Shadowing-Simpson Housing- Melodee Strong 2 Hrs
I went to Simpson Housing to shadow Melodee and assist her in her lesson for the art project. Because our class was canceled last Tuesday I was able to join her today to be able to make up for that day. It was still really snowy outside but while I waited for her, one of the women who worked there who also sits and helps with the children during Melodee’s sessions, showed me around the building and told me about what this particular program does for women and children who might be fleeing domestic violence or are single parents looking for affordable housing and can provide support for their child(ren’s) education.
I’m really grateful to have been assisting Melodee at this housing facility because of the work that they do. I find that I’m going to have a better learning experience if I’m doing something for a cause I believe and stand by opposed to something I’m not interested in or passionate about. After meeting the staff of Simpson, I helped Kate, an MCAD faculty, prepare the space before the students started to trickle in. We put their snack on the table which consisted of a Clementine and a cheese stick with water, (I think it’s great that they provide a snack for the kids) and then we put water colors and paper on each table.
Once all the kids ranging 5-10 had entered, Melodee told me that she wanted me to introduce word association to them since she would get there a little later due to whether. I asked the kids what they think about when they see the color Red…Blue…Yellow etc. I asked them to think about these things before painting using the water colors. We discussed what colors had a temperature associate with it. Once we finished thinking about these words and what imagery we associate them with, we let the children start on their first image which was supposed to warm them up for the next project once Melodee got there. This first project we asked then to paint something that makes the happy. Once Melodee arrived, she had all the students sit down in the middle of the room. She talked about word association again but she wanted the children, opposed to thinking about the objects that words reminded them of, she wanted the children to think about certain objects can be expressed through line and how certain gestures in mark making can represent the feeling of an object. In order to illustrate what she was saying she had the children watch a clip from Ratatouille. In these clips, Remi (the main character) , is associating the flavors of certain food with certain lines, whether that be colors, bold or thin lines swirling and dancing together depending on what the food tasted like.
This example and listening to Melodee explain how line, boldness and color are used to represent different feelings or tastes, was interesting. It was interesting in the sense that she didn’t say too much, she explained what she was talking about and then had imagery to better illustrate and the children understood from that point on. Also hearing the way the kids responded to Melodee and participated seemed very natural, they seemed very comfortable. That could be because they’ve seen her many times before then but It was reassuring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLXYILcRoPQ
