of the sheet is blank. This is the student’s canvas.

During the recess break, the homeroom teacher and I taped all the student’s drawing on to the blackboard. When the class resumed we had the judging. That is always the hardest part. I begin by complimenting each and every drawing that was created. Each students likes it when I point to their drawing to make a positive comment. I told the students that, “I am sooooo very happy to be in a room with sooooo much creative talent!!! Each of these drawings is a true masterpiece and each one of you should be very proud of your artwork! When I look at these drawings I feel so very warm and happy inside.” Then I crossed the room and sat in a chair and continued, “But now, when I look at these drawings I feel sooo sad… Can anyone tell me why I feel soooo sad?” Immediately five hands were raised. I pointed to one student, “Can you tell my why I feel soooo sad?” and they answered, “Is it because you only have four T-shirts to give away because you want to give all of us a T-shirt?” I smile broadly and say, “You are perfectly correct – I only have four T-shirts to give away when I think that everyone should get one!”

I compliment all the drawings again and then I tell the students that I don’t want anyone feeling disappointed if they don’t get a T-shirt. “You should feel happy for your friends who do win a T-shirt”, and I ask the class to applaud each of the winners so that we can all share in this happy moment. The student’s are always very accepting of this and this makes me feel very happy!

So – here are the winning drawings from this week’s class:


I thought that I’d finish this blog entry with another poem created by these students. This poem has been created by using lines from each of the students – a compilation!

Planet Earth

P eace is what we need
L ove your planet
A nimals need forest to live in
N ot driving cars is good
E nergy comes from the sun
T ry to be kind

E verybody has feelings
A ir is what we breathe
R ecycle as much as you can
T reat the planet with respect
H ome to everyone

Just before I was about to leave, the homeroom teacher asked the class if there was anything that they would like to say to me. “Thank you, Jim” must have been heard throughout the school. “No!”, I said, “Thank you. It has been my pleasure to work with such an intelligent and thoughtful bunch. I am confident that you will all grow up and work together to make this world a better place.” The students cheered. “You do want to make this world better – don’t you?” They cheered again. “Do you want to stop global warming?” Cheers. “Do you want to clean our water?” Cheers. “Do you want to make sure that everyone in poorer countries has enough food to eat every day?” Screams of cheers!!! “Do you want to stop all war?” Hollering screams of cheers. “DO – YOU – WANT – PEACE – ON – EARTH????” Deafening roars of hollering screams of cheers!!!!!!!

Look out to all those who would harm our future… an army of light is being born!

Jim

Beautiful Day

I spent this afternoon painting with the grades four and five students from Victoria Public School – and what fun that was!!! All of the students are very keen to learn about our environment and ways that we can make this world a better place. Of course, they love the painting part of the workshop the best. Today was the second day of the workshop. Tomorrow, I’m teaching at Montessori and so, the final class at Victoria will be this Friday – and the painting will be complete.

I handed out the ‘colouring contest’ sheets during the first part of the day and the students became very excited. When I was getting ready to leave for the day, many students were anxious to show me their pictures. Many of the students spent their lunch hour working on their artwork instead of playing ball in the playground. I’m glad that I have been able to get these young and creative minds turned on.

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Last Friday, Joanne and I were eager to leave London for a relaxing weekend at my parent’s house. As soon as Jo’ came home from work, we jumped in our car and started our journey. Just outside of London, we saw a spectacular sight. The entire western horizon was ablaze with brilliant reds as the sun was setting. There must have been close to twenty-five different flocks of Canadian Geese heading south, all at the same time. Each flock had over twenty geese all perfectly formed in their ‘V’ formation. I knew that this event would soon be over, so I didn’t bother trying to find my camera – we just enjoyed the sight while it lasted.

