Visual Arts as a Strength

During my educ 406 class, we were given choices to pick a group we wanted to be in to study the elements of art. There were four groups to chose from. I chose to be in the visual arts group because I always liked doing visual art projects and feel it is one of my strengths.

I remember what we learned in elementary, we did alot of different types of visual arts. I had alot of great teachers to learn from. I had alot of opportunites to be creative and make things, they were the best times from my memories of elementary school days.

One of my favorite visual art activities that I learned in school is making things using moose hide. My grandmother Mary use to come to my school and teach us how make coin purses, baby moccasins, necklaces, earrings, key chains and purses with beads, rabbit fur and moose hide. I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn about my culture in school. Some people might call this type of art handi-crafts. But I think its a very creative visual arts project, because you can be creative and put what you feel into making different things from moose hide. My grandmother was patient, helpful and a very good teacher, she also spoke to us in carrier, which was another bonus. We learned to make creative art projects and learn carrier. During the summer holidays, my grandmother went to aboriginal art shows to dispay her products, and she sold all kinds of crafts during these art shows. When we were done making necklaces, baby moccasins, keychains, or coin purses, sometimes my grandmother asked us if she could bring our creations to these art shows to sell for us. I was surprised my grandmother asked the girls and I if she could take our creations to art shows because we were just beginners and just learning how bead. My grandmother was proud of our creations because we were fast learners and able to make things with her on a weekly basis.
I really enjoyed learning how to bead, use moose hide and rabbit fur to make different visual arts creations, I look forward to sharing this part of my strength in visual arts with students that I will be working with in the near future.
I wanted to share this memory, of my learning native art work using moose hide from my grandmother. I have a lot of respect for my grandmother, and very happy that she was willing to teach us her knowledge and have the patience to teach young people about First Nations Arts. This is one of my future goals, to teach what I have been taught, and share a part of my heritage because Im proud of my heritage. :)