O' What a Night!

This will probably be one of the last posts I make for this years project.  I went into the Exhibition last week, and well it just goes to show... one should be prepared for anything.  I got to the Centre and it was full of kids and parents and other interesting people from the project.  The artist I was working with spotted me and came over to say hello.   She asked me if I minded saying a few words after the Art Officer and  the lady from IMMA and the Gent from the County Council had done their speeches.  The first thing I thought was, O god I should have changed my shoes and worn my good jacket and had a go at brushing my mop.   Luckily my trusted beret did the usual covering of a multitude of sins.  Funny how when one reflects on events that have happened, what you look like and what you were wearing seem to always take precidence over the project or work that you were standing up to talk about, which is after all the most important thing.  I don't usually have a problem with talking so I thought that this would be a doddle, but was amazed at how nervous I became as my 'talking' wore on.   I thought all this community work was supposed to work miracles when it came to being able to make speeches at the drop of a hat, but I was totally unprepared for  this and couldn't help thinking afterwards that I could have said more about the artist and their school, instead I flew the flag for  IT Carlow ( I mean WSAD)  and our little module and what we were supposed to be doing for it.. blah blah...   Later I was soaking up the atmosphere that some of the artworks created.  The kids that I worked with had some of the finished pieces strategically placed around one of the pillars in the room.  It instantly brought a smile to my face, remembering the kids making them and how I had seen them develop from nothing to  these little caricatures,  and they all had real presence.  Well they had made it to an exhibition after all.  All the little incidents in the classroom, popped into my mind.   The painted faces seemed to have an air of superiority  when you looked at them now.  On reflection, painted faces do tend to make you feel superior, on some human level, so do puppets I find.  People seem to attach much more importance to listening to what a puppet has to say rather than what a person has to say.  Mind you I find some people are just like puppets sometimes.       My mind continued to roam and I wondered why the school exhibition was not scheduled to be on before the 'main one' in the Centre. I suppose that is just how the time schedule worked out.   

The highlight for me was to finally see the real pink fluffy head in the glass showcase.  There it was. Finally Louise and I were  sharing  the same floor, her work up on a pedestal and my feet still firmly planted on the ground... well maybe one day...  I will be helping with the hanging of the school exhibition in May and I am really looking forward to seeing the schools big hall filled with all the children's fantastic creations.

This project has taught me that one can get much enjoyment out of doing something that is totally unrelated to what you 'at' sometimes.  It gives you a totally fresh outlook on your own work,  and is sometimes a much welcome break from all the stress and strain of our ordinary little lives. Bettina's world, sometimes an interesting place to be!   

Opening Night - Wexford Art Centre

I am just heading out the door to go see the exhibition of the Art Alongside project I have been involved with.  I haven't seen any of them finished as I was doing our research project for the final week they were working on their projects in the school  I was in.  I got word that the school exhibition is going to be hung on 9 and 13 May in the school so I will get to see all of them finished then.  I think there are a few on display tonight from each of the schools involved.  So take a look at the link and if you around town pop in to see some of their creative endevaours.   The exhibition is on until the 9th of April 2011. I will try and take some pictures and post them up later.

http://www.wexfordartscentre.ie/visual_arts.html

Day 6- 2 March 2011

Today I woke up wrecked.  I can't seem to shake this cold I've had for nearly 3 weeks.  I was researching Damien Hirst, and came across his 'Pharmacy' piece on the Tate Modern web page.  I had to agree with him about how we all trust pills to make us feel better...mmm...  I am also wondering why I am constantly getting sick this year and I am never sick.  I am putting it down to an unhealthy lifestyle which I have developed because I seem to have no time to do anything anymore.  

