The Taste of Colors

The art and design course of Jinhua Junior High School, Kang-Ching-Lung Streets Project, were developed by all the art teachers in the school. To take a closer look at where they live, the teachers and the students walked out of the classroom, planned the routes for exploration, and conducted field studies in the neighborhood around campus. By wandering on the streets, observing and recording various architectures built in different ages, they were impressed with the findings: there were so many different styles, forms and textures of buildings on the streets. Back in school, they moved forward to discuss the suitability of materials and tried to find a better replacement for the buildings. Slowing down the pace and paying more attention to the details on the way to school, the students were amazed at what had been overlooked by them before.

Mrs. Lin had lectured at Hsiyu Junior High School for over a year. At first, the student showed less confidence in the art class because there hadn’t been a regular art teacher in the school, and they hadn’t received much art training before. But to her surprise, Mrs. Lin discovered the children, living on the Penghu island and endowed with great knowledge of oceans, were keen to distinguish the colors in their everyday scenery. By identifying the colors, mixing colors of paints, and relating the color to their personal memories, the students depicted the flexible sceneries and the poetic moments of this island. In the color charts they drew, the intimate bond between them and their hometown was also vividly shown. For the children who were about to leave the island, the lesson was a precious gift from Mrs. Lin, who was born in Penghu as well. She wished when they are apart, by reminiscing about the colors, they can remember their beautiful hometown.

There wasn’t any barred window in the house where Mrs. Tsai used to live. When she moved to Hualien, Mrs. Tsai still couldn’t find an ideal window for her own house. She wondered why most of the windows on the market are with similar materials and styles. Why did the traditional wood lattice windows, which are with beautiful patterns and fascinating structures, disappear? Therefore, she embarked on a journey of finding the ideal window with the students. At first, Mrs. Tsai worried it would be too complicated for them to apply the design principles to their design of the structure. To her surprise, after a semester of art and design courses, the students had developed the competence to observe and practice. They already could use cardboard to create a well-structured prototype with the principles. It made her believe that cultivating aesthetic sensibility through practices in life was profound. The children were endowed with infinite potential, and life is the best field to trigger their creative power.

After the art and design course last semester, Mrs. Chen expected to take the students to sense more beauty in life. She thus came up with a new lesson, The Picnic Lesson in Everyday Life, which brought food and life to the class. The students prepared food by themselves, and during the process, they applied the concepts of art and design to their work. Mrs. Chen invited a Home Economics teacher to interdisciplinary cooperated with her. They translated the compositional design rules: dots, lines and planes into knife skills: dicing, julienning and slicing. With different thinking of making food, the students created amazing dishes which they even couldn’t believe were made by their own hands. The most important part of the lesson was encouraging the students to walk out of the classroom to physically experience things in life with all senses.