In Art this year, we have been working on stylisation, positive and negative space, lino cutting, layering, and orphist. We were given the task to take a bird, stylise it, make linocuts out of them, take the orphist idea, create two backgrounds as linocuts then take all three and layer them. These are the three cuts that I have done so far
Layer one of Orphism. My bird. Layer two of Orphism
I chose to do the mahua bird. I took my original bird drawing and 'flattened' it to create a stencil, to do this, I took prominent shapes from the bird and ultimately stuck them together. For the background, I wanted to have them completely opposite, with one layer having the negative space as the feature and the other having the positive as the feature. So far, I want the layers to be the different primary colours, why? Because I think they'll work well together. Or at least, I hope they will. Below are my ideas and sketches :)
I feel like the fact I'm doing musical theatre for music comes as no surprise to literally anyone who has been on my blog in the past 5 months. I mean, it's me we're talking about here
1. Who are you performing with?
I am performing with the only two people in my class that can actually stand me, Jaime and Nadia. Check them out, their blogs are a lot more professional than mine... so... They are both incredible singers and performers so I'm pretty thankful they're letting me work with them :)
2. Which type of performing art are you performing?
Can you guess? *Drum roll please* Musical theatre! What else is new? Don't expect anything less than extra from any of us.
3. What song/theme are you performing and why?
After a lot of thinking, a few ideas thrown around (including a Frozen medley because why not) and a bit of persuasion from Mrs Beer to do something edgier than Frozen, we decided to go with one of the "edgiest" musicals we could think of. Heathers. More specifically Candy Store. No, not Candy Shop. It's a trio sung by the infamous singing traffic lights. The original musical b**ches. Step aside Schuyler Sisters, here come the Heathers. Why? Well, Nadia and I both like Heathers and after exposing Jaime to the horrors of what it is, she liked it too. What other reason would we need? Also, we were inspired by the video to the right. It is iconic.
4. What are we starting with first?
As a group, we'll probably start with lyrics, lines, or choreography, luckily we've already decided who will be who. I will be Heather McNamara (nicknamed Heather McNamarama because pronunciation) Jaime will be Heather Duke (nicknamed Heather Duck because of the photo to the left.) And Nadia will be Heather Chandler for obvious reasons.
Other than that? That's about it, actually. I really hope we can pull this together in three weeks. I mean, if we can do a full musical in that time, one song should be fine. Right?
One of the messages that can be taken from Supergirl, Welcome to Earth is to never judge someone based on their background and heritage. This is because a lot of the time your assumptions are wrong, or the story has been twisted a bit.
Illusion An often forgotten element of Performing Arts is the wonderful theatrical magical Illusion…… What is illusion?
Well, Google says an illusion is an act of deception. Some optical illusions are pretty cool to watch, but an illusion can also point to an erroneous belief or false perception of reality, which is where you start getting into hallucination territory — seeing things that aren't there.
Musical theatre? What the hell is that?! Well, either you're new to my blog, or you're just completely clueless. Well, "Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humour, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole" Dear Evan Hansen - DEH tells the story of a young man with a social anxiety disorder who so yearns to make a connection with his peers that he fabricates a relationship with a deceased student to become closer to the boy’s family. When a classmate commits suicide, shy Evan Hansen finds himself at the centre of the tragedy and turmoil. In a misguided attempt to comfort the boy’s grieving family, Evan pretends that he was actually good friends with their son. He invents a fabricated email account to “prove” their friendship, and when a fake suicide note makes its way online, Evan finds himself the unintended face of a viral video about loneliness and friendship. As his social currency skyrockets, Evan is drawn deeper and deeper into the lie. His relationship with his actual mother wanes in comparison to that of his “shiny new family.” He finally lands the girl of his dreams, and most importantly--he’s no longer invisible. Eventually, Evan is forced to make a decision: Will he give himself over to the fantasy he’s created, or will he bite the bullet and risk losing everything he’s ever wanted? With a fast-paced new score from fresh young songwriting duo Pasek and Paul, (not to mention a few Tony awards), Dear Evan Hansen has become an instant hit among theatregoers everywhere. Hamilton - Lin-Manuel Miranda's Pulitzer prize-winning transformation of Ron Chernow's biography, Hamilton, into a hip-hop musical is taking the world by storm. At the center of this groundbreaking multi-award-winning new musical is the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton, whose ambition drove him from the position of Caribbean outsider and bastard child to American war hero and George Washington's right-hand man. In the process, Alexander Hamilton powerfully shaped America as we have come to know it -- and gave us all a template for what it means to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and realize the American Dream. This exploration of Hamilton's political mastermind is being called "the most exciting and significant musical of the decade." David Brooks of the New York Times declared seeing Hamilton to be "one of the most exhilarating experiences I've had in the theatre." With heart, humor, and respect, Lin-Manuel Miranda's new musical breathes vibrant, colorful life into this story of America's founding fathers. Mean Girls - How fetch! After years in the making, Mean Girls: The Musical hits the stage with the favorite characters from the movie, powerful music, and timely pop culture and news references. Janis Sarkisian and Damian Hubbard welcome the audience to their “Cautionary Tale”: Cady Heron is the new girl at North Shore High School in Chicago, desperate to fit in and find friends. Janis and Damian befriend the new girl, and when The Plastics set their sights on Cady, Janis convinces naive Cady to be their “friend” in order to bring down Queen Bee Regina George’s reign. Along the way, Cady loses herself, her friends, and her crush, all for the chance to be popular and loved. When dethroned Regina gets revenge by releasing the Burn Book, Cady is brought down and must mend her broken relationships with Janis, Aaron, and even Regina. With dynamic songs for young performers, Mean Girls is an anthem to friendship, loyalty, girl power, and being true to yourself.