The kids at the school were all ready for the day that lay ahead.  Last week they were on a break, so today we got stuck in  and I was on 'making the headphone's stick' duty today.   They had made the headphones out of newsprint and foil and that was stuck into a jam jar lid.  I got one girl who had made them really well, to give some of the others, a demo.   There were two student teachers in to 'help' too.  They seemed to just be walking around taking it all in.  The last time we were there, everyone took a total break from the puppets and concentrated on making the 'radios'.   The artist had brought photocopies of various forms of listening devices for them to get idea's from.  They all got stuck in making their 'ipods' - the universal choice.  I wondered if any of them had any idea of what a sony walkman was or even what a portable cd player was, and I felt quite ancient today.  It reminded me of the time I asked some kids I had for a workshop,  if they knew what my 'clock' could have been made out of?  It was a painted LP record.   No one could hazard a guess and eventually when I told them, one little girl said: ' Oh I think my grandad has some of those." 

Looking at the puppets today, I again was  amazed at how they had all colour co-ordinated the devices to go with the outfits and couldn't help thinking  about global advertising and its  effect on our youth.  Was it good or bad?  Was it their own choice or do they even have a choice anymore?  With all the planned obsolescence and trend forecasting does anyone  really have a choice about what they choose to do anymore?   This week they continued on with the making of the clothes,  and I had stuck all their wool hair down for them previously, so most of them were looking pretty close to complete.

Today, about half way through,  something quite unexpected happened.  The boy who had decided to paint his puppets face a very dark brown, came to me and asked me to stick  a white mustache onto it.  He had dressed the puppet up in pink and had colourful hair to match.  When I asked him whether it was a girl or boy puppet he said: "a bit of both".  I started  thinking about a cultural studies lecture we had last year about essentialism, and how we are programmed to think from an early age that baby girls wear pink and baby boys were blue etc.. and  I thought well, that was that theory blown out of the water in this case.  

 I started to think this is typical of higher education, that once one knows about something,  you start analysing   things you wouldn't usually think twice about.   You start to see things totally differently to how they probably are, or how other people see them.  You see things from several different angles.   I wondered how he had arrived at his decision.  Did he know someone who he was basing it on?  Or  was he just making up a character  he imagined up?  Did the newspapers images that had been laid down for protecting the tables, have anything to do with it?  Or  I wondered, was  he was just trying to be funny in front of his friends as he had a smile on his face when he asked me to stick it on.  

When I wrote my statement of interest for this project I mentioned that I would like to try something similar with children in South Africa,  if and when I go home on holidays.  After  the 'skin colour'  question  came up on a previous blog I started to wonder whether, if I was doing a similar project in a township school in South Africa, would the children there, paint any of their puppets pink and orange?  And if they chose not to,  would that  become an issue for the school and their teachers? I wondered if the concerns we have here in Ireland about inclusiveness, and addressing the issues that arise because of it, or the lack of it,  would be the same elsewhere in the world.  One would think it would be a universal issue, but is it, or does it just arise in communities that have  multi-cultural issues to address?

 I was delighted that this class had exceeded all my expectations because they had  'all sorts' of people in the mix.     There were all sorts of different skin colours, even blue ones,  males and females and even boys making girl puppets,  and there was even one who was half and half, colour-wise,  and now, one today, that was half and half gender wise too.  Refreshing to see in a rural country school!

Day 5 - 16 February 2011

 This week the day started and ended like all the previous ones at the school...  busy.  Last week during the class one of the little girls had a problem painting in her eyes on her puppets head.  The task itself was very straightforward but there are always one or two in the class,  who do not believe they can do something.   I decided to show her how she could go about it,  by anchoring her little finger to the puppet and then having a sturdier hand to paint the difficult lumpy area.  The artist spotted me helping her and came over to ask me not to do it for her.  The purpose of the whole exercise she explained, was  for them to do it themselves.  I  totally understood what she meant and wondered,  if it was my place to try and show them little tips to make things easier for themselves or just to leave them at it.  On reflection this was not a skills workshop so I was not doing the right thing by  showing her how to do it.  I was quite taken aback at the time,  as I did not think it was that big a deal,  but I can see now, that  the aim of the project was to let them do it themselves.

In class this week on Friday, all the boat project people and the book transcript people seemed to be talking about their project and what was happening,  and how they were going to meet up and talk with the people in their group and it got me thinking that the project I chose, was probably not the most 'community based' experience I could have become involved with.  I chose it because I really enjoy working with kids, they are free of all the negativity  that adults usually have.   I had done loads of similar types of workshops like these before. But maybe that is not what this is all about.  Maybe it is about getting totally out of your comfort zone, getting in there for the dreaded 'group' experience.  Thrashing it out with others, who you don't see eye to eye with,  going home irritated and frustrated and reflecting on how you could 'do it better' next time.  This its seems is the way to learn.  Not just to have an experience but to be able to reflect on that experience.  

 My project somehow doesn't have the same input required as the others seem to have, although I am probably working quite hard (according to the artist).   Others  seem mainly to be taking photos of there experiences and recounting what was being discussed when they go there.  Although I really enjoy my project  every week,  I feel a bit guilty, as I feel like I should be learning some major  life- altering experience each week either about the people I am working with  or about the project, and I am not...and I am just doing it because I am enjoying the experience.   I tend to chose things that I know will give me the least amount of aggravation lately.  Why.. I don't know.  I dislike confrontation, I suppose, I try to avoid arguments if I can, because I just feel like life  is just too short to get into annoying situations that go on for years.  Anyhow now that that's been said,  I will carry on regardless,  because it is fun and I am enjoying the experience and I can't say that about alot of the other things that are going on in my life at the moment.

Day 4 - 9 February 2011

Well here they are....some of them anyway...still a work in progress. 

 Today was a really funny day.  I was a bit bored by all the election talk on the radio so I was delighted to get into the school today out of the rain.  The artist divided the group up so for the first 15 minutes the ones that had not attended last week got a chance to catch up again.  We had all 31 in today and the room was full.  There was wool and paint and the easter eggs from the other group on the floor and all sorts happening.  It was a hive of colourful activity.  The Echo photographer was in photographing the kids for the school photo too.

About half way through the class, one of the boys came to me and told me his friends puppet was leaking.  We had filled the plastic milk bottles with water initially to weigh them down and for some strange reason this particular bottle seemed to have a tiny pinhole in it near the bottom and his purple tissue paper top was wet.  After we had let the water out of it, his friend turned to him and said: 'Well..., her waters broke anyway!'  I was on the floor laughing because this kid was about 9 or 10.  He has obviously heard that somewhere before.  

 more dudes...

There was hair flying and eyelashes and eyebrows appearing on previously blank looking faces.  It was also quite funny to see some of the self conscious, giggling boys dancing around the table with a bra that had mistakenly found it's way into the fabric box.   There were all sorts of glittery scarves being pulled out of the rummaging box and the puppets where starting to look like little people now.   When she was showing the new lot how to mix colours, a good few of them wanted to use dark brown and one boy even asked if he could paint his face  black.  He eventually ended up with a very dark brown face and it looked great amongst all the other pale ones. Some also had freckles. I had mentioned to the artist that the question of what constitutes skin colour had come up on my blog.     One little girl decided she wanted to do one side pale and the other half brown.    I asked her why she wanted to do that and she replied that she wanted hers to be different to all the others.  I was amazed that even at that young age, they were already trying to distinguish their work from the others, by doing things which would probably be considered quite out of the ordinary in a normal (not art) context.  I thought that this was wonderful because it showed me, that they recognised that some things are different and that's ok too.  

I came home ready to give my video piece another crack... d day tomorrow for that.  

