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I wonder what happens when paint encounters with paper.

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I wonder what happens when paint encounters with paper.

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My materials are paint and paper.
The artistic language I am using to respond to this is visual art.
My artefact outcome is 'My blooming flower garden'.

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I wonder what happens when paint encounters with paper.

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I wonder what happens when paint encounters with paper.

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My materials are paint and paper.
The artistic language I am using to respond to this is visual art.
My artefact outcome is 'A leaf turning yellow'.

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My first thought when it came to paint and paper was to paint on a white paper sheet. However, this is what we always do with paint and paper, so I wanted to do something different. I thought about the types of these materials. There are a variety of paper types, such as cardboard, tissue paper, watercolor paper, foil paper, etc. So, what if I change the type of paper? I looked around and what was already available in my house was tissue paper.

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When I painted on the tissue, its texture and pattern was different from normal paper, which I was really interested in. The pattern reminded me of something in the nature, then I realized it looked like leaves. Therefore, I tried cutting the tissue into the shape of a leaf.
When I first painted on the tissue, I used too much paint, so the tissue was too wet and the pattern disappeared.

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Hence, I just applied a little amount of paint on the tissue and painted gradually. The result looked great, but it was still missing something.

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There were still some gaps on the tissue, so I thought ‘what is another color of leaves?’ Yellow! So I used some yellow paint and dabbed on the gaps. It turned out so beautiful, like the green and yellow were on the process of blending into each other.
The leave looked like it was turning old from green into yellow, which was an amazing demonstration of changes in a leaf’s life cycle.

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This journal is an inquiry into to concept of 'encounter'. To be specific, it is going to explore what happens when paint encounters with other materials using creative arts. The exploration is carried out with six creative processes where paint is used with other materials (paper, light, and natural materials) to create visual artworks. Through these creative processes, the encounter of paint with other materials, how they impact each other, the characteristics of each material will be carefully observed. Moreover,  how I encounter with the materials, and how I am influenced by these materials and encounters will also be recorded.

Each creative process will focus on the concept of encounter where paint interact with one other material. It will show how creative arts can connect different materials to create wonderful artworks. Moreover, this inquiry may be effectively implicated in Early Childhood Education.

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‘How we think about materials shapes what is possible to do with them’ (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher 2016, p. 13). If we just think of paper as a normal white paper sheet, what we can do with paper will be limited. I learned that before using a material, we should try to encounter with it and understand it. One way to ‘think with’ and encounter with a material is to encounter with its different types. A material may come in various types. For example, paper does not only mean the conventional white paper sheet, but it also comes in tissue paper, foil paper, watercolor paper, or even cardboard, etc. I also learned that when paint encounters tissue paper, it will soak in more easily compared to normal paper.

Besides, encountering with a material also means exposing it with the material that it is not usually used with. ‘Part of what art does is ask us to attend to things. It draws our attention, often to new things, or to older things said or presented in new ways (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher 2016, p. 16). For example, in ‘inquiry 1’, tissue paper and paint are ‘old’ materials, but I make them encounter and used them together in a ‘new’ way. By doing this, I learned more about these materials, and created such a unique and beautiful piece of art.

Another encounter happened in the experience was the two colors. When green was painted alone on the leave, the leave looked monotonous. However, when yellow came in and the two colours encountered, the leave was brought to life. The art work then could depict a lively leave and its changing in the life cycle.

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This inquiry can be implied in Early Childhood Education in a group time activity. Children are shown tissue paper with different patterns, then invited to express what the patterns look like. They are then free to choose what to draw or paint on the tissue based on their thinking and imagination. Scissors are also used for children to cut tissue into their preferred shapes. The type of tissue should be thicker than the one I used in my experience, so that it is easier for children to cut and paint. The children also get to mix different paint color with each other to create new color.

This kind of activity would enhance children’s knowledge about patterns and color mixing. Motor skills are also developed through cutting and painting. Moreover, they are able to improve their confidence and independence by being offered the freedom to express their ideas, and follow their personal preferences. Arts can depict a person’s thoughts and identity. Hence, children’s sense of identity also develop, because they can express their opinions through their paintings without any intervention.

