Mosaic Metaphor

This last term I had a lovely bunch of year 8s for a ceramic unit. I got them to make some 'practice' tiles so they could experiment, understand the process, make mistakes etc before working on some animal sculptures. Many of the tiles didn't make it to the first firing, but I wanted them to persevere, as part of the learning. I wasn't going to mark them or anything - I have a strong allegiance to the idea of learning through play. Before glaze firing, I realised that I could take it further by using all of their experimental bits in a mosaic. It is small, only the end of a wall, but it constitutes the first permanent student art work on campus, and is a bright spot amongst all of the gun-mental grey that someone thought was the best background colour for a vibrant place of learning! Beyond that, the kids learnt that mistakes don't matter and can even lead to something beautiful, that even seemingly insignificant components can contribute to the significance of something greater, and recycling is easy and doable. A very good term's work, I reckon. Their animal sculptures are awesome too.

 

Fairy Wrens

Today I noticed a pair of variegated fairy wrens playing outside the kitchen window and the little boy was resplendent in his breeding plumage. I was tempted to give in to the universal law that says as soon as you get your camera, the birds will disappear. But I decided to give it a go and when I had changed my lens and peeked outside the lounge room window, guess who was sitting right there on the pool fence? While I was snapping away at his nibs, his lady friend decided to join him. Lucky day to get picks like this! They are so cute.

Mixed Media Updates

Last year when I did the mixed media Webinar, I started a number of works on paper, and I posted them at the time. I have finished a couple of them and here are the end results.