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Fortunately, I have a firepit in my backyard. To acknowledge that I was actually going to rifle through my firepit for charcoal already gave me a sense of exploration and openness due to this not being something I would do organically in the past.

This would be considered the "To Meet" part of my encounter by Pacini-Ketchabaw and colleagues (2016) because as I observed the charcoal, I had no idea what I would do with it, all I knew is that I had charcoal in my hand and endless possibilities.

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By it being my first encounter with Charcoal in a very long time, I began my exploration with getting a feel for the charcoal in my hands and on my skin. I was challenged by this as I am usually a person who likes things clean and by exposing myself to the charcoal I felt as if the charcoal was gesturing that to interact with it or even to honour it, I had to get my hands dirty. It was once I started "To Touch" the charcoal on my hands, that I understood what it meant to “gesture” (Pacini-Ketchabaw, et al., 2016, p. 37) to the charcoal, to allow it to affect me.

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To Attend- Getting into a flow of exploring

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To Attend- Getting into a flow of exploring

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I began to get curious about how charcoal would express itself when under different conditions. I started to use charcoal with water, paper, cardboard and also applied different styles of using the charcoal; crushing, drawing, dragging and smudging. By focusing on the charcoal and the process of attending to it, I grew more curious about what it could do (Pacini-Ketchabaw, et al., 2016.).

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Usually when doing something related to art I am a bit of a perfectionist and am looking for an end product. However, with this encounter I found that I was more focused on exploring different ways to use the Charcoal. To not care that my hands were blackened but to enjoy the spontaneity of that moment and to continue my experimenting. It could be considered that this particular process was me opening up to charcoal and the opportunities it brings (Pacini-Ketchabaw, et al., 2016).

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I have struggled in the past with getting into artistic hobbies due to my need for perfection in my work but through this encounter I have found myself being an active engager in the process of experimenting with charcoal. I chose, as Pelo and Colleagues (2016 p. 42) would call it, "to respond" to the charcoal with mindfulness; I am only thinking about what I want to do with the charcoal, not the responsibilities of the mess after the activity.

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By taking a more experimental approach with the charcoal, I wasn't following a certain set of instructions or rules. My mind wasn't asking "what is the next step?"; it was asking "what else can I do with charcoal?" "what if I add cold water? hot water? use my hands? This opened me up to a lot more possibilities.

Taking this risk in creativity led to me having my own unique encounter and also gave me time to reflect on the properties of charcoal (Topal & Gandini, 1999).

An example of this is when I was trying to crush one piece of charcoal, it was a lot harder while another piece about the same size crumbled quite easily. This made me troubleshoot why this was the case and ways I could break the harder piece down.

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An aspect that I did not anticipate was how much fun I would experience through interacting with Charcoal. As Pelo (2016) expressed, when working with hands or fingerpainting, I felt like I could embrace my senses while exploring, this was enhanced when the encounter got messy. By using my hands and getting a little unclean, I was able to rediscover the texture of charcoal and how it feels against, on and in other substances such as water, paper and my hand.

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Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S., & Kocher, L. L. M. (2016). Encounters with materials in early childhood education. Taylor & Francis Group.

Pelo, A. (2016). The language of art : Inquiry-based studio practices in early childhood settings. Redleaf Press.

Topal, C. W., & Gandini, L. (1999). Connections. Beautiful stuff: Learning with found materials (pp. 49-66). Davis Publications.