The next gorgeous day, we were sitting on my parent’s back porch and my dad motioned towards the sky. Unbelievably, there was a bald-headed eagle flying in our direction. For several minutes we watched as the eagle flew in large circles as it slowly continued on its way into the distance. My dad had said that they have seen these eagles in this area before – but this was the first one that I had seen in this part of Ontario. Whenever I see a bald-headed eagle my memory travels back to the time when Jo’ and I were living in Nova Scotia. During certain times of the year, we could see up to fifteen or even twenty eagles at once, flying overhead.


My parents live in a very small community. Ten years ago, the first traffic light was installed. The town consists of a general store, a gas station, a church and only a couple hundred houses. This area of Southern Ontario is very unique because the Niagara Escarpment runs through this region. All of the rolling hills and river valleys were formed over ten thousand years ago -–when the ice age glaciers were receding. As a child, I used to play with my friends in the farmer’s fields and surrounding forests. We used to build tree forts in the forests and we would play hide-and-seek in the cornfields. Unfortunately, a lot of the farmland that I knew as a child is now gone.


Huge expanses of fields have lately been turned into subdivisions for the city workers who want to enjoy their leisure time in the country. This ‘self-centred’ mentality only benefits the greed of the few construction crews who have manipulated this environment in destructive ways. The fields that produced food for humans and animals is now gone. During the planning of the subdivision, contractors miscalculated the amount of rain ‘run-off’ and they sloped the land incorrectly. Now, after a heavy rain the water backs up and causes flooding in a few areas and this floodwater backs up into the drinking water available for the community. Every new house has a large lawn that now needs to be sprayed with poisonous pesticides twice a year. Every new house needs a new riding mower that offers our atmosphere an increase in monoxides and other exhaust emissions. Almost every new resident works in Toronto or Barrie so now the surrounding roads are filled with more cars that do nothing to benefit our world.

Ahhhh! Just as long as these people get what they want….

The saving grace of our civilization will emerge when humans evolve to realize that living for the benefit of others is living for the benefit of the self.

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During the months of May and June, this year, I was amazed by the progress I was making with my guitar. Within several short weeks, I had written five complete songs. I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs, some of the inspiration that led to the creation of these songs: http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2008/07/alarm.html

Since that time, I had to let the blisters on my fingers heal and I concentrated on practicing and practicing. Last week, I began to wonder why I hadn’t created any more new songs and so, I picked up my guitar to see if I could create something new. About an hour later, I had the beginnings of something very lively and fresh. I spent a few days trying to expand on the music with little success.


During one of the afternoons, at my parent’s house, Jo’, my sister and I decided to go for a little adventure in the back forests and fields that surround this area. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining down. Our adventure took us to a fence that was missing some of the bottom fence rails, so we crawled under this fence. Later, we found our path was blocked by several fallen trees, so we had to climb and jump over top of them. After several hours we returned home, covered in burrs and prickles from all the weeds we had to walk through.

We got cleaned up and were relaxing in the backyard and suddenly a strange melody began to ring in my ear – I went to get my guitar. Within fifteen minutes, the second phase of my new song had been created. I was practicing and began to hum to the beat of the music – to try to feel out the rhythm for the words that would eventually be written. Another fifteen minutes later had passed and I had the first few lyrics written. Later that night, after everyone had gone to bed but me, I sat quietly on the front porch with Koly keeping me company. The melodies were drifting through my mind and a few more lyrics were about to be written.

The song still has a great deal of growing to do, but that won’t stop me from sharing the little bit that has recently been born….

Beautiful Day

It’s a beautiful day
The sun is shining down
We’re walking through the fields
Under a big blue sky

We’re crawling under fences
And jumping over trees
Then the leaves came crashing
Under a big blue sky

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The next afternoon, I was talking about my hopes and dreams for creating some kind of presentation for some of my other songs. My dad told me that his digital camera could record short movie clips… my mind exploded!!! Half and hour later, Joanne and I were walking down a sideroad with my guitar, tripod and camera. Two hours later we had captured enough footage for two videos. The videos will be rather simple, but I believe rather effective. I’m hoping to be able to do some simple editing to create these videos in the next two months.

