Saskatoon Craftivism

Seeing the colourful knitted headbands and wristbands on this sculpture in Kiwanis Park last week makes me want to learn how to knit.

Party Piñata

A little yellow wild boar piñata is sitting in my living awaiting my friend Dominique's birthday party on Sunday. Adventures of imaginary wild boars have drifted through my travels and I was quite fascinated to see a poster of wildschwein when last I saw my friend. It's a little strange, but I know she will like it.

Last day of class

On my first day of holidays the art class ended. Our first project was to make an 'affirmation box.' I was a little confused by the word affirmation, but I understood the idea was to make a box for positive messages. Earlier that day I had already decided that I wanted to paint. I picked up an old light bulb box and walked around the craft supply table to look for things I liked. I started with two tones of soft blue paper and a purple flower button. This week I had no choice but to use the glue gun. After the paper and button were attached I collected a piece of multi-coloured string and some paint. I twisted the string around several sides of the box and then started to paint little flowers with their stems growing onto the string. Part way through I decided that it looked like the tail of a kite and added a pink kite to one side. I was excited about the kite, the idea of flying, of freedom, and fun. In the remaining time I added some little shells. This week my art looked pretty.

We were told to write messages for each other. My messages were: 'You are creative and I admire your being,' ' I appreciate the tears you've shed in this class', 'You have a great sense of dignity about you', and 'I like how you think things out of the box and try different things even though they're harder.' (My roommate thought it was funny when I put the note back into the box).

The second task was to review the five weeks and think about changes we experience from them. I tried to connect pictures of my projects and below them I wrote the words: peace, trust, and growth. I guess the idea is to look for peace, to trust in myself, and to continue to grow.

My latest art project that I started this week with my friend Miguel is a wild boar piñata.

Making Faces

When I arrived at the art class I saw we would be making collages. All we were told to do was to make a face. We could take different features and put them together. The woman next to me announced she wanted brown skinned latino models, since they're hard to find we should let her know if we saw any. I opened the first magazine and started looking for different colours and textures. Somehow I decided that my face would be green, and then the hair would be blue. As I flipped through the magazine I cut corners off the pages and occasionally images that intrigued me. Being that it was Canadian Living there were a lot of food images. I saw some Cheerios that announced themselves as eyes, some pomogranate seeds as the mouth, some peas as a hand, and so on. I started to feel uncomfortable when I looked at others faces. Mine looked rather alien to say the least. Conversations turned about weight and body images, and I remained enthralled in my search for interesting colours and textures. The face even spilled over the sides of the paper she gave us as I pieced the large magazine slices together.

Again I didn't know what to say about the face. She asked me what the colours represented. When I suggested green could be jealousy I was chided for comparing myself to others in the class. She said green can mean hope and blue healing. The face made me say that I don't really like the way I look and I just felt like crying. During the break I went to the Taizé prayer for a couple of songs, and it was nice to be in the reassuring space. When I came back everyone was sitting at another table and we were told to make an advertisement for ourselves. Again I did not want to make an advertisement. I took a blue pastel and slowly drew one line and then another. A girl appeared reaching to the sides of the paper. A tree started growing out of her head and coloured ribbons came down and wrapped around her arms. When asked to explain I said that I don't fit on paper. Because of the tree I was asked if I liked my hair and I said yes. Then I said I also liked my eyes. I didn't really feel like talking because I didn't have much to say.

Next week will be the last class. It's hard to say if I feel any more confident, but nonetheless it's an interesting experience. I am reminded that I like making art.

À l'écoute

Clay! Suddenly the class seemed more exciting. We were told to us the block of clay to make our monster. It could be something we did, a quality we didn't like, or whatever came to mind. I didn't know what to make, so I started playing with the clay. I first made a twisted, snake-like form that I shape between and around my fingers. Parts of it split into almost antennae and then one end flattened. It could have been a tree, but it my mind it was like a ship. Another long piece emerged that was twisted and bent like intestine and I put it into the boat. I took another piece and it became a faceless, closed yet open armed figure. It fit onto the front of the creation. There was another block that became like the outline of a country and it became bent and warped as I fit it on the back. Another little figure with sad sideways eyes and hole in the heart climbed aboard and finally another piece that blanketed the knotted innards and connected with the antennae. I guess there were many little monsters. I would share a photo except the next task was to tame the monster. Smush ! They all squished together and it was hard to smooth such a big piece of clay all at once. It became two pieces. One the grew from a flower to an ear and the other emerged as a set of stairs. I fit them together. There was no conclusive interpretation of the ear. I thought the combination was rather funny. The best understanding that I have of it right now is that it's about learning to listen to myself and what I want ... and as my roommate added maybe not the monsters.