CAP

I worked with some awesome people - Anita and Andrea for a Community Arts project this week. Anita brought to my attention the issues that have been existing for the community houses within Toronto.

There are many underprivileged  people in our big city. The government is kind enough to provide homes to those who need it. But just how are they providing it, exactly?

Not very well, I am afraid to say...

If you saw our Powerpoint this Tuesday, you may be aware of the terrible conditions that are present within the community homes of Toronto. Let me show you one of our slides:

I found the image of M.L.'s balcony to be the most disturbing of them all...

Not only are these homes beyond proper living conditions, there is now a work in progress by Rob Ford, motivated to privatize the Toronto Community Housing Corp., which would lessen the involvement of the government - in terms of funding and provisions of scholarships to disadvantaged students. The conditions of these homes could worsen, and the costs of the homes could also increase. There is potential for tenants to lose their homes!

What I and my partners wish to do is spark awareness on this injustice.

OUR BIG IDEA!

We wanted to show the city that we are dedicated early childhood educators. Therefore, our idea begins with the involvement of children!

1. We discuss with children in a large-group activity the idea of a "perfect home". What is a perfect home? Who lives in your perfect home? What does your home need to make you happy?

2. Build a model of your perfect home. It can be made out of anything! Cardboard, paper, foil, you name it! To be friendly to our earth, we recommended using recycled materials. 

3. We now have our advertisements about this injustice. With the help of their caregivers, children can learn about the unfortunate tenants of Toronto, and how their homes are jeopardized. The children can show their homes off to the public - within the displays of their school, and if they're durable and transportable enough, throughout Nathan Phillips Square, or the subsidized housing communities. This is our creative way of exclaiming this injustice.

This would involve the attention of fellow Torontonians, the City Council, and hopefully the Mayor!

With our "perfect house miniatures", we could motivate fellow Torontonians to become aware of the issue at hand. It would be up to us to make known that we will not accept this injustice.

The delivery of justice can take many forms, which is the current Art Word of the Week. Form depicts how an art piece uses its shapes in order to portray a three-dimensional appearance. It encompasses many other elements of art, such as texture and colour, too.

The miniature homes would be made according to the skills and wants and needs of each creator. Their forms would be dynamic!

Little Bean Dogs

I really wanted this activity to be something that was, you know, unique. My first idea was "Oh my God! I will totally fill a room with yarn!" I looked at our GoBlog Invites and one of the suggestions was "yarn bombings". Thank God I checked before I took my bicycle up to Dollarama.

So it took me days upon days of thinking, "What the heck can I do to spread some artwork throughout the school without doing something unlawful?"

My ideas consisted of:

1. Paper cups scattered throughout the school with facial expressions and discussions about keeping our earth clean. 
Only one problem: Kinda hypocritical!

2. Using a laptop and a projector to display an image on a wall in the school. 
Only many problems: My laptop got a hole burned into it, I am not sure how I could keep my equipment from being potentially stolen, and it's not very inconspicuous.

Well, that's all I can think of. I think I'll watch Youtube!

Wanna see?

... LOL! What the heck was that! I was just totally thrown off! That was so random... What is that thing? A pistachio dog thing? WOW! LOL!

OH my God. That thing just gave me the best reaction... The reaction I want to give to some random students! By God, I HAVE AN IDEA! Genius!

Shitteru? [Did you know?]

Okay, so if it were up to me, I totally would have provided the "plain fun" portion of this activity. But I felt that maybe it'd be easier to grab people's attention if I was spreading random facts of information that were about happiness.

So, I made some posters: Here they are!

I'm going to be making a few more than this tomorrow morning, but I am just pooped! I'll let you know how my *ART ATTACK* turns out. Get it? Remember Art Attack? Hahahaha.

Okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow!

....
Oh my Gosh. Some people are so weird...

Okay, so I drew about six of these photos! And I placed six of them throughout "The Dungeon" - which is really a seating area in Kerr Hall that is dominated mainly by engineers and computer programmers. I think maybe they're the type of people that require the most cheering up. Haha, I'm kidding. :)

Anyway, I placed each of these photos on the seats and desks in The Dungeon, and sat with my friend in a corner, camera in hand... Waiting for people to walk past, and give me some juicy reaction.

First taker(s): Two boys. They glance down at my drawing of an edamame, which describes how your happiness levels increase when you are dancing. They look around, give out a laugh, but dang, they're too fast for my camera! I miss them.

Second taker: A young girl. She's been sitting with her boyfriend in a four-seater desk the whole time I've been here, and I'm sure she noticed me placing the sheets down and donning the camera. She gets up and walks past one of the desks with my drawing of the edamame. I manage to get a picture of her!

As you can tell, she is about to take another step, but is totally frozen in place by the awesomeness of my drawing. She looks at it and stays frozen in that position long enough for my camera to take its photo! Haha, silly. :) 

Third taker(s): A trio consisting of two girls and one boy. They sit right at the desk where my drawing is placed, and they don't seem to have noticed the drawing until they're all seated. I manage to catch their reactions after they look down!

The girl on the left gives me the best reaction - look at her holding in that laugh!

That was exactly the reaction I was looking for!

Fourth taker: Okay, I kid you not, and you seriously don't have to believe me... But the fourth person to come across my drawings sits in the desk less than a metre away from me, which has a drawing of a pistachio, with the fact: "Exercise increases your happiness by 10-20%"

You know what he does with it? I kid you not, he uses it as rolling paper... Right beside me! He looks a little bit tough, and I am a little worried about taking a photo of him doing it, but I managed to snap a photo of him when his back is turned, just to show you guys how close this was happening:

Do you realize how close this was? I couldn't suppress my laughter very well!

So yeah, I didn't get that drawing back... Oh well.