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I challenged myself again by creating the encounter between paint and paper a second time. While in the last time I changed the type of paper, this time I decided to change the drawing tool. 'What if I use paper to draw on paper?' - such an interesting idea. I curled a piece of paper to create a pen shape and dip the tip into paint to draw. However, a brush could do the same job. So, I sat for a while to explore paper and see what it could do. I learned that I could fold paper into a ball. I tried dipping this ball into paint and dab it on paper.

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I tried dabbing paint all over the paper with the paper ball, and this seemed to me like many flowers. 'How can I make it look more like flowers? How can I make the painting look more real?', I asked myself.

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I added in some bright yellow using the same tenique for more color variety. I thought it was still missing something, then realized that the flowers needed some green stems.
I could not draw stems with the paper ball. Luckily, I figured out that I could make use of the paper pen that I made before, and created this beautiful flower garden.

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We have wondered 'what to do with paper?' so many times when it comes to creating an art work, but have we ever asked the question 'what can paper do?'? As Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind and Kocher (2016) asked, 'What if we pay attention to the effects of things and to how things move together, not asking what an object or a thing or a material is, but what does a material do?' (p. 13). By encountering and moving with paper, I learned that paper could be curled into a pen and crumpled into a ball. As Ingold stated, working with paper means moving with it in continuous motion, and never quite knowing where we will end up (2013). And I ended up using paper as a painting tool in my inquiry.

'An encounter is interested in the new— new ways of perceiving and acting with and in the world, unexpected relations, transversal connections... New is what might emerge unexpectedly in an encounter. New means meeting, always for the first time, even if the “meeters” have met a hundred times, in spaces of difference (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher 2016, p. 44). Paper and paint have encountered with each other so many times, and become an inseparable pair of material. However, their encounter in this inquiry is 'new', since paper encounters with paint not only as a surface, but also as a tool. I have discovered such a new and creative way to interact with paint and paper from this experience.

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In the Early Childhood Education setting, this experience can be applied as a peer activity. Children sit in group of two, and paint and paper are provided for each pair without any brush. The teacher shows children that they can play around with small pieces of paper to create their own painting tools. Children are able to create any shapes they want, and paint anything based on their ideas.
This activity offers children an opportunity to explore and encounter paper on a deeper level, hence increases their creativity and imagination, and encourages them to think out of the box. In other words, when children understand more about paper, they will have more ideas about what to create with paper, rather than just draw on it surface.
Moreover, thanks to discussion with peer in this activity, children can also enhance their communication and teamwork skills.

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I wonder what happens when paint encounters with fabric.

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I wonder what happens when paint encounters with fabric.

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My materials are paint and fabric.
The artistic language I am using to respond to this is visual art.
My artefact outcome is 'I wear who I am'.

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When I was washing my paint pallette, the paint was dripping down the sink. I started to notice the form of paint, which is liquid. 'If it is liquid, it must be fun to put it on an absorbent material', I thought. So I wanted to see the encounter between paint and fabric. I found in my closet an old white T-shirt, which was perfect to be painted on!

Because I wanted to feel the paint absorbing through the fabric, I used my bare hands to paint, which was such an amazing experience! Firstly, I thought I would put my fingerprints on it to create something that connected to my identity. However, because fingerprints would be too small for such a big shirt, I wondered what if I put my whole hand on it? I wanted to use my handprints to express myself, and I wanted them to be colourful. I am full of feelings and emotions, and full of life.

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The T-shirt looked amazing, but still quite plain. So, I came back to my first idea of using my finger prints to create something. 'What else do I want to express about myself?', I wondered. Love, I am full of love - love for all the people and animals around me! Therefore, I used my finger prints to draw hearts all over my T-shirt, which turned out to be so unique and beautiful!

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The most interesting encounter in this inquiry is between me and paint. After painting the T-shirt, I realized that was the first time I have ever put my whole hand in paint. It was fantastic being able to feel the liquid paint in my hands, to encounter directly with it, and to 'touch' it. 'To touch is always to touch something, someone. I touch not by accident, but with a determination to feel you, to reach you, to be affected by you' (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher 2016, p. 46). With paints on my hands, I felt like I were a professional artist, and had a strange desire to create art with my bare hands.

