Painting With Scissors

Whenever we received our project I did not hesitate on what I wanted to do, I had this vision in my head of something bright. Except, I did not know whether that was bright lights, a bright sky, or a bright color in general. After flipping through forest magazines it came to me. I wanted to recreate a forest fire. Although this sounds extremely sound, I believe the image behind it is rather unique and beautiful. To start I wanted to create an illusion as falling leaves, although looking back I could have created trees and then had falling leaves, I wanted them coming from the sky. I started by cutting out many single leaves and placing them on my blank canvas as if they were falling down. Then, I tried recreating the fire by creating a firepit which later I wish I was just able to create flames coming up from the ground, unfortunately I did not think of that idea until now as I am writing this blog post lol! I find that Lois Ehlert's children's books are interesting because I believe that I am in love with how she saw something that inspired her to create this sort of “pop up” illustration. Everything looks so “boom” out of the page and in your face and it makes me feel like it is trying to send a message within every page. My definition of art is starting to broaden more and more. It is difficult for me to really narrow it down and develop a concrete definition but as I am going through this course I feel that I will. I need to understand the “why?” behind art. I am unsure if doing this project actually made me feel like an “artist” however, I do believe this project and previous ones have challenged my creativity and put it to the test and I feel that I have been responding decent to it. The one studio of mind that I used was envisioned because I was envisioning a forest fire and simply because of the colors of the flames. They are bright, they are hot, they are explosive. I have never seen something that's so dark and harmful be so bright and beautiful to the color. You could articulate this project within the curriculum because it will give the kiddos a chance to explain their thoughts, ideas, and feelings through drawing and labeling. Some students have a difficult time expressing themselves through writing. Children, especially those learning English or with special needs, might find that drawing helps them explain themselves and communicate better. In addition, visuals help students better understand written words by providing more context, thus helping them connect meaningful input to a particular topic or text. Vocabulary, grammar, and writing can then be developed based on their art. It also gives the kiddos the opportunity to role play on paper and develop a deeper into their study of what they are learning and the content behind it. Lastly,