September 12, 2024 Exit Slip

In today's class, we had an exercise featuring drawing on paper. We got our supplies out of the shed, and were instructed to draw one non-living thing and one living thing. With my charcoal and paper, I set out.

The one thing I noticed about my engagement of this exercise is that my choices of things were very spite-driven. For the non-living thing, I homed right over to the section of the fence with a padlock on it. Since it was locked off (for longer than I've been alive, I believe), many of us coming from the north had to make the extra detour. On this detour, we could see everyone else who was there, which creates a stark contrast with anyone who is rushing in late. My wish is for this barrier to be opened up, which in a way is poetic - we would lead richer conversations and relationships if we all opened up our own barriers.

For the living thing, I initially thought of drawing my classmates, but decided to draw from memory instead. The many bees that tormented me (although I doubt it was on purpose; I am simply scared of them) were the source of great inspiration, and so I drew the average bee in the garden. I'll admit it: they're important! I am aware of their role as pollinators, sources of food, and a part of a colourful life. That being said, I think it was neat that I was able to channel negative emotions towards something into attentiveness and care. After all, the opposites of love and hate are not each other, but apathy.

Finally, there was a discussion on the topic of lines and angles. There was no further elaboration on this topic, but very quickly we were able to extrapolate ideas from these two words. In the discussion, ideas of ease of manufacturing came up for straight lines and right angles, and the differences of living vs. man-made in terms of the lines and angles they encompass. For example, the average human is not built in such a rigid way, but a table or chair would have more careful lines and angles. Ideas of gravity and forces following straight lines were also discussed when I noted that people inherently think in terms of invisible lines and basic angles; for example, we would break up the elevation and distance of a flying object into perpendicular axes, and assess distance accordingly. Personally, I was interested in the way that people drew their lines; I noticed when I observed other people's drawings, their border lines were very thick and defined whereas mine were all sketch-like. Another observation of the drawings is that the point-of-view angles were almost entirely front-facing and basic; there were no drawings that deviated from this, as far as I'm aware.

In terms of the activity as something I could do, there is definitely merit in terms of soft skills and building rapport among the class. Drawing is a vulnerable activity; many people have no confidence in their ability to draw, and end up with the biggest case of artist's block. On the other hand, I've experienced the opposite end where people who think they can draw paralyze themselves because they feel the need to make the perfect piece, therefore suffering a similar problem! This kind of activity was designed to break down these mental blocks and make way for discussion, which I found very fun. Being able to share different ideas and perspectives through art with each other builds relationships, and I believe these are important outcomes that address issues that teachers face in terms of motivation, confidence and belonging (things that are being covered in EPSE 308 right now, actually).

I will be attaching my drawings below. I forgot to bring this up, but since I had extra time I also drew Caris and Mark on the corners. Mark was particularly pleased with it and even took a picture for profile picture uses, and it made me feel honoured!