Looking at a painting

One of the works I have asked my students for this term was to analyse a painting which had some human figures in it, and speculate on their feelings and expressions. There were some very good works of students who seem to have a special sensitivity to look at art. Here are some of them.

This is from Maria João Senos from 10ºJ.

This painting is called “Mary Magdalene” and it was painted by Titian. The woman depicted here (Saint Mary Magdalene) has long, blonde hair and dark-colored eyes. Her skin is fair and she’s not very thin, though not extremely overweight, either. She is clutching her hair tight with one hand, and laying the other over her heart. Her hair, though covering up most of her body, leaves her breasts exposed.
She seems to be looking up at something or someone and her expression shows sorrow. It also seems like she’s pleading.
Psychologically, it seems that she’s a strong woman, but she’s in a moment of weakness in this depiction.
Seeing as Mary Magdalene is described in the New Testament as being a devoted disciple of Jesus, it might be that she’s looking up at him.
The nakedness in which she is painted might indicate pureness or shame. It might also indicate “a beginning”, seeing as when you’re born and you “begin” your life, you have no clothes.

ART vs RECYCLING

This is a very interesting cushion made of seatbelts. It can be bought through a London site. There are quite interesting ways for artists to use cheap materials in their concepts. Sometimes even useless materials. Useless to some but very useful to OTHERS. Have a look at some of these things and picture yourself using some of them.

The Art of Waste

{ Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Dirty White Trash [With Gulls], 1998 six months’ worth of the artists’ rubbish }

Not everything should be thrown away. Art and sustainable development can and should be perfectly compatible. One just needs extra creativity to turn the ugly, dirty and smelly into beautifully artistic.

Post-it as Art

This is Carolina and Afonso's oral presentation on Post-it. It explains the beginnings of this type of notes, its evolution and then what they believed to be more interesting, the possibility of using pots-it notes as art. It was a very well organised and original presentation which gives us new ideas about how to use common things in a different creative manner.

Presentation - Carolina and Afonso 10ºJ

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Education Presentations & Slid golf south

Clipart - Gran Torino

Everyone should have a place to sit and think about life. Most of all, everyone should reflect upon their old grudges and eventual remorse. Clint Eastwood's porch is a excellent way to start yet another great film.

Different nationalities, ethnic groups, immigrants, social groups and races try to coexist in the same neighbourhood. Tension is as strong on the outside as inside this man, hardened by a present that has little to do with the values he grew up with.

Once again, Clint Eastwood directs and plays in a great film, with a performance that brightens the screen. One could not say the same from the young actors but there's always a feeble beginning for everyone.

A drama/comedy with very good, coherent Portuguese subtitles, that will keep you waiting outside this porch until the very last minute.

Picasso - E.E. Cummings

This is hard task for the boldest. Try to translate this poem by E.E. Cummings. Choose one of Picasso's paitings to illustrate it. (IT'S A FREE TASK).


Picasso

Picasso
you give us Things
which
bulge:grunting lungs pumped full of sharp thick mind


you make us shrill
presents always
shut in the sumptuous screech of
simplicity


(out of the
black unbunged
Something gushes vaguely a squeak of planes
or


between squeals of
Nothing grabbed with circular shrieking tightness
solid screams whisper.)
Lumberman of The Distinct


your brain's
axe only chops hugest inherent
Trees of Ego,from
whose living and biggest


bodies lopped
of every
prettiness

you hew form truly

Love is...

In the beginning of the year I thought of asking my students to produce some photos for an activity regarding St. Valentine's Day. During these first two months of the year, I have been receiving some of the photos together with a required caption starting "Love is...". Here we have the results. These are some of the views António Arroio students have about such a complex and ever enigmatic feeling.

A special thanks to the web designer Daniel Eira, a good friend who is always willing to give a helping hand.

Here are some other songs

These are the songs from Diana from 10º E and Francisco Brites from 11ºC.
When the mind doesn't have any sense
When you do
More than what's needed
The body pays
The body pays
Let it pay, let it pay
If you're enjoying...
When the mind doesn't free itself
From the frustations, inhibitions
All that strength that tightens you
The body suffers
The privations, mutilations
When the mind is convinced
That it is
The eighth wonder
The body suffers
The body suffers
Let it suffer, Let it suffer
If that gives you pleasure...
When the mind is in that confusion
You don’t know what to do
And you swallow everything that appears
The body fails
It fails without fighting
When the mind rolls into the abyss
You can’t control that nervousness
The nail pays
The nail pays
You don't stop gnawing
Even if it's hurting...
When the mind doesn't have any sense
And you wear yourself out more than what's needed
The body pays
The body pays
Let it pay, let it pay
If you're enjoying...

And now Franscisco's version:

When the head has no judgment
When you work hard
More than you need
The body pays it
The body pays it
Let it pay it, let it pay it
If you’re enjoying…
When you don’t free your mind
From the frustrations, inhibitions
All that force that tightens you
The body suffers
The deprivations, mutilations
When the head is convinced
That it is the 8th wonder
The body suffers
The body suffers
Let it suffer, let it suffer
If that gives you pleasure
When the head is in a mess
You don’t know what to do
And you eat all that comes to your hand
The body is left there
And falls without resistance
When the head rolls into the abysm
You can’t control the stress
The nail pays it
The nail pays it
You won’t stop biting
Even if it’s hurting…

When the head has no judgment
And you consume yourself more than you need
The body pays it
The body pays it
Let it pay it, let it pay it
If you’re enjoying…Let it suffer, let it suffer
If that gives you pleasure

Portuguese songs

There were some very good songs written in English from the Portuguese lyrics suggested. This one turned ou very good. It's the known song from Clã, "Sopro do Coração" with lyrics by Sérgio Godinho.

This was João Simplício's work, from 10ºJ.

“In The Breath Of The Heart” By Clã


Yes, love is vain,
It’s right and known,
But then (why not),
Why does it blow in the ear,
The breath of the heart,
If love is vain,
Merely pain,
Merely laughter,
Stubborn abyss,

In the breath of the heart…

But with this the wind blows insanely,
And what was of the body,
In a mess it blows insanely,
And what was of the winged body,
In the wings of the mess,
Thus making you breathless,
Just mere brises,

Rare ones,
Rare ones,
Rare ones …

A lemon I cut in two,
I get near the ear,
To the freshness,
To the noise,
To a swim’s acidness,

In the blood of the heart,
Pumping in vain,
It’s his, alright,
It’s that, alright,
And in spite of that,
It shivers the skin.

In the breath of the heart…

This one was by Ana Rita Antunes, 10ºA, and it is a possible English version of "O Corpo é que paga", from António Variações:

When the head…When the head doesn’t have any sense.
When you try harder than you really need.The body’s the one that pays.The body’s the one that pays.Let it pay, let it pay.If you’re enjoying.
When the head just doesn’t set itself free,
Of all the frustrations, inhibitions, all that force
that keeps you binded,The body is the one that suffers.The intimacy, mutilation…When the head is convinced,
That it is the eight wonder.
The body’s the one that suffers.
The body’s the one that suffers.
Let it suffer, let it suffer.
If it gives you pleasure.

When the head is in that confusion,
Without knowing what you should do,
And you’re already everything you see.
The body is the one that keeps,
Keeps falling without resisting.

When the head rolls into the abyss.
You don’t control that nervousness.
The nail’s the one that pays.
The nail’s the one that pays.
You can’t stop nibbling.
Not even if it’s hurting.

When the head doesn’t have any sense.
And you don’t know what’s really needed.
The body’s the one that pays.
The body’s the one that pays.
Let it pay, let it pay.
If you’re enjoying.
Let it suffer, let it suffer.
If that gives you pleasure.
Let it sing, let it sing.
If you’re enjoying.
Let it kiss, let it kiss.
If you’re enjoying.
Let it scream, let it scream.
If you’re setting yourself free.

Letters

Bearing in mind the topic of the mask and the English topic of pen-friends, the students were asked to write letters to an imaginary pen friend in a country of their choice. The letters written would have to respect a letter's normal stucture but also contain specific requirements: the student's description (physical and psychological), their hobbies and interests, the reasons why they chose to correspond with someone from that country. One very important thing- the students would have to describe themselves as their opposite. It was, basically, the opportunity to lie... a lot.


After the selection of the 3 best letters in each class, the teacher read them out loud and the colleagues assessed the work (without having any idea about who the letter was from) in terms of content, stucture and originality.

