Avocado Encounters – Extended

I do love how easily it marks up. I love how I can manipulate charcoal in ways that make me feel like an artist. I’ve never really paid any attention to shading in order to make a particular thing I’m drawing look round or to account for the light and think about shadows. In fact I’ve never really noticed shadows from an artistic perspective before. I definitely never noticed that an avocado seed can actually cast a shadow over the rest of the fruit depending on the light. I’ve never taken any art classes, but charcoal has a certain way about it that offers me the illusion that maybe I could be an artist.

I’m very excited to see where the water colours take us in our work with the children. It too seems like a technical yet forgiving medium to work with. The children have been exploring with water on construction paper, they have noticed how the water makes marks, then disappears. They have noticed that a lot of water will soak the paper then no more marks can be made. As John stated in the manifesto, “… we seek to guide the children’s learning by intensifying and concentrating their focus by engaging deeply with the experiential dimension of process” (2018). In this way, we have slowly introduced water and paper. Next, we will engage further in this process by thinking more deeply about the combination of paint, water, and paper, and the possibilities and tensions that emerge in these ongoing explorations with food waste and forest artifacts.