Arts Explorer #8: What does magical thinking mean to you?

When I was little I was fascinated with having a pet rock.  I know that this was a very passé idea but I really loved the concept and I would collect rocks.  So when I saw this assignment (creating a world for an inanimate object to bring it to life) I instantly went to find a rock.  Meena is who I created and here she is!

Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) stated that texture “refers to the surface quality of a work of art”(p.144).  I created Meena so that she would have many different textures.  Her feathers are soft and the bottom is smooth.  Her eyes soft and easy to squish and the gold paint is hard and bumpy.  She is definitely a multi textual “pet” and I think that creating these with children would be an interesting and education experience.

ART WORD OF THE WEEK: The element of TEXTURE

All about Meena:Meena was actually born on Jupiter.  Her full name is Meenaluŵtackãaloutionżis but she decided this was too difficult for humans to pronounce so she shortened it to Meena.  She came to Earth (in her blue spaceship) on a scholarship to explore human traditions (especially our art culture as it is so extensive and interesting).  She plans to return home in 2015 to write a paper on her experiences. 

Meena is very shy and will often hide in rock gardens as well as shoes to escape being seen and spoken to by curious humans.  She loves the colour pink and especially loves spending time in gardens, smelling the flowers.  Meena’s culture back on Jupiter does not allow for any junk food, in fact Meena hates candy! She loves to eat lettuce and carrots and broccoli.  Because of this Meena is fascinated by our Food Network Cannel and especially loves the shows Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes because although she loves the beautiful sculptures they make she is completely repulsed by the “cake” substance.  It is all quite fascinating to her. 

When Meena does feel like socializing she often finds a dog to cuddle with and she especially loves calling her friends back home to find up what they are up too.  She spends a lot of time “on” the phone.

Meena is a lovable little creature who is very curios and loves to watch children play and adults’ converse.  If you want her to be happy, place her on a bookshelf, in a rock garden or inside your shoe and let her be. 

This is one of my favourite magical thinking children's story. 
Not A Box by Antoinette Portis
An awesome friend gave it to me last Christmas and I found a well done version of it on youtube. Check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KXuBcdmktY


Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar.

Arts Explorer #7: Grocery Shopping With a Twist

The grocery store is somewhere where you can find an abundance of colours.  There is so much packaging that it would be difficult to find a colour that is not present.  Schimmacher and Fox (2009) state that “adult artists are consciously concerned with how the viewer will be affected by their choice of colour” (p.136).  This concern can be applied to directly to grocery shopping as I’m sure every single product has an advertiser behind it obsessing over every detail to ensure that you will purchase their item. 

ART WORD OF THE WEEK: The element of COLOUR

This week we had to choose a type of food and find as many items in the grocery store that related to that item.  I chose the world milk, and not counting any other diary products this is my list:

• Infant (Milk) Formula
• Milk Bones
• Condensed Milk
• Milk Shake
• Powdered Milk/Instant Milk
• Milk of Magnesia
• Buttermilk
• Milk (skim, 1%, 2% whole, coconut, goat, almond, soy, chocolate)
• Milk Chocolate (caramilk, milkduds, milk chocolate chips)

Milk is white.  But the packaging ranged from reds, blues, golds, yellows, pinks etc.  These items come in boxes, cans, containers that are small and big.  There is a huge range!  Bringing a child to the grocery store is an excellent way of exploring colours with them.  "What colour is this container? What about this one? But they both have milk!"  In a child care center, often there is a grocery center area.  It is important to create this environment to contain not only the food but also the containers.

Below are my three pictures that I drew.  Milk, Milk Bones and Condensed Milk.  Milk Bones is a bright red box, condensed milk is smaller and round and the actual milk includes many different colours, symbolizing which type of milk.  What I think is very interesting is that every single package includes red.

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar.