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Tensions and Possibilities in Our Encounters with Charcoal
October 31, 2018 There was much enthusiasm about the possible interactions with paper and charcoal. Charcoal has been used by artists for a very long time, dating back to 15,000 BC. The children at St. John Early Learning Centre are invited to join these long artistic traditions within many cultures around the world. To set the scene and foreground the importance of charcoal as an art material, we placed large pieces of white paper on the floor and offered children thin willow charcoal sticks. In this initial exploration in the classroom, the children begin to understand some of the properties of charcoal. Charcoal is brittle, fragile, and easily breaks when…
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Slowing Down Time Through Charcoal Encounters
I wonder about time… We live fast-paced lives instilled early on to talk fast, move on, check in but something keeps happening to me during these intra-actions that move us into a different time zone where a minute can become an hour. During the charcoal encounters, which often happen with a single child, I lose track of time. I don’t remember what else was happening or who else was there. I am caught trying to remember when it happened – before or after the walk? All I can remember is an intensity -that distinct squeaking sound. It is less disturbing than scratching a chalkboard but it makes my inner ear…
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Charcoal experimentations
Our explorations with charcoal yielded exciting possibilities. Our interaction with charcoal today represented an experimental and experiential step into the unknown (for children and educators alike). The room embraced the mystery of this new experience as the mystery had been building and unfolding since its announcement to the children on Monday. On Tuesday morning the children arrived to a room radically transformed from the one they knew on Monday. Many of the room’s familiar items (shelves, tables, carpets, building blocks, etc.) had been relocated and replaced with large rolls of white paper taped to the floor. The children were very curious about this sudden transformation and what it revealed about…
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Working with Charcoal and Paper – response
Its interesting how Shelley and I track charcoal beyond its materiality. It is not about charcoal, but it is about charcoal…bodies and movements with charcoal, paper, and the floor together, on the ‘inside’ inspire/reflect/remind us of bodies and movements with pathways, critters, plants, wind together on the ‘outside’ so then does inside-outside blur? Can it? or do they remain separated? and Why!
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Working with Charcoal and Paper
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Working with Charcoal and Paper
My relationship with charcoal is one of indifference. As much as I adore stirring the hot coals in a bonfire, boxed-up uniform artists’ charcoal for me leaves something to be desired. I sat back, committed to observing the toddlers as they confronted this new material in their space. As I watched, I started to make marks with the broken bits of charcoal that had scattered across the paper. I found myself distracted by the movement of the little bodies all around me. Distracted in a good way… I began to attend to the physicality of the experience—the energy shifts, the varying density of the marks they left behind on the…
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Working with Charcoal and Paper – response
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Invasion of the Charcoal!
How can such a tiny piece of black charcoal create such angst and yet generate moments of clarity? As the toddler room begins its exploration with paper and charcoal we notice: markings, movements, mess, and at times mayhem! But within the tension of exploring how footprints-bodies-charcoal-papers become entangled, something unexpected emerges! Paper transforms, charcoal bits and pieces transform, tracing transforms, and human relations with charcoal transform. As Shelley and I reflect on the happenings of the past couple of days we sit with the uncomfortable feeling that charcoal is not welcome in the classroom. But we are not abandoning our contentious relationship. Instead we zoom in with great focus. EDGES!…
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Improvisation with charcoal & paper
Laura and I sit at a table with paper and charcoal and a small group of children. Laura notices a large dark scribbly drawing that had previously been made. She says, “This reminds me of a dark forest. Who want to meet me at the forest?” The children and educators use their charcoal to draw paths to the dark forest. They meet and gather there. They begin to find spiders and bats in the forest. They leave and come back several times. Some are hesitant to return but are encouraged to visit again. Their desire to meet others keeps them coming back.
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Charcoal proposals & invitations
A Walk in the Forest There was much enthusiasm about the possible interactions with paper and charcoal. Charcoal has been used by artists for a very long time, dating back to 15,000 BC. The children were invited to join these long artistic traditions within many cultures around the world. To set the scene and foreground the importance of charcoal as an art material, we placed large pieces of white paper on the floor and offered children thin willow charcoal sticks. In this initial exploration in the classroom, the children began to understand some of the properties of charcoal: “Charcoal is brittle, fragile and easily breaks when pushed on paper’s surface.…
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The Experience
Lines began to move rapidly from one place to another, offering the extension of a line from one being to another, waiting for the line of travels to connect to the feet of one’s body. Charcoal moved with the bodies in fast pace, with gentle pressure to the paper. Slowing down was not offered through the children’s bodies, but from the noticing of the marks left behind as the charcoal travelled across the paper. Fingers pushed tiny pieces of charcoal, but the creation of dark, thick lines moving from beneath fingers was noticed. How could such a small fragment offer such darkness? Intricate and thoughtful up and down movements with…
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The Beginnings
We would like to propose that together we focus on the arts of slowing down, paying attention, and noticing. hat it might mean for us to support children to notice and slow down when we go to the forest. How might we invite children to slow down rather than “consume” everything they find/see in the forest? How do we invite children to focus, slow down, and notice? If a child picks up a stick, we might become curious about what it is about this particular stick (and not others). Can we stay with what children notice about this stick (and challenge them to think beyond) rather than moving on to…
