Art & Nature - Ecological Art 

WEEK 11 (July 16)

Random Acts of Art

Group installation - We picked up leaves off of the ground, integrating them t with the crack in the tree. When we got up close to the crack we saw that there were ants using it as a major route and we wanted to interact with it in a way that wouldn’t hurt the ants. We carefully placed leaves in the bottom edge of the crack, extending that line out onto the grass and towards the road and sidewalk. 

We wanted to bring people’s attention to nature as they walked and drove by to connect with the trees around them and see them in a new way. It can bring some inspiration and joy to their day, and calm them by helping them to notice the nature around them rather than all the concrete. It was really interesting that the people in our group were divided about the design. All of the Secondary school teachers wanted to have a straight line coming off of the tree, and at an angle to the sidewalk. All of the primary teachers wanted to do swirly organic lines. I found this interesting because It made me remember the point when I started to incorporate more angular, geometric designs in my work. It came mostly from living in Southern California and Vancouver where I must have been more influenced by the architecture and way of life, but also from an influence (good or bad) from the contemporary art world. I currently combine organic and geometric patterns in my work, but I notice that I am always having to fight off the feeling of that I should be doing something more....conceptual and even less organic? 

This project was a good opportunity for self reflection and a good reminder that there is a great need in us for expressive, organic, intuitive, wild, unbridled work and energy. However there is also something appealing and satisfying about  the methodological approach to organizing different elements. We sorted the different colors and laid the leaves out to show a gradation of colors, which was enthusiastically embraced by everyone - we were all on the same page with that. And it was a way to incorporate a visual element of EPAD, noticing the quality of line in the tree and bringing attention to it by extending it. 

This exercise could be used to teach specific elements of PLOs relating to EPAD, in particular to color and line. But it could also be a great cross-disciplinary activity to incorporate environmental education and Place Based Learning. It helped us connect to our environment around our school in a meaningful way where we felt like we were creating beauty and adding to the natural aesthetics while responding to the concrete, angular geometry of the school’s architecture.

Summative assessment could include a written reflection on key elements of EPAD while the process and materials can be left very open ended, which could serve grades 8-12. Extensions could be that students could photograph the work or document it in some way to inspire another piece. They could also document the temporary/ephemeral nature of the materials as they breakdown in nature, a la Andy Goldsworthy. Adaptations would require that all students can participate in the activity. If some students are not as physically able to do the installation they could do the sorting. And if some students are overwhelmed and want to work in small groups I think a group of two would also work well. This project leant itself well to people working both collaboratively and independently, able to connect their different areas of artwork, which lends itself well to exceptionalities and different learning styles.