My first rock video may be just around the corner! I would have to fill two pages with exclamation marks to express the joy that this adventure in filmmaking is bringing to my mind…. I’m very excited!

Jim

Window Of Opportunity

During the late summer of 2006, I visited a small community in Canada’s newest territory to find inspiration from a people with an ancient history. Although Rankin Inlet, Nunavut is a relatively new community, many of the people are descendants of the indigenous Inuit natives who have lived throughout this region for many millennia.

I met a young Inuit artist who took me to see the landscapes surrounding the town. He pointed to a high lookout that is used by hunters to track the migrating herds before we continued past an ancient burial sight. We traveled on to a place where the Inuit used to live before “Everyone started showing up here.” We walked to the mouth of a shallow river that was just about to join the Arctic Ocean and my companion told me that many generations of his people had fished here. I touched the water and suddenly I could see in the calm reflection, a day of bounty and abundance that may have occurred during a time not so long ago.

Our journey took us to an example of Inuit architecture. This structure has a dug out floor six inches below the ground with thick walls constructed with many layers of moss. Caribou bones were used as rafters and the leather hides were stretched over the roof and the gable ends. These structures used to dot our northern landscapes. This example that I sat inside of was the only one in the entire area. My friend told me that he is concerned because there are fewer and fewer memories of these ancient ways remaining.

The afternoon sun shone brightly onto the caribou hides and I marveled at all the contrasting textures that I saw. While I snapped a couple of photographs I made the comment that these could be the oldest windows in the world. They kept the rain, wind and snow out, while allowing the light to come in and add warmth to the dwelling. This painting was inspired by the textures that I saw that afternoon. The opportunity that I refer to in the title speaks of our ability to realize that the ancient wisdom of our elders will help us to create a brighter future for our world.

Before fast food drive thru, clear cut forestlands, styrofoam packaging, nuclear bombs, subdivisions with green painted rocks for lawns and expanding deserts, another kind of people inhabited this Earth. With lives filled with science, architecture, art, fashion, medicine, sport and entertainment, indigenous natives have thrived by respecting the heartbeat of life, enabling them to live in harmony for the benefit of their environment.

Our ability to shape a peaceful future is still possible if we continue to recognize all the windows of opportunity the surround us throughout our lives.

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Over the last six months, I have been finding many different ways of sharing my artwork and stories with people from around the globe. I am always delighted when someone takes the time to send a message, encouraging me to continue with the valuable work that I am doing with my art. This positive support always makes me feel great!!!

Occasionally, I receive comments that are insulting. These comments simply make me shake my head in wonder. I cannot understand why someone would take the time to showcase their ignorance and lack of respect for someone else. Two days ago I received a comment about ‘Window of Opportunity’ all the way from Australia. This comment made me laugh out loud, so I thought I’d share it with you:

‘That’s incredibly cheesy. I`ll stick to my SUV and fast food. When I see an ipod made of sealskin and moss, then I might believe their lives were filled with science. This caribou skin window of opportunity can`t compare to a window of glass that you can actually see through.’

I could comment on this comment a bit more, but I don’t believe that it deserves any more of my time.

+ + + +

Joanne and I are going to my parent’s house, in the country, for this three-day weekend. It’ll be nice to spend a few days in the beautiful countryside that surrounds their home. So, until next week….. peace and love to all – including my admirer from down under!

Jim

Understanding The Garbage Crisis

One of the problems facing our world today, is garbage. This is because we live under the assumption that our world is an endless resource that we can use to produce an endless supply of industrial age products and that our landfills and ocean dumping will allow us to dispose of our endless streams of waste. Now, we are beginning to drown in that stream.

The term ‘throw-away society’ is not something that is unfamiliar to us. We have lived our lives with terms such as this echoing in our minds and this constant reminder still does not open our eyes to understand this term. Like everything else in our lives, messages like this loose their impact when repeated exposure seems to lull us into a state of dazzled unawareness.

