2013 STAR-Post (Art) #2

STAR POST (ART) Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts Issue #2, April 2013

www.star.moe.edu.sg

HIGHLIGHTS a:edge,

our second annual art teachers’ exhibition featuring artworks of 33 art educators, came to a close on 24 Mar 2013.

The show was well-received - we had on average more than 100 visitors each day! The team is encouraged by the positive feedback and interest generated from the exhibition and we’re already looking forward to another exciting round of exhibition next year!

On 23 Mar, HR’s recruitment drive was held in SOTA premises. Potential art teachers were glad to know that there are platforms available for art educators to continue their artistic pursuits. The recruitment drive was also a success with 83% of the 95 attendees indicating interest to be recruited as art educators.

On 23 Mar, curators Susie Lingham & Lim Kok Boon also gave a talk about the curatorial concept of a:edge. Lesson ideas stemming from some exhibits were also discussed during this talk. For more lesson ideas based on artworks in a:edge, follow this link: http://library.opal.moe.edu.sg/cos/o.x?ptid=84&c=/library/r eslib&func=prop2&id=233876

January

Visual Storytelling – an Art Lesson Idea contributed by Mr Tan Siang Yu, Hwa Chong Institution

For centuries, people narrate stories to pass on important lessons or information about life. With the invention of film, storytelling has become an increasingly visual process. A filmmaker would usually show his/her audience rather than tell them what the story is about. Here are some related activities to scaffold students to produce a short film of their own.

After watching ‘Playback’ (3 min short film, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQhZF170fLc) and ‘Up’ (Pixar animation, silent montage sequence in the beginning), discuss the methods engaged by the filmmakers to communicate their ideas without using words.

Craft a few themes such as ‘A Hot Day in School’ and ‘A Lost Wallet’;; have students brainstorm what visual imageries can be used to describe these themes. In their scripts, students will write out a simple narrative. However, they should bear in mind the visuals they need to capture to imply the mood and contexts of their stories. Using a storyboarding template, students will illustrate a series of images to bring out their narratives. A series of images such as a shot of the blazing sun followed by perspiration on the skin can be used to describe just how hot the day is. A sequence with a scene of a misplaced wallet juxtapose with another scene at a different location depicting its frantic owner sets the stage for a story.

As filmmaking can be time-consuming, enabling constraints such as restricting the film to be made out of only 8 shots to be edited into one sequence can help students move along in their projects.

Simple editing software like iMovie and Windows Movies Maker can be used for a start.

Thank you Mr Tan for your generous sharing. ‘Playback’ was recently screened at a:edge and more details on this lesson idea can be found in OPAL via this link: http://library.opal.moe.edu.sg/cos/o.x?ptid=84&c=/library/reslib&func=prop2&id=233876

Thanks

Have an interesting lesson idea you would like to share with fellow art colleagues through STARPOST? Email to grace_kwa@moe.gov.sg for more details.

Page 2

HIGHLIGHTS FROM STAR CHAMPIONS WORKSHOP 1 Each year, STAR works closely with about 100 primary school teachers to enhance the quality of art and music education in schools. These teachers, who advocate a teacher-led and collaborative culture within the arts fraternity by sharing best practices with fellow art colleagues are known as STAR Champions.

For Art this year, the workshops are focusing on student-centred, studio-based and contextsensitive approaches to art education. The first day of Workshop 1 brought the 50 Art STAR Champions through the use of visual journals to explore and develop ideas and processes. They were also introduced to some effective strategies for art discussion with a hands-on session in the galleries at Gillman Barracks.

On the second day, participants had an immersive experience of artmaking, participating in one of the three different mini-workshops: Digital Art, Fabric-based Art and Printmaking. The miniworkshops allowed participants to enhance their skills in a chosen area while reflecting on how these skills garnered can be applicable in their own classroom teaching.

Digital Art Using only shapes in PowerPoint, participants explored the possible ways to create their own version of ‘Angry Bird’ through juxtaposition, overlapping, rotation and scaling of shapes. They later went on to create their own cartoon characters that depict certain characteristics, e.g. Grouchy Panda, Sleepy Bear etc. In another activity, participants used typography to create selected animals from the Chinese Horoscope. The task required participants to simplify the animals they had in mind while retaining the animals’ overall essence and replacing various parts with different alphabets of diverse sizes and fonts.

Page 3

Printmaking

HIGHLIGHTS FROM STAR CHAMPIONS WORKSHOP 1 (CON’T)

In this short printmaking workshop, participants explored the potential of monoprints by using various tools to scratch paint out of the printing plates as well as inking on flat objects like leaves and table doilies to produce collage-like prints. The same printing plate would also be reused a second to third time to achieve the faded quality seen in subsequent prints.

Other techniques such as relief printing using compressed foam boards and silkscreen printing with stencils cut out from transparency sheets were also used.

Fabric-based Art Using fabric for exploration, participants created whimsical collages and fascinating sculptures out of this commonplace medium. After an introduction to a variety of techniques such as layering, knotting, weaving, wrapping and draping, participants proceeded with their creations. In the first activity, the instructor shared a fantasy story about a mountain creature to contextualize the art task. Participants then fashioned their own vision of this creature using fabric scraps of different textures and patterns onto their old T-shirt. Not only do they think about their creatures’ physical attributes, they also attempted to bring out their personality traits (e.g. shy, aggressive etc) in this exercise.

In the second activity, another material – cardboard, was introduced. In groups of 3-4, participants created another mythical creature in 3D form, at least a meter in width.

Participants mostly made use of the sturdy cardboards to create their creatures’ overall frame while using the flexible nature of fabric to create texture and details.

Page 4

ANNOUNCEMENTS March - April

Page 5

REFERENCE BOOKS

Vitamin P2: New Perspectives in Painting Available at Lee Kong Chian Reference Library English 759.07 VIT

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

By Andrew Bolton Available for loan at a few NLB branches

Doodles Unleashed: Mixed-media Techniques for Doodling, Markmaking & Lettering

By Traci Bautista Available for loan at a few NLB branches

Fashion Illustration: Inspiration and Technique

By Anna Kiper Available for loan at a few NLB branches

Expressive Drawing: A Practical Guide to Freeing the Artist Within

By Steven Aimone

Drawn In: A Peek into the Inspiring Sketchbooks of 44 Fine Artists, Illustrators, Graphic Designers, and Cartoonists

By Julia Rothman Available for loan at a few NLB branches

Papercraft 2: Design and Art with Paper Edited by Robert Klanten and Birga Meyer Available for loan at a few NLB branches Available for loan at a few NLB branches

Print Workshop: Hand-printing Techniques and Truly Original Projects

By Christine Schmidt Available for loan at a few NLB branches

New World Order: Contemporary Installation Art and Photography from China Curated by Mark Wilson Available at Lee Kong Chian Reference Library , English 709.51090511 NEW

With graduating students working on their ‘O’/’N’ level coursework now, here are some reference books that are visually Unmonumental: the The Collectors Show: stimulating and may Object in the 21st Weight of History inspire them in their Century Exhibition catalogue ideation and artEssays by Richard available at SAM making exploration.

Flood Most books are Available at Lee Kong readily available at Chian Reference Library English 730.973 UNM NLB or can be purchased at major bookstores.

Page 7