Well, I had mixed emotions about this assignment. I felt like a voyeur, but the reactions of some of my takers were just so funny! Would I do it again?

... Probably not. I mean hell, someone made my drawing into rolling paper!!!

The Art Word of the Week in relevance to this experience is "Space". In this activity, I used a very large space to scatter some of my art pieces around, and gather the reactions of various people. It would be a little harder to do this in a room that is tiny, because I'd have no place to hide, and there wouldn't be a never-ending source of random passers-by. 

The 8-Ball's Cloud-9

"Baby, I used to be part of every bash. If ever a clyde needed some sense, then I would be the one to talk to. Back then, people didn't ask for much. All of their questions could be solved in a simple "yes, "no", or "reply hazy", if I wasn't feeling so in orbit that day. Really, people were able to take advice like it is, and I was just the cat who knew how to dish it out. I was just funky like that, y'dig?

But now, things have just become so dark, and everything's flipped! You just can't solve problems with a "Signs point to yes" anymore. It's just everyone's bag to know "why" or "when" too. Not cool... Where does that leave me? The guy who used to dig it all?  It leaves me as a crumb... a square! And it's a real drag." - (The Magic 8-Ball, 2011). 

...

The Magic 8-Ball. A classic toy of the 50's. Can you imagine what it's like to be a vintage toy? People look at you, they laugh at that would-be fun, then toss you in that old junk drawer, along with the faded markers and used staples...
They must feel pretty dark and lonely. And the poor 8-Ball, the toy that knows and sees all, sees only the dust piling up on its window to the unknown. 

I can imagine that they're the type of character that doesn't need to know much about you, and can solve all your problems in less than four words. You know that type of person, right? Perhaps way back when, those four words could really do the trick. But in the modern age, those answers aren't enough anymore, and so you're proven to be no help at all. Suddenly, you feel empty..., like you're drained of that good ol' dark-blue dyed fluid that swishes and swashes when you're shaken up.

If there's one thing Magic 8-Ball knows, it's contrast. Contrast is the presence of conflicting elements. And the Magic 8-Ball is made up of contrasts: It can only say yes or no, and it's always presented to be black and white (otherwise it's another billiard ball, like a one ball, if it's yellow, right?) 

Non posso parlare, io sto mangiando!

Here's a list of pastas that I have encountered throughout my Italian life-style.

Gnocchi; Spaghetti; Farfalle; Ruote; Linguini; Ravioli; Tortellini; Fusilli; Lasagna; Maccheroni; Cannelloni; Conchiglioni; Penne; Rigatoni; Ziti; Stelline; Risi; Risoni; Ditalini; Ditali lisci; Pipe.

This might as well be the amount of words I can say in Italian, too. ... Yeah, I can't speak Italian fluently, but I know enough words to tell my mom a secret on the bus; to curse when I am right annoyed, or know when my nonna is saying, "Come, have something to eat!" That's all that matters, right?

I have come to notice that if there's anything that is important in the Italian culture - it has to be our cuisine.We would rather preserve a recipe for a really good tomato sauce, than preserve our language. Yes, we are right proud of the food that we make, even though it appears as if we are actually just pawning off of other cultures: (noodles and pizza are actually of Asian descent, and tomatoes were discovered in the Caribbean)...

Is it just me, or is living the same culture all your life very boring? There are days where I overlook the qualities of other cultures, and I am awestruck... I am even more awestruck when I encounter an individual who has TWO cultural backgrounds. One of the most amazing cases I have seen, is one of my good highschool friends: Off the top of my head, I know that she is Maltese, Spanish, French, and Scottish. I can guarantee there's more. But I won't go ahead and ask her, because I want this reference to be a surprise. HI!!! :D

But I digress.

 So yes, as an Italian, I am very knowledgeable of the food that I am eating. And would you like to know something interesting? I'm sure all of us are aware of the famous Renaissance Italian sculptors; but I bet you didn't realize that even our pasta are dainty, edible sculptures too! Allow me to present to you some of the most interesting shapes of pasta-dom:

Stelline - the "tiny star" pasta!

Farfalle - the "butterfly" pasta!

Ruote - the "cart-wheel" pasta!

Shape effects what an object looks like, and therefore, a shape can be used to create similarities to another object. This is the process of creating sculptures. I can tell you, that by the looks of some pasta-shapes, that they are nothing more than miniature edible sculptures. In the above pasta-shapes in particular, all of these shapes create a certain appeal particularly for Italian/American/Canadian children. Wouldn't you know that a certain shape is a bit more appealing - and appetizing than another? 

"Stelline" is a type of "pastina" - this means "tiny pasta"! Pastina is a dish most often served to toddlers - because their small size is easy to spoon and swallow whole. Not only that, but the shapes of most pastinas are just so fun! Stelline - which means "tiny stars", is one of the most common pastinas I had in my life, and I can tell you that I'd certainly feel like a tiny star after warming with a hearty bowl of stelline after an hour of playing in the snow during kindergarten, getting my socks and snowpants soaked! Mmm... Nostalgialicious! 

"Farfalle" means "butterflies" in Italian, and you can tell by its shape, the shape is so close to butterfly wings. However, my cousins would call this pasta "bow-tie" pasta, because, well, yeah, they clearly look like bow-ties, too! Bow-tie pasta is most yummy in a garlic oil, or creamy white sauce. That said, I've seen it served most often during special occassions. Well sure, they're just so fancy!

And then, there's "Ruote", which is also known as "cart-wheel" pasta. There's not much more to say, except.. "VROOOM!! VRROOOM!" Yeah that doesn't make much sense. Carts don't have engines.

Anyway, shape is a principle of art which leads you to think of symbolic things. Pasta is a good example!