The three winning letters, from the 3 classes from the 10th form were the following:
FROM 10ºA - Filipa Luz

Dear Jenna,

I’m really excited about changing correspondence with you, honestly. There are so many things I want to know about Japan. I’d love to visit it since I’m really young and I believe that this is a fantastic way of knowing this country a little better. But first let me introduce myself.
My name is Joss and I live in London, which is an amazing city by the way. I’m a really pessimist person, so you may never receive this letter. I absolutely love philosophy and astrology. My hobby is philately; I do enjoy collecting as many stamps as I can, so I would like to ask you if you can send me some stamps to my stunning collection. I love to listen to Britney Spears, Sean Paul…
Although I don’t really like fashion, I usually go shopping once a week at the best shops in London and sometimes to other European cities, such as Paris and Berlin.
I’m tall, dark haired and I have blue eyes.
Well, now that you know me a little better I would like to ask you some questions. How’s life in Japan? Is it true that everything is really organized? These may seem silly questions but I’m truly interest in this aspect since I’m a very organized person, so this is also one of the reasons that made me choose your country. I would love if you could tell me how’s life in there, what are your customs and all that type of things. J

Yours sincerely,
Joss


From 10ºE, Susana Almeida
Lisbon, 01, December 2008
Dear Conchita
Chile



Hello, my name is Trident, I live in Luanda, in Africa and I am a black girl with blond hair and purple eyes. I must be at least 1 meter 80 centimetres. Unfortunately I suffer from anorexia, and I think it is due to this disease, that I hate, absolutely hate eating. In two days, I only ate a crumb! But I can do that for a several weeks drinking it only with water. I think I was born to be anoretic, you know, here in my country there are dishes, which I don’t like, especially the Muamba. It is filthy, the only thing I like, so far, are okras, a wonderful satisfaction to me only by the smelling them!
I think that my bad eating habits are constantly making me tired! Because I never smile, I don’t speak at school, I always say to my parents that I never talk to my colleagues in class, I must be a phenomenon! So I guess my best quality is my antipathy, arrogance, impatience, and my cynicism. Now I will tell you some of my faults, first comes the mistrust, too much selfishness, and indifference. I am a rare girl! Yes, because I don’t like to go shopping! My parents thank me, of course!
Here in my country there are many insects and animals. The ones I like best are cockroaches. They have wings here in Africa, and they are such fascinating worms! They are able to survive a week without heads, they are fabulous. I like them so much that I have one as a pet, her name is Gigi, she is quite fun, jumps up to me, she even tickles me. To sum it up, big fun.
Now, you should be aware of something. If you decide to visit Africa, beware, people find the lions, leopards, giraffes, elephants very funny but I don’t. They are very dangerous, and some of those carnivores are brutal killers. I don’t like them. In addition to playing with my cockroach, and saying bad things about wild animals, I love to read, all kind of books with the exception of Mafaldinha. I also like to polish shoes, and put the dishes in a dishwasher, but there are also things which I do not like doing, for example, to vacuum, to make the beds, to eat as I had said before, not to speak of watching TV - total boredom, the same with cooking!
You should know enough of me to be scared. Correct?
You know here in my country it is always too hot, that's why I’m writing to you, Chilean friend, tell me how it is living in a place where you have hot weather together with snow. I would also like to know your opinion on the islands of Easter, and I loved to go to Patagonia, have you already been there?
I expect an answer soon.

A hug.
Trident.

From 10º J, Catarina Teixeira



Hello Andy! Can I call you Andy? Alright then!
My name is Jessica, I’m 16 years old. I’m a short, but skinny, teenage girl. I have red hair and green eyes. I usually wear really colourful neon clothes, so you could spot me a mile away!
I’m a very active and social person, and I always love to hang out with a crowd. I have to be popular! I need it! I know almost everyone at school (at least everyone who’s anyone) and my phone keeps ringing. The teacher already took my phone twice because it rang in the middle of class.
Some weird kids at my school call me dumb and “preppy” (whatever that means). I don’t care though, they’re creepy and always wear black, gothic clothes, which I absolutely hate.
I’m a cheerleader at my school. I love to exercise and move around like that. I also love the outfits! The skirts are to die for! And everybody watches us and cheers. It feels so nice to have everyone’s attention on you.
I wanted to write to you because I’ve heard so much and seen so many pictures of the Big Apple. It’s such a huge town! So busy and noisy. But so very interesting too. I would like to know how it is to live there, how is the life of a New Yorker.
By the way, which clothe stores would you recommend?
I hope to hear from you soon!

Yours sincerely,
Jessica.

I want to say thank you to all the students and to congratulate them because there were some very creative and interesting letters in all classes.

Suggestion

There is a very interesting place in Lisbon, near the river, called Braço de Prata. It holds concerts, conferences and other types of shows, together with varied exhibitions. It has a restaurant, a bar and a large bookshop. Every 15 days there is a photographer there available to take your photograph in exchange for its use in a book/exhibition. The photographer's name is Fabrice Ziegler and the blog where you can find further information is:

www.retratosasexta.blogspot.com

Friday, the 23rd of January, the topic will be VANITY. You can go with some friends and take some object of your choice to convey a better idea of the topic.

If-clauses (Love vs Hate song)

To introduce the sturcture of the if-clauses I've used a song from katie Melua called "If I were a sailboat", which can be seen on the YouTube video posted here. Love songs are very frequent and in order to appeal to my students creativity, I asked them to transform the second part of the if-clause in a song of hatred. Some did it in the lessons but others sent me the written lyrics, non-advisable to over-sensitive people. Listen to the original song and then go through the lyrics which is a sum up of what some students from the 10ºJ made: João Simplício, Carolina Machado, Catarina Fagulha, David Marques and Afonso Silva.

If you were a cowboy I would steal your horse

If you were a piece of wood, I'd use an axe to turn you into a toothpick

If you were a sailboat I would tear your sails

If you were a river I would dump chemical waste in it

If you were a house, I would burn you to the ground

If you were a preacher, I would scream Satan in front of your church all day long

If I was in jail, you'd be my prison guard

If was a telephone, you'd put me in silent mode

If I was in pain, you'd feel happier than ever

If I was hungry, you'd let me starve to death

If I was in darkness, you woudn't pay the electricity bill

If I was a book, you'd tear all my pages

Humanitarian Organisations

Here are some useful links from very important humanitarian organisations.

www.unicef.org
www.unifem.org
www.unfpa.org
www.un.org
www.amnesty.org
www.ami.org.pt
www.unhcr.org
www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Oral presentations - Angus Young

André Oliveira from 11ºC dedided to give an oral presentation on Angus Young, a Scottish-born Australian music who is the lead guitarist, songwriter, and co-founder of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. He is known for his energetic performances and for being among the best 100 guitarists of all time, according to the famous magazine Rolling Stone. On account of Angus Young outfit in the concerts and in order to make his presentation less difficult or more agonizing due to the constant use of the third person -s in the singular, André decided to dress himself as the guitarist. This strategy made his presentation more appealing to his colleagues, and made his life easier because he was able to use the first person singular. Transforming your presentations in debates, short performances or even role-plays can make them more interesting and bring some originality to them.

Oral presentations - Ron Mueck

"A Girl" (2006)

Ron Mueck (Australian, b. 1958). Two Women, 2005. Mixed media, 33 1/2 x 18 7/8 x 15 in. (85.1 x 47.9 x 38.1 cm). Glenn Fuhrman Collection, New York

In bed, 2005 (Rollers in the air - Close-up)

This is some information on Délia Micu's presentation from 10th E. .

Mueck's early career was as a model maker and puppeteer for children's television and films. Mueck moved on to establish his own company in London, making photo-realistic props and animatronics for the advertising industry.
With the help of his mother-in-law, artist Paula Rego, Mueck got the breaks he needed. Rego watched him build a dragon sand castle for his two young daughters on a vacation to America and was amazed at what she saw. She asked Ron to make a model of Pinocchio for some drawings she was working on and the rest is history. Mueck is currently represented by some of the greatest galleries in the world, was invited to show at the 2001 Venice Biennale, and had one of his pieces recently sell for $800,000.
The sculpture “Mask II” captivates me. The hair, wrinkles, veins, and skin imperfections bring this sculpture to life. Beautiful and yet repulsively eerie at the same time. Decapitated, tilted on its side, eyes closed. It looks disturbingly alive. Lips moist, skin rosy, hair neatly combed. The five o’clock shadow and wrinkles in the forehead seem to signify a hard day. Mueck's sculptures faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly jarring visual images. He is brilliant in so many ways. I don't even believe that such kind of statue maker would be existed in this world and the most interesting thing is that he had no formal art training.

"MASK II", 2001-2002, The British Museum, Dimensions 1,600×1,200

The song writer - mine or your language?

Your homework, to be handed in until the 9th of January, is the following:

Choose ONE of these Portuguese songs and write it in English. Two different songs were chosen from each singer, one with a higher level of difficulty in the lyrics, another easier.

Bear in mind that you might need to change some referents because they are typically Portuguese and you need to transform them into either American or British.

Piece of advice (sing it after you have translated it, to make sure it makes sense and the verses have the proper duration).

THE SONGS ARE:

• "Bairro do Amor" or "Dá-me lume" by Jorge Palma.
• "O sopro do coração" or "Problema de Expressão" by Clã.
• "Estou além" or "O corpo é que paga" by António Variações.
• "O prometido é devido" or "Porto Sentido" by Rui Veloso.

In "Porto Sentido" it is obvious the reference to a Portuguese city and that should be kept, of course.

One cigarrete - photo

Afonso Silva from 10th J has also taken a photograph. It's the one with the ashtray.

Carolina Machado from 10th J has taken a very nice photgraph to illustrate the poem "One Cigarette". Check it further down.

Oral Presentations - Beryl Cook

My Fur Coat
Dancing in the Bar
This was Tamsin Oldroyd's presentation from 10ºE. It was a very well structured speech about a Britsh artist and her work.

Beryl Cook

Beryl Cook was an English artist who specialized in comical paintings of people, capturing the unique British humor.

She was born on the 10th September 1926 and died this year, 28th May in the place she spent most of her life, Plymouth, in the South West England. Her career had spanned 40 years.

Painting wasn’t the first choice of career for Beryl. When she was younger she was a “showgirl”, then went to work in fashion, which inspired her life long interest in the way people dress and look.

It was only when she returned to England, after some time in South Rhodesia, now married and with a son that Beryl one day picked up her son's paint box and started painting on different textures including scraps of wood to even a breadboard.
She now lived in Plymouth, which is a port city, bustling with life and activity. During the summer months she ran a theatrical boarding house, enjoying the local bars and watching the “drag acts”. She concentrated on her painting in the winter, based on these observations and was eventually persuaded by an art dealer friend to let him try to sell her work. To her surprise they sold very quickly.

Later she held her first exhibition in Plymouth, which led onto her work appearing in prestigious magazines, papers and television appearances leading on to her fame.

It has to be said that not all galleries liked her work, but commercially she was very successful with the many prints, greeting cards (very popular with the British) and calendars, gaining lots of fans of her work, resulting in an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1995, a very high award given by the Queen, a recognition of her contribution to the art world.

Beryl was a slim, shy and private person, quite the opposite of the characters she painted. Her inspiration came from her observations in the bars, not only in England but from her travels to New York, Cuba, Paris, Buenos Aires and Barcelona. She was known to say that she was motivated to paint people enjoying themselves. The fact that her work made people smile brought her great satisfaction and contentment in her life.

I chose Beryl Cook for my presentation as she represents a different type of artist in comparison to the more traditional landscapes and “people” painters.
She was lucky to rise to fame and fortune in her own lifetime unlike so many other artists who only after they are dead receive any recognition.

CLAPBOARD take 1

Following David's suggestion (10ºJ), this blog will have a room for the Seventh Art - Cinema.

It will be a place to review some films; comment on classic ones and suggest recent releases.

To start off, I am introducing it with a link about the vocabulary used in the moving pictures which can be very helpful to all of us.

http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms1.html

"One Cigarrete", Edwin Morgan

This photograph was taken by Afonso

Silva from 10th J.

This is a free task for the adventurous.
I suggest this English poem as the start for one of three possible activities:

1 . A translation into Portuguese.

2. A drawing conveying these feelings and portraying these referents.

3. A photograph with the same aim of point 2.
One Cigarette

No smoke without you, my fire.
After you left,
your cigarette glowed on in my ashtray
and sent up a long thread of such quiet grey
I smiled to wonder who would believe its signal
of so much love. One cigarette
in the non-smoker's tray.
As the last spire
trembles up, a sudden draught
blows it winding into my face.
Is it smell, is it taste?
You are here again, and I am drunk on your tobacco lips.
Out with the light.
Let the smoke lie back in the dark.
Till I hear the very ash
sigh down among the flowers of brass
I'll breathe, and long past midnight, your last kiss.


P.S. - Check with your teachers from Drawing or Photography to access the quality of your work.

This is a photograph taken by Carolina Machado from 10th J.

Introduction

Let me introduce this blog by saying it will be a team work with the students from the English subject in António Arroio Secondary Art School. Although it will be presented in English, it is not just an English blog. The choice of the language is due not only to the subject I teach but also because, being English a língua franca, it will enable this school and its students to reach other eyes, other voices and other artistic worlds. It is most of all an Arts' blog because this is the passion that joins these students together in the same place - the love for the arts (drawing, painting, cinema, music, theatre, ceramics, jewellery,...). It is open to everyone's visit and constructive reviews because we will use this virtual little room to show what we are doing, what we enjoy doing but also to learn from others, to develop our critical thinking, to inspire and to obtain inspiration. If these were the Olympic Games, the Greeks would say "Let the games begin". I humbly suggest "Let the potential artists show their work."