I wasn’t sure what to expect from art class. I have never been very good at art, so I wasn’t expecting much from myself. I was pleasantly surprised however, that our professor views are in an open way. He accepts and celebrates all art and does not belive in in a right or wrong answer in art.
He used some interesting teaching techniques. At the beginning of class we all thought we were in trouble for being late, although we weren’t. He lined us up outside and it was a way to randomly assign us to coloured groups. Putting us in these groups was a smart way to easily manage a class of 35. He also afixed a group leader so that he only has to interact with one person instead of 35. It is also a way for him to quickly scan the room to see who might be missing that day. I liked being randomly put in groups because then we get the chance to sit with people we normally wouldn’t sit with.
The first activity was interesting and I wasn’t sure what to think about it. We had to stand up, look at the ceiling and describe what we saw. Then Alex got us to lay on the ground and describe the ceiling from that perspective. First of all I liked getting up and moving around instead of sitting there and listening to what perception is about. The second thing we did was go around the building to find things in our group colour. That again was another interactive activity that got us out of the classroom and into our environment. Then I thought it was fun to put all those iteems together to create something, to create art. My group created a person because we had a fuscia sweater and a round piece of paper for the head. I like how we turned our group colour into an art project and we did so using everyday items. Alex showed us that art can be found virtually everywhere, its just a matter of how you look at it. I liked how he tied these 2 activities with the concept of perception. It sure got me thinking about what art really is.
The third activity we did incorporated music with drawing lines on plain paper. We just had to let the music direct our pens. It was very relaxing and fun just to scribble around. Then Alex made us cut up our papers full of lines and create a collage with them. At first I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my collage, but finally i just got in there because I knew I wouldn’t be judged. I really liked how we displayed our art and celebrated our work with one another. I was not that comfortable at first, but then once they were all displayed I felt more at ease.
The final activity we did was collages from magazines using our group colour as the focus. Our team decided on a flower because fuscia is a difficult colour. It was difficult to find fuschia in the magazines but it was nice to have such a supportive class who found and gave us several fuschia pieces. Our flower turned out really great, better than we all thought. Overall I thought it was a great class, very fun, interactive and relaxing.