Wicked - Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz takes place before L.Frank Baum’s classic Wizard of Oz story ever began. Before Dorothy was even alive, two young girls met in the Land of Oz, became rivals, and then friends. One was born with emerald green skin, with a brilliant mind and a fiery spirit. The other was classically beautiful, with great ambition and incredible drive. The green-skinned Elphaba was ostracized by her family and by everyone at school. The beautiful Galinda was destined to be forever popular. Over the course of Wicked, we discover how these two young women became rivals and then the closest of friends – and how they ended up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. Originally starring Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, Wicked is an amazing vehicle for two powerhouse actresses, and also features a large, strong ensemble. All synopsises taken from Stage Agent
The slave trade triangle was the route and plans of how African slaves got from Africa to America and the 'pit stops' that the boats had. The first passage carried guns and other weapons from Europe to Africa. The middle passage took the slaves kidnapped from Africa to America to be sold as unpayed workers. The third passage took the tobacco and cotton harvested by the slaves over to Europe. The triangle then started again.
In Social Studies we have been learning about American Slavery. One of the topics we covered was Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. Above is my slideshow on the matter.
Aha, boy, am I funny. A part of our final score in science, we need to do a practical. And this practical, unlike last year, doesn't need to be an experiment. I took this opportunity, and the fact that I already had my clay out, to use my 'creative juices' and do a small project. My aim is to create a replica of a strand of DNA out of clay. The equipment I used was five different colours of clay *duh*, a shaping tool, and an oven. The following is the best method I could muster: 1. First, separate the five different colours of clay into the amount you think you'll need. You'll need more of whatever colour you want for the strands (the edges - I will be calling them 'edge strands' to make sure no one gets confused) as they are longer than the nucleotide bases. 2. Next, roll out each colour into snakes the length you want them. This may vary depending on how big you want the final product to be. Roll two really long snakes for the edge strands and pretty short and thin snakes for the bases. 3. Take a single edge strand and place it in an s shape
<-- Like the orange in this but without the other things in it. 4. Take the other edge strange and place it in a flipped s shape. Adjust until it is in the shape of a DNA structure you like. 5. Take your smaller snakes and roll them together. Let's say you're using red, pink, blue, and yellow. This may sound weird but depending on what kind of clay you're using this is how you stick them together. If there's another way you can put two colours together, do that. These will be the bases. Only roll the blue with the yellow and the red with the pink. This is because of the structure of DNA, as base pairs always consist of adenine with thymine or cytosine with guanine. You'll need enough bases to fit onto your edge strands. 6. Place the bases along the back edge strands, cut them if needed, and stick them on, making sure there's not too much or too little space between them. 7. Once you are glad with the way it looks, bake in the oven and let set (or just follow the instructions required for the kind of clay you're using.) Here are my results:
Let's have a quick discussion: What I have made is a 2D DNA double helix. While making it, I decided that the pink was the cytosine, the purple was the guanine, the blue was the adenine, and the green was the thymine. These are the basic DNA nucleotide bases. Under the 'complementary base-pairing rule' (A biology rule, discovered by Erwin Chargaff, that states which other base that each base is paired with) cytosine is with guanine, hence pink with purple, and adenine with thymine, hence green with blue. These bases link together the sides, or the strands, of DNA and make up 'nucleotides.' Nucleotides are altogether made up of a sugar, a phosphate, and a base. This means that the strands of the DNA are made up of the alternating sugars and phosphates. There are sections in DNA that control our features, those are called genes. These all put together, now as DNA, in the shape of a twisted ladder (double helix, a shape proposed in an academic paper co-written by James Watson and Francis Crick), create what we know as chromosomes. Humans have 46 chromosomes altogether, with 23 from their mother and 23 from their father. Chromosomes are located in the nucleus of each cell that makes us up as humans. The nucleus is thought to be the control centre of the cell as it contains the instructions on how a cell should function. It's safe to say cells are... complicated. If you want to complicate it any more, you could talk about DNA replication. This the process of DNA making a copy of itself during cell division. It's kinda hard to understand but what I get of it is that the DNA 'unzips' the opposite strands by detaching the base pairs, fragments of DNA attach to the end of the lagging strand (usually the bottom strand) while pieces of RNA (like DNA but without thymine) called 'primers' attach to the end of the leading strand (usually the 'top' strand) adding new complementary nucleotide bases to the strand. Once all complementary bases are together and more are added, an enzyme called DNA ligase 'seals up' the sequence. Following replication the new DNA automatically winds up into a double helix. So. Yeah/ A final evaluation: As I was trying to create the model, I attempted to create a 3D model. This... didn't work. I first tried to wrap the clay around pipe cleaners, they didn't stick. I couldn't get my hands on any floral wire, which would be ideal for the model I was going for. If I were to do this again, I would attempt a different method to try and make a 3D model, as that would be a lot more accurate. To do that, I would try to use a different pattern, a sturdier kind of clay, floral wire, and floral foam. In theory, that would help create the 3D model that I originally wanted.