Our civilization creates garbage (or pollution) twice: once, when we transform a natural resource into a product and a second time when we tire of the product and throw it away.

Viewing our consumption, in an extended context, we find that our civilization now ingests enormous quantities of trees, coal, oil, minerals and thousands of other substances. We ‘harvest’ these resources, taken from their places of discovery, leaving vast scars across and below our natural landscapes, thus creating the third issue of concern when trying to understand the garbage crisis.

When we think of each of these three factors, combined, it is easy to understand the fact that every person in North America produces more than twice his or her weight in waste every single day: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year of continuous destructive waste.

Our mountains of garbage are reaching colossal proportions. Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, receives 44 million pounds of New York City garbage every single day. It will soon become the ‘highest point on the Eastern Seaboard, south of Maine’. It will soon, legally require a Federal Aviation Administration permit as it is a threat to aircraft.

In the Philippines, a growing mountain of garbage – called Smokey Mountain – has become a waste city. 25 000 people live in cardboard huts, perched on stilts, stuck into the giant heap of garbage. Territories are staked out, even though the adults and children are choking on the smoke from the fires fueled by decomposition. “Ten people squeeze into a hut the size of a bathroom. There is no shrub, no tree, just the stink of rotting refuse, day and night.”

These waste mountains are rising in the Third World, not only because of the pressures of population growth; equally responsible is a pattern of conspicuous consumption that has been exported to these countries along with Western culture and its consumer products.

I have come to believe that the garbage crisis – like our environmental crisis as a whole – serves as a kind of mirror, in which we are able to see ourselves more clearly. We need to find the strength to be able to question, more deeply, who we are and who we want to be, both as individuals and as a civilization.

If we have come to see the things we use as ‘disposable’, have we similarly transformed the way we think about our fellow human beings? Mass civilization has led to the creation of impersonal, almost industrial, processes for educating, employing, sheltering, feeding, clothing and disposing of billions of people. Have we lost our appreciation for the uniqueness of each one? Traditional societies venerate the oldest among them as unique repositories of character and wisdom. We, however, are all too willing to throw them away, to think of them as used up, no longer able to produce new things to consume.

What we are failing to realize is that our relationship with ourselves and others inadvertently affects our relationship with nature. Our needs are also the needs for this planet. We must find a balance of understanding, in our minds, in order to create a new change for our world’s delicately balanced systems of air, water and land. Our Earth’s natural systems enable the planet to breathe, just as we ultimately need to breathe.

The rains bring us trees and flowers. The lakes and rivers sustain us. Water flows through the veins of the Earth and into our own. We must take care to let them flow back to our planet as pure as they came. We must not poison and waste them without thought for the future.

The photos used for today’s blog have come from the book ‘Global Warning: The Last Chance For Change’, written by Paul Brown.

Jim

Murmur Mermer

Murmur Mermer
18” x 32”
acrylic paint on stretched canvas
January 2005

A close friend called me, one day, and asked me to paint a picture for him, inspired by the countryside we shared throughout our childhood. He wanted an Autumn scene. A few months later I returned to this region of Southern Ontario to visit my family for a Thanksgiving dinner. I spent a few hours in the hills with my camera, looking for inspiration. This painting was inspired by one of those photos. It captures many elements of this region: rolling hills, big sky, diverse tree species and, of course, the labours of the farmer. As you can see, I used a very small paintbrush to paint each little ‘pixel’ of the canvas.

Two townships shared one elementary school: Mulmur and Mono. Our school was called ‘Mulmur-Mono Elementary School’ – now say that ten times quickly and you’ll understand my attempt at a pun when I titled this peace.

Jim

Teacher Learns

Whenever I have completed an art workshop, I always spend time reflecting on the experience. Since I’m rather ‘new’ at teaching, it is important for me to learn from these experiences so that I can improve my teaching methods for future classes. The last three Thursday afternoons at Montessori School have given my lots to think about. I’m extremely happy with the results that were achieved and I am confident that my next few workshops will be even better than this first class.