Julie and Julia

Well it's amazing what you hear when you talk to interesting people.  Frances my dear friend, saved my bacon in more ways than one last week.  With the eminant  deadline looming for the dreaded video project.. I had taken to the beach with my 'starlett... ange' in tow last week for another epic videoing experience... armed with a little black dress and a pair of binoculars... well to cut a long story short, it was 'dreadful'.  I kind of knew that really,  but had to magic up something after the trad fest weekend, so magic up I did, and this time, it backfired..badly.  Anyhow I got to talking to Frances in the car on the way up and she was telling me about men who like to wear womans shoes etc.. and then we got onto this movie,  Julie and Julia.   It had nothing to do with men or shoes..and it would not normally have appealed to me because it is about cooking.. I hate cooking.. eating I love.. but cooking... uuuugghhh..anyhow this movie is based on two true stories about a girl in (2002) who cooks up this famous American woman, who is living in France's, recipes in (1940's?) (Ha ha not cooking the woman!!!) The power of the wrong apostrophe... Too much Louise Bourgeois again... anyhow..she cooks one recipe a night for 365 days and blogs about it.  Well, I thought I could get a few blogging ideas.. so I watched it.  It was ok, Ms Meryl Streep starring..with a very annoying high pitched voice,  but interesting too, because they both got a movie made from their simple little story.  The younger one  was cooking some woman's recipes and wrote a blog about cooking them... do you see a pattern emerging here?  A singer writing a cooking blog... maybe instead of  community blogs I should start a blog about an artist???? who doesn't like to cook, blog... any publishers out there? Oh yes I forgot we don't need them anymore either... this is free for  the world to read and no cost involved.  

Day 3 - 2 Febuary 2011

Well today I headed up northwards and was amazed to see the election posters up already.  What struck me was that there was mostly Enda Kennys heads peering down on my car from every pole.  There were also a good few Labour posters around Wexford but the closer I got to my destination the more Sinn Fein ones started appearing.  I only noticed one in Ennicorthy of Michael Martin, on my way home.  I couldn't help  but think that maybe the printers refused to print for them. Else they are still asleep, or people are taking them down as fast as they are putting them up.

A locked  school gate today threw a spanner in the works.  It was raining and we had to carry some of the materials around the back of the school.  We heard there were only 15 out of 31 in today, so even though we started a bit late we seemed to get quite a bit done today with less in the class.  The kids got a lesson on how to create skin colour and to my amazement, the swatch  paint excercises we did in first year came in very handy.  I was quite accurate in re-mixing the colours for some of them.  They also painted in the features on the face today and the 'faces' took on  characters all of their own.  The hair was also added and when I packed up today, the place looked like 'Ibiza' with loads of suntanned faces, brightly coloured clothes and the coolest funkiest hair you have ever seen.  It made a stark contrast again to the grey skies outside.

We actually took a tea break today and I met some of the other teachers.  They were all having a relatively quiet day as there were so many out sick.  The school had got some stencil type games painted onto the tarmac outside for the kids to play on during their break, outside the staff tearoom.  The question of funding came up again and also some discussion took place about the date of the exhibition that was going to take place in the school.  When we got back to the class I was asked if I could help with the exhibition in May and was delighted because I really want to see them all finished.  Today many fell behind because they were not in last week and some had not come in for two weeks, so I spent my time helping those to catch up again.  I think that  the most frustrating thing for the artist who runs the project must be to try and work to the deadline for the exhibition as well as move the group along each week to the next stage. The dates are set at the begining of the project so there is little room for flexibility.  This artist is also working in a number of other schools so co-ordinating  and time management skills are of utmost importance as far as I can see.  The hall they will be exhibiting in in the school is huge and they have  fabulously high walls so getting it all in won't be a problem.  Our group are making the heads with i-pods or headphones and they will have radio waves linking them all together. They are 3D pieces and are going to be shown on the ground around the hall I think.    The other group are going to be dispalying flat work on the walls. We will have have one more week before the mid-term break.