Besides, the encounter between paint and fabric in this experience is significantly meaningful to me. 'Materials can evoke memories, narrate stories, invite actions, and communicate ideas' (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher 2016, p. 10). Through this inquiry, I learned that when paint interacted with fabric, it created the art that helped me communicate and express my identity. Wearing the T-shirt, I feel like people can understand me more, and I am more able to express myself to the world.

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Early Childhood Teachers can apply this activity to their children. To make this activity more personal and meaningful, the teacher can ask children to bring a plain T-shirt of theirs to class. Children are encouraged to mix different colours together, and to use their bare hands to decorate their T-shirts. At the end of the activity, each child will show their T-shirt to their peers and explain what the drawing means.

This activity provides children with a great opportunity to experience the encounter between paint and fabric, which they do not usually see in the kindergarten or in their daily life. They also get to gain a deeper understanding about paint, to touch and explore paint in a 'new' way, which enhances children's creativity. Children also become more creative because they get to think of different ideas for their T-shirt painting.
Moreover, children's understanding and expression of self and identity will be improved, since they are able to tell stories about themselves on their clothing, and explained to their peers. Also, the act of discussing their products with peers helps increase their confidence, socialization, communication.

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I wonder what happens when paint encounters with natural materials.

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I wonder what happens when paint encounters with natural materials.

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My materials are paint and gumnuts.
The artistic language I am using to respond to this is visual art.
My artefact outcome is 'A beautiful caterpillar'.

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As I was walking in a park near where I live, I found some cute little gumnuts. As I encountered with them, I figured out they make some fun noise when clashing into each other. I also could stack them up, and they would not fall because the stem would hold them together. I was intrigued by this shape, and realized that it looked like a worm. However, this would be a very sad worm with all brown colour. What if it encounter some colours?
Because they were all brown, I wondered what they would look like if I added some colours to them.

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When paint was applied on the gumnut, the colour was not as vibrant as it would be on paper. This might be because the gumnut has a rough skin, which also absorbed some of the paint. So I learned that I needed to paint two layers to get a vibrant effect.

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I learned that with rough surface like gumnut skin, it was imppossible to create a smooth and full coverage paint layer like with paper.
I coloured each gumnut with a different colour, and attached them together to create a colourful worm. It was at this moment that I thought it should not be called a worm. When it was all brown, it looked like a worm, but now it looked more like a caterpillar. So, I decided to call this a caterpillar! One interesting thing was that I could change the gumnuts' positions in order to change the caterpillar's colous.

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In this inquiry, my encounter with the gumnuts was the process of not only meeting the material, but also 'dwelling' with it. 'The idea of dwelling takes into account processes of working with materials and not just doing something to them, and of being part of the emergence processes of bringing something into being (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher 2016, p. 18). Taking time and effort to understand gumnuts, I could learn about what gumnuts can do, like creating sounds, stacking up, or absorbing water-based paint. Hence, I could bring gumnuts 'into being', from gumnuts into a lively caterpillar.

Before I carried out the experience, I did not expect to learn anything new from the encounter of paint and gumnuts. However, I tried to stay focused and look for new things to explore. When paint encountered with gumnuts, I was intrigued by the fact that it was absorded by the gumnuts surface. Moreover, I was also interested to learn about how paint did not appear to be vibrant on the gumnuts' rough surface. Like Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind and Kocher said, 'Instead of planning or expecting, an encounter looks for the not yet known. It is marked by a sense of not knowing , of hopeful waiting. A material is not defined by what I know about it. Things could always become other things (2016, p. 44).

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This experience would be an interesting and effective activity to be carried out in Early Childhood Education. Children can start this activity by taking a walk with their teacher in the playard or a park in order to connect with place and the nature. After that, in the classroom, children will work in small groups and paint the gumnuts. The teacher may show some simple patterns to decorate the gumnuts, such as polka dots, chevron, or zig zag. In a group, each child will paint one gumnuts in the way they want. The artwork of all the childen will then be combined into a caterpillar.
This activity encourage the children to connect with place and the nature by being exposed to the outside environment and natural materials. Besides, this is such a great opportunities for children to learn about patterns. They can also improve their creativity with painting and dectorating. Especially, children can also gin understanding about respecting diversity. Although each child draw their gumnut in a different way, every gumnut is a unique indispensable part of the piece of art. Similarly, although we are different from each other, every one of us is beautiful and worthy.

