Abstraction

Posted on January 28, 2011 by randomyriad

Abstraction is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can clarify in paint. . . I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way– things I had words for.— Georgia O’Keeffe


I want to think some wordless thoughts today. There is a joy I find in pure images, even the frightening or grotesque, that I cannot reach with words. Words are only one way to communicate, and often I often break and mangle the thoughts and ideas as I try to force them into word boxes that are unable to hold them.

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Suspended Spirals

Posted on January 27, 2011 by randomyriad

We went on a walk to find sculptures yesterday.

We found this hanging around

and a large space underneath to draw what we saw.

We drew some pictures and went back to our class to play some more

Posted in capturing light, Check this out, my museum of inspiration, Teaching and Learning, working world | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Working Hands

Posted on January 26, 2011 by randomyriad


A child works fingers

like keys in the lock tight on the box

that contains the treasure of a world

that can’t be seen or heard

or even tasted

only felt and squeezed

until it releases its mysteries

drop by precious drop.

Posted in capturing light, poetry, Teaching and Learning, working world | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Violent Dreamers

Posted on January 25, 2011 by randomyriad
Affiche A3 : INCEPTION movie

I just saw Inception last night. It was well written, well acted, and thoroughly engaging, but there was one thing that kept nagging at me. Why all the guns and explosives. Are dreams really like this? It was more like they where in a movie in which the characters in the movie were controlling the movie. My dreams are every now and then violent, but for the most part the violence in my dream comes from ideas that do not fit together. It is subtle and, by the time I wake up, elusive. Blockbuster movies are not elusive or subtle by definition. They are immediately recognizable. They blow up and sizzle. I liked this movie but it did not contain the subtlety of dreams. Dreams are so individual and so out of our waking mind’s normal paths that no one would make a movie based on actual dreams and expect to have it reach a wide audience. My dreams do not normally contain guns, explosions, or violent mobs intent on destruction. And, where was sensuality in all this. Maybe violent people dream this way, I know I don’t.

Posted in Check this out, Dreamtime, mindworks, Questions and riddles, thinking in words | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What Sky Will We Reach For This Week?

Posted on January 24, 2011 by randomyriad

No one shows a child the sky– African Proverb

 

Another long work week begins, and I begin with this idea. I will not try to show children the sky, but give them lots of opportunities to look up and see. If they are looking down a lot I hope they learn a lot about the ground. Either way I will be there to help them if, with all this up and down looking, they are not looking where they are going, and they move along at pretty fast speeds sometimes. I will pick them up and help them deal with the small injuries and send them back out to look for whatever inspires them.

Every week I have my ideas about what we are going to look at based on their ideas last week, but I know by the end of today, I will have thrown most of my ideas out the window, because they will come in all afire with new ones. Their fire will catch, and off we will go into another week of finding out what our sky is and how high we can go in it.

Posted in All part of the process, discovery and recovery, my life, paying attention, Teaching and Learning, thinking in words, working world | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment