Wednesday, 25th May

I've been working in a primary school today. Once a week I come into a school in Brisbane to help kids (working as a teacher's aide) do a collage art project. After the release of the Jeannie Baker book entitled Mirror, http://www.jeanniebaker.com/mirror.htm the children are examining at the juxtaposition of any two cultures that look far apart at first glance and are creating a collage of two similar activities done differently. These are meant to form a kind of "cultural mirror" to each other with slight (or drastic) differences. We are considering the intersections of cultures and the points where we all meet in spite of our inherent differences.

This is a first major art project for a long time in these classes but even so, after walking around talking to these kids, (most of whom, come from distant cultures and countries) I found some of the most delightful examples of creativity coming from their diverse backgrounds and home lives. In their own naivety of age, they already show a much wider cultural understanding than the average white, middle class people of my own age.

We haven't started our collage processes with them yet but I feel almost enlightened being around an audience that attaches none of the derogatory connotations to social stereotypes that almost everyone (in different ways) gets engrained in them with an exposure to social dogma.

I can only hope that the little stint in this job will eventuate into an opportunity to do similar work (even elsewhere)

I have also done some more staining on my own piece of plywood today.

(an appallingly grainy photo I admit but my technology is failing me at the moment)
I would like to stain into the dribbles below the two eye like circles a little more and start drawing into the grain with an ink pen. In the top (lighter area) I don't want any hard lines but I would like to make more subtle washes of that amber varnish to bring more complexity into the grain.

I've been cutting into the wood this time and letting the varnish slip into the grooves. In this light I might not actually use the ink pen again and simply repeat this process a little bit.... I will definitely have to have a think about this though. I am tempted not to think overly at all in regards to this though and just let my pure intuition guide me. So now I'm not just thinking about what to do, I'm thinking about thinking about what to do........... maybe I should be sleeping now I think... :?