My IRAP blog by Abegayle Watson

My first blogging prompt

abegaylewatson24 — 2020-09-21 14:41:40 UTC

Schools should promote the arts eduction because it’s very educational and helps with a lot of other subjects too. As an person who has benefited greatly from the arts not just academically but socially as well. It’s important to form bonds in life and doing the arts is a great way to make new friends and meet new people with different talents and interests that may be similar to what you do.
Some values that the arts education has for students today is...

It helps students with there grades
It gets students off there phones
It get them to become more mindful of others and themselves
You learn new ways of doing things in everyday life
You meet some new people

Students can benefit really well from the arts program. They can be
getting better grades because music or any art form uses a lot of your brain to concentrate. It lets students experience new things that aren’t on their phone. You become more mindful and aware that others are around you. You learn how the arts can help you in your everyday life. You can meet new people and learn things from them.

The arts program is a great program and I am so glad to be apart of it.

Street art: Sidewalk chalk art

abegaylewatson24 — 2020-10-01 18:57:41 UTC

Sidewalk chalk art has been around since the 16th century. Italian artists were called the "madonnari". They created chalk drawings of the Madonna. they would travel from town to town and they would earn their living from people that tossed coins as they drew on the ground. Unfortunately this art form began to fade away in the mid 1900s but, fortunately there was a festival in a town in Italy called Grazie di Curtatone that was there to help revive the art form. The festival started in 1972. This festival attracts 200,000+ people a year.
Sidewalk chalk art is a great way to connect with people around your neighbour hood or even in a festival. The festival allows artists to interact with their audience. It allows them to connect and talk about their art in a new way to their audience. Since sidewalk chalk art is very visible and that makes it easier to connect with people because its so out in the open because its just on the ground.
In my opinion I think that sidewalk chalk art is very cool. I am not much of a visual artist but when I see sidewalk chalk art, it makes me want to draw. I love how people can see it without going to a museum. You also get to watch how the art was made and interact better with the artist. I think its a really cool and fun form of street art. Here is a picture of sidewalk chalk art.
Website I used: https://www.art-is-fun.com/sidewalk-chalk-drawings#:~:text=A%20Brief%20History%20of%20Sidewalk%20Chalk%20Drawings&text=In%20the%2016th%20century%2C%20Italian,they%20drew%20on%20the%20ground.
https://pixabay.com/images/search/sidewalk%20chalk%20art/

My reflection of my midterm project

abegaylewatson24 — 2020-10-06 12:48:58 UTC

For our midterm project we did sidewalk chalk art. I am not much of an artist so I thought this was going to be a bit challenging but I was willing to try my best. Some challenges that I faced during this project was finding black chalk. Black chalk is very hard to find so, instead I used purple. Also the general texture of the side walk was hard to draw on. I don't have much experience in sidewalk chalk art so learning how to draw was very hard. Also adding details to your picture.
Like with any art, chalk art takes planning. You need to know what you are doing. Unlike normal drawing you can erase or undo if you mess up. With chalk art it's a little harder to wash away. So, I had to plan out how I was going to do this. So here was my first step..
First we had to come up with a theme as a group. (Halloween was the theme)
Then I had to come up with an halloween idea that would look good. So I decided to draw a pumpkin because pumpkins are simple and you can add things to make it your own. The third step was to then draw it with chalk. I started with the pumpkin made sure it looked good then added the bats. After I made sure it looked good and I was happy with it then I submitted it.
Like most artists it was trying to convey a happy message related to halloween. It was there to brighten peoples days.
Music and art have a lot in common. They are both art forms and they both can create a message to people. They both can help get the message through. The art helped convey that it was about halloween and the music made it easier to relate our art work to make it brighten peoples days.
The arts have helped me through a lot. It started with me playing piano too singing to going back to piano then doing theatre. I never really had a hobby that stuck with me. Until the arts. They have helped me when I was feeling bad about myself to making myself feel better. Most people when they are sad listen to music. Music helps. Music clams the mind and lets you get away from whatever is bothering you. If you find something in the arts to do, do it. It can help greatly with your metal health.