Yesterday’s class began with a quick review of the student’s homework assignments. The students were asked to complete a poem about ‘My Home’. Since these students are in the senior elementary grades, I challenged them a bit more than my younger students by increasing the level of their thoughts on this subject. This following poem was created by input from all seven students from this class:

My Home

M orning sunrise is an amazing thing
Y ellow is the colour of the sun

H appiness is a choice
O ntario is where I live
M ountains are high and rocky
E verything is important for balance

I magining is wonderful
S unsets are beautiful

P eace is needed
L akes have fish
A ttention for the Earth
N ot many plants grow in the arctic
E arthworms aerate soil
T rees provide oxygen for all living things

E ggs taste good scrambled
A rt is meaningful
R ain is falling diamonds
T rees give shade on hot days
H omes are important for everyone

I really enjoyed reading all of the poems that were created. Each student used this exercise to explore so many different aspects of life on Earth – making references to mountains, rivers and sunsets – taking me on a journey to the arctic, to the top of a mountain, to the deserts and into the soil of the Earth. Many sentences shared an understanding about environmental issues and were very serious. It was nice to see a few sentences that shared the student’s sense of humour by stating how they liked their eggs cooked. Job well done! I am impressed.

Most of today’s art workshop focussed on the painting of the canvas. This was the last day of this three-day workshop so the painting had to be completed. So paint, paint, paint they did…


I was really impressed that – for the most part – the students were able to work together as a team to complete the canvas. This was very challenging because seven students were painting at the same time. This was a first for any workshop that I have ever put together – having that many paintbrushes going at the same time.

The students were very happy when my 3:00 pm visitor came to see the progress. Ben is an arts reporter for The Londoner – one of London’s community newspapers that comes out weekly. Ben shared some insights about art, as he is also a painter – in his spare time, and his experiences allowed him to recognize and truly appreciate the efforts of the students. He really liked the painting – a lot!!!

While I was being interviewed the students put the final brush strokes onto the canvas. Then we all gathered around for a series of group photographs. Ben wanted a chance to hear – first hand – how the students had enjoyed the class, so while cleanup was in progress two of the students sat with him and shared many stories.

This news article will be appearing in the paper near the end of November. Ben wants to share this story with the community and he mentioned that if the story was printed near the end of the entire workshop that he could also invite the community to come and see all the paintings at our ‘grand finale’.

Okay! Okay! I’ve been talking for way too long…. so now – without any further yik-yak – here is the first completed canvas…


‘Nuff Said!

Have a great weekend – I’ll look forward to sharing more stories about art with you in the near future!

Jim

Ecology Matters

Today was my final day at Kensal Park School, creating art with one of the grade four classes – it was full of art and poetry.

The class began with the students handing in their homework assignments. The first assignment was to create a poem entitled “Planet Earth”. The students had to write these two words down the left side of their page and then they had to create sentences using each letter to begin their sentence. This poem was created using the best sentences from each of the students.

P lants provide food for animals and people
L ight is from the sun
A nimals are our friends
N othing can stop us from saving the Earth
E arth is our home
T rees provide oxygen for all living things

E cology matters
A ir conditioners waste electricity
R ecycling helps the environment
T reat the Earth with respect
H elp save our environment

I was amazed with the many varied answers that these students came up with.

The second assignment was for the students to design and colour in their own drawings of the Earth, moon and sun. I taped all the drawings to the blackboard and then I had a most difficult time with choosing five winners. Each of the five winning students received a special ‘Art For Earth’ T-shirt:

Here are three drawings – in no particular order:


For the rest of the day, we continued painting….



By 2:30 pm the painting ‘Earth and Sun’ was complete.

It brings such a big smile to my face to know that within a short, three-day period that I was able to witness the birth of so many brilliant sparks of imagination! Thank you to the principal of the school for allowing me to work with these students. Thank you to the grade four teacher for all of your assistance and guidance. And thank you to all the students for… well, everything!!!!

Jim