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I wonder what happens when paint encounters light. 

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I wonder what happens when paint encounters light. 

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My materials are paint and light.
The artistic language I am using to respond to this is collage.
My artefact outcome is 'My sunny house'.

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The light I want to use in this inquiry is natural sunlight. It was a beautiful sunny day. As I was looking out the window from my room, I noticed that the sunlight was shining through the curtain. I wondered, 'what else does it shine through?'. So, I held up a piece of square sticky note paper on my table, and I could see the sun shining through it. 'What if I paint on the paper? Would the sun still shine through both the paper and the paint?'. I painted the paper yellow, and it looked beautiful when put under the sun.
As the paper was too plain, I wanted to add something. I noticed that the paper was a square, and thought it would be interesting if I create an artwork with just geometric shapes.

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After that, I made a purple rectangle. It started to look like a room with a door to me. I thought a triangle would make a wonder roof for the room, so I cut a paper into a triangle shape to add in. It was interesting to me how it was easier for the sunlight to get through one layer of paper compared to two layers.
I also wanted to add in another shape. Maybe a circle, I thought. So, I just make a paper circle and put it next to the house. It was like a tree in front of the house. I tried painting it green, and it actually looked like a tree. So, I made a thin and long rectangle to be the body of the tree.

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Unfortunately, I did not have the colour brown in my pallette. I did some online research, and learned to make brown by mixing blue, yellow and red. I learned about this when I was young, but I did not remeber. This actually reminded me of how to mix the colour brown from basic colours.

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Because I noticed the difference in the translucence level of one and two paper layers, for each piece of shape, I wanted to leave some part lying on their own and some part encountering with other shapes. Because we can see throught paper and paint with sunlight, I was able to see the encounter of two layers of different colours. It was also amazing to see how the bright sunlight brightened up the colours. This collage technique created such an interesting piece of art to look at under the sunlight.

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'There was a misconception in the understanding of children under the age of 10 so they experienced confusion and assumed that light was a lamp and some other electronic objects such as televisions, LCDs and other artificial light sources' (Mahshulah, Syaodih & Rachmawati 2020, p. 787). Light can also be sunlight, natural light. Therefore, in this inquiry, I would like to explore the natural light that we encounter on a daily basis but rarely pay attention to.

'There is no one of a place or something that is not touched by the light. Characteristics of light are that light is flowing, light is emitted to a distant and infinite place' (Mahshulah, Syaodih & Rachmawati 2020, p. 787). Light encounters with almost every kinds of materials on Earth. In this experience, light encountered with both paper and paint, and could shine throught both of the materials. I learned that when interacting with paint and paper, sunlight travelled through their surfaces. In return, when encountering with light, paper and paint become more translucent and brighter in colour.

'An encounter is interested in the new— new ways of perceiving and acting with and in the world, unexpected relations, transversal connections. New does not necessarily mean original. It is not an obsession with the novel. New is what might emerge unexpectedly in an encounter' (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher 2016, p. 44). An unexpected encounter in this inquiry was one among the different colours I used to create brown. Blue, yellow and red met each other, blended in and created a new color - brown.

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It is necessary to provide an understanding of the concept of light correctly in the early age of the child so that it will not cause misconceptions until they became adult (Mahshulah, Syaodih & Rachmawati 2020, p. 785). Teachers can help their children gain knowledge about natural sunlight with activities based on this inquiry.
Reggio Emilia method, where the priority meaning of learning  is as a process of thinking, socializing, proving theory, experimenting, imagining, would be an ideal approach for children to explore light. Teachers can invite children to work in group, cut paper into different geometric shapes that they like and colour them. Children could work with their group mates in a free and creative way, then stick their artwork on a door or window glass that has direct sunlight. Children in a group work together using the collage technique to stick their pieces of paper on the glass in a way that creates an artwork that is beautiful and meaningful to them under the sunlight. It is important that the children can freely explore the materials hardly any intervention or instruction from their teacher.
This activity is a great opportunity for children to gain understanding about sunlight and what it can do to other materials, math (geometric shapes), and the tecnique of photo collage. Moreover, they will have the opportunity to enhance their teamwork, socialzation and communication skills through group time. Their creativity and imagination will also develop thanks to their freedom to explore the materials.