Reflecting the different art disciplines

abegaylewatson24 — 2020-10-19 16:30:22 UTC

Each discipline have one thing in common, they all are used to express emotions and it can tell us a story. In drama it literally tells you a story about what is happening with the characters. The characters job is to covey emotion for whatever the character is supposed to be feeling. Dance does the same thing except it is viewed through movement of the body. When all the disciplines are together they work together to create art work that will get peoples attention. Drama has many principles and elements that make drama drama. It makes it interesting to watch for the audience and it makes the performance come together. Drama and dance share the element of time. In drama you have to know when to say the line or when to come on to stage. When you are dancing you need to make sure that you do the correct move at the right time. In the discipline of the elements of design and dance, they share the element of space. In the elements of design you have to know how much space you want for you design. The space that is white, is that space on your piece of paper. In dance you need to be aware of how much space is around you and how much to use. Principles of design and elements of music share the element of rhythm. Principles of design use rhythm and repetition to help keep the design consistent. Rhythm though mainly used in music, can be seen in visual design as well. This is done when there are spaces between the elements. The element of rhythm in music sets the tempo for the entire song. If it's slow the song will be sad and slow. If it's fast the song will be happy and joyful. There are many more similarities in what each art forms elements but I have just listed a few. All art is beautiful and it makes the world a more colourful and brighter place.

The Secret path

abegaylewatson24 — 2020-10-23 16:56:13 UTC

The secret path is a song by Gord Downie. It is a great piece of music and a great song. It's about the Residential schools and it depicts it really well. The illustration adds to the music. It makes you picture what it must of been like. Through the music you get how he must of felt. Being a kid lost and cold. It gets you to picture everything and makes you think about how powerful the arts truly are. This piece of art work informs us about the events that took place. They show you through different affects like, the colouring. The colours in the video were really dark and almost blue. They depicted what must have been a horrible time for those children. The colours did change though when he was looking back remembering what it was like being with his family. They also did a great job of choosing the types of instruments for this piece. They chose the instrument piano. Which for such a tragic event is perfect since piano is often used in sad songs. The animation style really did show what I think was a good representation to people who are trying to visualize. The animation is kind of like a line drawing. The animation depicted what I think described the feelings of that boy very well. It was simple but neat and caught peoples eyes. In some of the songs that Gord Downie wrote about the residential schools he used different tones for each song. For example "Swing set" had more of an up beat sound to it. It evoked for me sad emotions even though the tune was upbeat because I knew what the song was about and it's sad. Some songs are sad and have a slower tone to them. Like "The Secret Path". That song was meant to be sad. It evoked empathy for those people who were affected by this. My overall opinion of this piece is that it does the First Nations people justice that now their story is being told especially Chanie. The music and the art work was incredible and I think everyone should listen and hear about what happened to a little boy named Chanie.

Design thinking

abegaylewatson24 — 2020-11-03 17:29:33 UTC

Design thinking is a great of of thinking to do work or anything really. When you think about it almost everyone has used design thinking is some project that they have done. Wether it is work related or school related or neither. For me personally I think that I will use this concept through out my life. For example, when I have to come up with an idea for my company that I work for or even in older grades in high school. I think this because in school you are constantly coming up with ways to make things better for yourself and others. This type of work helps with working with people and it introduces a new way of looking at problems. It also makes the fear of judgement less. It makes people who you wouldn't think to be creative, creative. Everyone has the power to be creative but its just the fear of judgment that stops us. This is a great way of thinking. Everyone can be creative even if you don't think you can.

Catholic Social teachings

abegaylewatson24 — 2022-01-14 14:11:02 UTC

The arts can affect change by everyone creating pieces about certain social issues and or policies. Art can also be a way to motivate others to create change in our communities. For example, in England they have a sculpture made out of glass called "Invisible Homeless" by Luke Jerram and a homeless charity. The glass sculpture is resting on a cardboard box to represent how often homeless people are ignored or forgotten about. This calls upon two of the social catholic teachings. Preferential Option for the Poor and Participation. People who need help should be able to get it and not be ignored. Everyone should have the opportunity to participate in society and not be left out of important decisions about communities. Art can help create emotions and empathy for those forgotten or those who are in need. Art has the power to change people's perspectives about the world. Art can bring big change.

The role of faith in my life

abegaylewatson24 — 2022-01-24 18:50:39 UTC

For me faith has been apart of my life since I was young. My parents have brought me to church since I was six and I have had my first communion and confirmation. Having faith is something that I have had since I was younger. Although at times even now I definitely do question certain things about my faith. It's hard as you get older to keep up with the church when you have so many things telling you that you are wrong. Although my faith has changed over the years, faith still plays and important part of my life. When I am going through something knowing that God is there often calms me down. I like knowing that no matter what I will always have someone by my side. Having faith makes it easier to live. Knowing that there is more out there than you might think.

Reflection of Tales from the Heart

abegaylewatson24 — 2024-06-02 18:36:52 UTC

The guest speaker that I had gone to see Madison Tevlin. I had actually seen her before on social media and I was very inspired by her story. She told her story through the arts and things that she likes to do. The challenges that she faces on;y make her stronger and she is an inspiration to everyone who watches her. I loved hearing her speak!