Art - Catch 40 Winks

What about art from Singapore Art Museum?

September 13, 2011 · By Rachel ·

"Come and look Mummy, look what I created."

I followed him to the living area and saw this,

"Is this known as 'Mess on the floor'?" I asked him.

"No…It is a creation from long time ago, you are not suppose to touch it. Afterwards the people at the counter will scold you."

Then he added, "This is a creation at the museum and I am the artist, only I can touch it."

At least he has learnt the concept of installation art from the Singapore Art Museum. For a while I was starting to think that the only memorable thing that made any significant impact on him from our visits to the museum, is that people are not suppose touch most of the displays in the museum.

Having displays that children cannot touch at a children's exhibition is like putting a piece of cheese next to a mouse and expecting the mouse not to eat it. Maybe it might be better if they hire someone who has early childhood development background to plan the children's programme, and then save the money/effort on hiring people who will bark at the kids when their little hands reach towards the display.

It's interesting how a not so positive norm like, 'See but not touch' will be so memorable for a child. It's just like how negative experiences tend to be a lot more memorable for some us rather than the positive ones.

We are still light years behind for our local art exhibits for children. There were some improvement from the recent 'Children's Season' at SAM but until the day that they totally remove exhibits with the 'See but not touch' element, then it will be taken off my list of "Only if you ran out of places to go to in Singapore with your kids."

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We are learning Art!

September 5, 2011 · By Rachel ·

Most of us are used to the idea that we need to attend lessons to pick up a skill. Maybe it's in our culture or a mindset, that we can only learn from an expert or someone who is trained formally in that skill.

Ever since I became a full time mom, the mindset has changed and I have proven to myself that it is possible to pick up a skill without formalised lessons. I have taught myself cooking and sewing all through recipes and the sewing tutorials available from the internet.

This time, I am taking on another challenge. Teaching Kyle art, while also learning art at the same time. I took art for my O levels, but had very little interest in Still Art, which to me, was the dullest technique that I have learnt through through an art education. Maybe I am just bias towards classical art, or simply have little interest towards it.

It would have been a totally different story, if I read children art books from Laurence Anholt, Katie Series of books from James Mayhew; exploring artists from the Italian Renaissance to Post-Impressionism. Classic art appreciation did not quite happen for me until I became a young adult. Even till today, my preference for art strays far away from classical art, looking at my choice of art prints around the house.

To get our art journey started. I got a couple of children's books with the theme of encouraging creativity in art.

Top L-R The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, Ish by Peter H. Reynolds, The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola, The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg, Not a Box by Antoinette Portis and Lines that Wriggle by Candace Whitman

Art is really all about the process and not the product. But it is hard to get a 4 year old to understand it. Kyle has been doing alot of open ended art with different mediums since turning 18 months old, but he has always been not too enthusiastic about the product he creates. So to help build his confidence and fan the interest towards arts, I went with a different strategy to get him to enourage his exploration of art.

He created these pieces with little encouragement needed and willingly sat through 2 full hours of drawing and colouring! It really amazes me how interest can encourage his attention span towards the activity.

The technique I used was to scaffold the learning, breaking up the shapes and the details of the picture step by step. This way, it makes it easy for him to follow and adapt his own preferences into the picture.

Since we have started on this method, he has been asking to draw every evening, and have asked to do more art activities. So I think it's time to re-introduce new open ended art experiences :), before embarking on some classical art exposure. From there, with the exposure, it will help to develop his preferences for art in general.

As for my art experiences so far, my preferences lean towards illustration. I have been squeezing whatever time I can find to doodle and colour into my sketch book. Learning slowly from japanese doodle illustration books, a doodle at a time.