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I wonder what happens when paint encounters with light.

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I wonder what happens when paint encounters with light.

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My materials are paint and light.
The artistic language I am using to respond to this is visual art.
My artefact outcome is 'Twinkle twinle little stars'.

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In the last inquiry with light, I explored narural light, so this experience is about artifitial light. I have a beautyful string light, so I decided to create something with it. I wanted to see if this light can shine through paint. In order to have a clear observation, I thought it would be best to paint color on something thin and translucent. I looked around and found a plastic container. When I tried putting the string light in, it looked so beatiful and magical.

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I tried drawing a heart on the container, and I was amazed by how beautiful the paint look with the light. The paint was lightened up, and became shiny. I did not think a heart would be the best option for this. I thought stars would be better with the shiny effects of the light. Twinkle stars.

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So, I erase the heart, and I used a brush to paint some stars on the container. However, because my brush was too big, it was difficult for me to draw small stars, and they ended up looking like flowers.

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I needed something to fix them. I finally found a marker with a tin point. I tried outlining the stars with the marker, and the result was amazing. The marker saved my stars! It even made the stars look more vibrant.

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The stars looked beatiful, but in general the container looked too plain for me. I thought, 'What do the stars encounter with?'. 'The sky, the clouds', I answered. So I drew some blue clouds to fill in the gaps. The encounter of the stars and the clouds created such a magnifying picture!

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When I turned the light on, the artwork looked like a beautiful night sky with twinkle little stars. The way the light encountered with the paint, shined through it and brightened it made the piece of art look more hypnotizing.

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'An encounter is interested in the new— new ways of perceiving and acting with and in the world, unexpected relations, transversal connections... New is what might emerge unexpectedly in an encounter. New means meeting, always for the first time, even if the “meeters” have met a hundred times, in spaces of difference' (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher 2016, p. 44). In this inquiry, I was amazed by how paint encountered with light through plastic. Although I have seen paint under the light many times, but this encounter with the dim yellow string light and the yellow paint was something 'new' and different to me. The light brightened up the paint, shined through the paint layer, and made it look so much more lively and shiny.

'We think about an encounter as a moment of meeting, where things and forces and human and nonhuman beings come together in spaces of difference. In this meeting we decide how to respond— whether to follow, join with, intervene, provoke, perhaps work against (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher 2016, p. 42). When the light and paint encountered with the heart I drew at the beginning of the experience, I reponded by not following. I felt like the heart was not suitable for this 'meeting' or encounter, hence tried changing it into stars.

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This experience would be an interesting and effective activity to be carried out in Early Childhood Education. Teachers can invite their children to create a lamp that they can turn on at night in their rooms. Each child will be provided with a translucent plastic glass container, paint, and a light string. Teachers my invite children to put their light string in the container, and tell their peers what they think of looking at the object. Children are then invited to draw their thoughts and imagination on the container. When they finish, the teacher will turn of all the light in the room, invite children to turn on their string lights in the container and observe how their painting look through the light.

Such activity will allow children to explore the encounter with paint and light, and provide them with the opportunities to observe carefully how the materials impact each other.
Moreover, children also can improve their confidence and communication skills by expressing their ideas with friends.
Children can, besides, practice their imagination what the light depicts, and their creativity by exploring different materials.

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This inquiry into the concept of encounter has indicated how powerful 'encounter' is in creative arts, as well as in Early Childhood Education. Although we are seeing these materials every day, it still makes us question ourselves: 'Do I really know them?'. Our creativity are limited by how much we understand materials In order to be more creative, we need to 'encounter' with the materials, and observe how the materials 'encounter' with each other. In other words, we need to think with materials, try to understand not what they are, but what they are capable of doing. In Early Childhood Education, creating opportunities for children to learn deeply about materials would help enhance their ability to think out of the box and be creative.