Arts Explorer #4: Patterns

Apartment building in construction on Edward St.

Building on Edward St.

Tile floor in my building

Men's clothing at Nomad

Wooden railing in my building

Tile floor in my building

Noticing patterns was fun. Patterns (art word of the week) are all around us. When I deliberately started looking for them it kind of changed the way I look at my everyday surroundings. I love that when you start looking for something, you suddenly see it everywhere.

The word pattern points to repetition; consistent elements that are recurring (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009). The elements can be shapes, lines, colours, textures, icons, symbols... you name it.

Some of the patterns I found were symmetrical and some were asymmetrical. Some were regular (like the tile floors) and some were irregular (like this tree):

Tree on Brunswick Ave.

Tree patterns are my favourite because they're almost fractals and fractal patterns are super awesome. More of these to come.

This blog assignment was interesting because it asked me to look around and take things in. As ECEs, we can pose careful questions at just the right time to change the way they see their surroundings. They can learn to choose which way of seeing they'd like to use at different times, discerning what different situations or projects call for. Sometimes we want to tune out the visual chaos around us and sometimes we want to tune in, so we can begin to learn this capacity and pass it on to young children through exercises like this one.

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References

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. E. (2009). Art and creative

     development for young children. Belmont, CA:

     Delmar.