I am finding because I am enjoying this part of the project, I am neglecting all the other subjects and am falling behind.  I have started to realise what I want to do,  and what I have no interest in doing too, and all this along with the necessity to make some money this year, because I do not qualify for any grant,  is starting to take it's toll on my home life.  I was asked to do some work in Temple Bar for the Trad Fest last weekend and although I did it, I realised that it took a big chunk of my time and had no time to do the project that was partly due for the Monday.  So trying to juggle time, and money, help other people and get my projects done,  is starting to exhaust me.  I am also finding that things that came quite naturally to me before, I really have to think about now.   I know I will do it, but I suppose I will welcome the break more than most this year.  I am always amazed at how effortlessly the rest of our group seems to glide through the year, seemingly with no worries about the volume of work to be done.  What am I doing wrong?

Day 2 - 26 January 2011

Driving down to the school today, there were two families being interviewed on RTE 1 about being without all their techno devices, games,  phones, ipod's etc and the TV for a week.  Last week they were handing it over and this week they were getting them back.  It got me thinking about when I was a kid and how little we had in terms of  digital gadgets and devices to occupy our time.  I thought how strange it must be for a kid today to have no idea of how to occupy their time or thoughts without some sort of intervention from a device.  I thought it would be an interesting exercise in college to switch off everything for a week  and just get a book or pen and paper and do something the good old fashioned way, just to see if it could be done.

Anyhow, today was my second day in the school.  I arrived a little early again to help set up, and the sight of 27 'white heads' with the most amazing caricature features, peering out the window was quite a sight! We had 29 out of 31 in attendance today and I was given the task of helping  the 7 who were absent last week, to catch up while the Artist went on with the rest of the class.   Luckily I had listened the week before, and listening is something I am finding increasingly hard to do lately.  I find that if I am interested in something I can hear 7 conversations at once, but if I am not....  This blog is not called 'Bettina's World' for nothing.  The rest of the group went ahead and primed up the dried heads and they were about to move to the next step when one of the children asked why they had not attached the shoulders to the head yet.   This question luckily, led the table I was at,  to catch up rather quickly to the other group, as they  all did it together  today.  They rolled up two sheets of newpaper into oval ball shapes,  and taped them to the milk bottle just at the base of the neck. They then continued on pasting the white paper strips over the newspaper to get the form completed.

I looked up this link , (I think it is someones blog),  http://ayearofpositivethinking.com/2010/05/31/a-great-artist/ because  the Artist in the school said they had based the idea of their project on 'the pink head' by Louise Bourgeois.  I liked this bit from the link:

“My name is Louise Josephine Bourgeois. I was born 24 December 1911, in Paris. All my work in the past fifty years, all my subjects, have found their inspiration in my childhood.

My childhood has never lost its magic, it has never lost its mystery, and it has never lost its drama.” (Louise Bourgeois, epigraph,  Louise Bourgeois: Destruction of the Father / Reconstruction of the Father; Writings and Interviews 1923-1997)

But to get back to the task on hand... the next step was to paste colour tissue paper over the body and shoulder area.  They had to tear small pieces of tissue paper and overlay them so that the body was covered up to the base of the necks they had made.  Some vibrant colours started to emerge out of the sea of white and in a way I was sad to see the white go as it definitely made a real impact, but also happy to see the bright colours emerging out of every corner of the room.  It was as if the sun had instantly come out.   One by one they covered them over and then they had to put them back up on the window ledge to dry.  During the break,  the Principal came in to introduce himself.  He  told me he had been on a holiday to South Africa recently and had had such a fantastic time. That is always good to hear because not too long ago, I would've been ashamed to admit I was from there,  because of all the negative comments I would inevitably have to endure, and the assumption that just because I was a South African,  I would be racist.   That conversation reminded me that I would soon be home again  to get another dose of  vibrant colour, vivid blue skies and some sun during the  Easter Break, and by then,  this project would be over.  There was also talk about the question of funding  from the County Council for this project for next year, and that again has called into question the importance of funding for initiatives like these for artists.

