Queen Alex

Queen Alex with cole pauls and rebecca heyl

Queen Alex primary students worked for a second year with artist-in-residence Rebecca Heyl. The residency consisted of eight sessions over the course of the year- Fall, Winter, and Spring.

For the first two sessions we brought the art studio outdoors. The work centred around getting to know the school grounds- the trees, herb garden, and rock garden, as well as, slowing down to observe the natural world.

Rebecca demonstrates how to create a rubbing of the tree bark for the Kindergarten class.

The Kindergarteners explore the garden noticing the small details.

With Grade 1 & 2 students we considered the question, "What do we know about maps?"

"It has the directions- North, South, East West."

"It's a way to find where things are."

"Maps show you how to get home if you get lost."

Remembering back to our discussion last year about migrating animals, I asked, "how does a whale find it's way home?"

K: "Whales communicate with whale songs."

W: "They travel with their mamma and learn from mamma."

E: "How can we be animals if animals can't talk?"

Rebecca: "Well, K just said that whales can find their way by communicating with other whales. So maybe animals can 'talk' to each other?"

E: "OK, so animals can talk to each other but we can't understand them."

R: "Does anyone have a pet? Can you understand them?

W: "When my cat comes and sits by me, and looks up at me, I check her water bowl and give her food."

Students map out the school grounds with their feet and decide what to include on their map.

Kindergarteners imagined what it might be like to curl up inside a snail's spiralling shell as we all walked into the centre of our imaginary snail shell.

Students were given time to closely observe a variety of scientific specimens that were on loan from UBC's Beaty Biodiversity Museum. They learned how to handle the specimens with care and created detailed observational drawings of plants and animals in their sketchbooks.

At the beginning of a session, we often revisit experiences by looking at photos and discussing what students notice and remember from the previous sessions.

During the last session in the Fall, we worked in the studio experimenting with different ways to find and transfer nature's patterns onto paper and into sketchbooks.

Students make leaf rubbing and vegetable prints with paint creating the pattens of their choosing.

The individual hexagonal works came together to form a large honeycomb mural in the art studio.

In February, students continued the practice of slow looking yet added another layer to their drawings- COLOUR!

Students mixed their own watercolours and then added them to their observational drawings.

"I liked mixing the colours, I felt like a scientist." Grade 1 student

Student's watercolour paintings

As we looked for patterns in the natural world, we began making our own patterns in the studio- weaving, sewing and experimenting with spinning patterns using paint.

Students explore radial patterns using paint and yarn.

All of the primary divisions worked with clay as a material to improvise with and test out new ideas. It also proved to be a wonderful material to capture and transform patterns.

Some of the many clay creations that students brought to life.

Due to the COVID-19 situation, the last two sessions did not take place within the school's art studio.

However, over the past two years in the studio, we have been cultivating studio thinking- observation, experimentation, improvisation, envisioning, engaging and persisting through challenges- and these modes of thinking exist and can flourish wonderfully outside the walls of the school's art studio.

With this in mind, Rebecca created a series of videos and art kits of materials with zines that invited students to continue their studio thinking at home.

"With their sketchbooks, students can continue to practice looking closely and sketching the details of their inquiries. They can also begin to add text in there drawings, for example, 'spiky' with an arrow to the shell of a horse chestnut. It's my hope that drawing can be another way for students to get their ideas down, drawing and the arts in general allow us to stabilize our thoughts and ideas." Rebecca Heyl, Artist-in-Residence

Additionally, Queen Alex students from five different divisions worked with Tahltan comic artist, illustrator, and printmaker Cole Pauls on four different projects throughout the year.

Cole and QA students discussed what resilience is, how they practice it in their everyday lives and the different types of resilience in a project entitled-

"Walking with Resilience"

Once they had a group consensus on what defines resilience, Cole asked each student to create a one page comic on their own definition of resilience.

Some created comics about their family and heritage,

others drew scenarios of bullying and resistance,

some chose to write about sports.

All of the comics created share a story about struggle or obstacles and the skills it takes to overcome them. At the end, the group printed a 68 page anthology zine!

During the spring semester, Cole had the students create linocut stamps. They spent four weeks sketching out icon designs, discussing what logos and stamps are used for, and finally cutting and printing their designs.

Students working on their stamps.

Cole gave the students total freedom on the subject matter of the lino print. Some kids made their own logos, others made interesting textures, but most of the students made prints with their name or text based work. On the last day of class, they printed their designs on sticker paper and cloth, so the students could use them for identification, or to customize their home items!

Students from Divisions 4 and 5 worked on a project called "Truth Zine."

The students were asked to create a one page comic about truth. As a class we discussed why it's important to tell the truth, how it can dismantle a tough situation and how considerate it is to be honest.

Students working on their comics.

Some students made autobiographical comics about their everyday life, others made comics about their thoughts on the future and a couple students made comics about what food they eat. After 4 weeks, they collected everyone's comics and made a 52 page anthology zine!

Because of COVID-19, Cole's residency was completed in a remote format. He wanted to give the students an assignment that was achievable at home so he made a 4-part video series creating a papercut comic.

First, Cole asked my students to find an everyday object in their home, something from their kitchen or garage, find inspiration from its silhouette and draw a character based off of it.

Next, Cole asked the class to make a background influenced by the same object they chose to create a character from. If they took something from the kitchen, make the skyscrapers look like other utensils.

Then, he asked them to pick another object from their home to create a villain, just like part one.

Finally, Cole asked the students to write and cut out world bubbles for each of their characters and use a camera to set up & capture comic panels with their newly made papercut world.

Appreciate