Day 1 - 19 January 2011

Well I woke up early this morning as I had loads to do before I finally got on the road.  -1deg and my icy windscreen took about 5 minutes to clear.  By the time I got to Enniscorthy the temperature had risen to 2 deg and the road was frosty and busy.  I still had some way to go and  I had forgotten about commuting and what a pain being stuck in traffic could be.  Anyhow I was listening to some jockey on Radio 1 who went to live in America and who practised the art of 'flipping'.  I had no idea what that was, but it turns out, it's the same thing as bulemia, and most of the American jockeys do it to keep their weight down, without them having to worry about what they eat.   It got me thinking again about people who leave 'home' for a better life somewhere else and end up trying to fit in with what is the norm were they are,  and how it turns you into someone you never thought you would become.

 Before I knew it I arrived at the school.  It was a lovely country school on the top of a hill.  I found my way to the art room where the Artist had a couple of kids helping set up the tables etc.  I joined in mixing the paste for the papier mache project they were going to continue working on today.  They were fortunate in that they had a designated art room so there was lots of room, despite the class being large, and today  27 out of the 31 were in attendance. They had previously started on  the heads for the project. They were basing the heads on the 'Louise Bourgeois' piece they had chosen.  This week they were going to attach the head to the 'shoulders'.  We made the bases with 2L milk bottles that were half filled with water.  The water in the bottle was it give it some weight to enable them to work with it in an upright position.  There was lots of sticking cutting and pasting and curious questions being asked about my 'funny accent'. One little boy asked me if I was from Northern Ireland.  It was such a pleasure to be among happy kids for a change.    They were all very helpful and eager to get on with the task.  I was also amazed at how they all were so attentive during the demonstrations the artist was giving.  She has a lot of experience working in the schools and it showed.  So much of the work is done before you ever get to the school and I know from experience, if you not prepared when the class comes through the door, you are in trouble.  I learnt that her husband was the guy that gave me my bike lessons a couple of years ago too.   After the big clean up, it was lunch time and I headed home.    I had a great morning and am looking forward to going back next Wednesday to see how the 'heads' dried.  They are going to prime them  and then the real fun begins.. painting them up... I can't wait to see how they turn out.   I wanted to find the image that they saw but wasn't sure which one it was so I am just adding a little clip about some  of Louise Bourgeois work.  I think she was a remarkable woman, considering she was discovered so late and also because she worked up until she died in her late 90's.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I 'm starting tommorow... it's only a day away!

Well as I predicted last year, I was kept very busy up until the Christmas break and even after it.  Thankfully our exhibition went well, despite it being a very last minute effort due to the weather and various other factors.

After we got back for the new term,  I received a call from the lady  I am to be working with this term,  about the school project I am getting involved in.  We both agreed that it would be better if I started the following week as she felt she would have chance to run it by the school again.  So tomorrow I have to drive for about an hour before I arrive, and I have agreed to go in a little early to help her set up.  We are going to be doing papier mache, messy and fun!  So hopefully, tomorrow, I will finally have something to put in my blog about my chosen project.

The children have already selected the project which they chose from looking at various pieces of work from the National Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. They were shown a CD of reproductions  which were created especially for their project.  The class art projects are supposed to be based on their understanding of and responses to the work they chose themselves. 

The idea,  as far as I can see, is that after they make the various projects, the Artists select some of the childrens work, which they exhibit alongside the work from the Museum of Modern Art  at the Wexford Arts Centre at the end of the project.   The children will also have a chance to see their work mounted in their own schools.

I wish they had these projects  in my day! We had chalk and paint and were given an hour a week to do art and the thrill of the day was... we could take it home.!!!  I must dig out my picture I did when I was about 7.. my grandfather was so proud of it he hung it on his wall (upside down) for about 30 years. I eventually got it back when he died.  Funny thing was, I only found out last year, when I saw one on my travels in a exotic garden in France, that it was  a leonotis leonurus plant.

 http://www.healthynewage.com/arbonne.html
I wonder if  my teacher knew?