(This part of boots belonged to my aerobic instructor's daughter, it kept on bugging me whenever I crossed the shoe rack. Last Friday, I could not stop myself, I captured the picture).

I loved my Red Hot boots,
When the light shine on it,
I see 'twinkle-twinkle little stars'
The red colour brings brightness throughtout my day,
The toughness provides me with comfort and safety too,
That is my Red Hot boots.

My journey through Scriblink on 23 August 2010

I began with:---

. 3 circles (magenta)
. flowers' stalk (light brown)
. leaves on the stalk (light green)
. 2 red flowers
. 2 yellow flowers
. 1 light blue flower
. 2 orang/red flowers
. 1st butterfly (outline purple with yellow inside)
. tried to draw 2nd butterfly orange but it turned out to become a flower instead.
. 2nd blue butterfly (but later erased by someone)
. 3rd red butterfly
. 2 blue birds (erased by someone later)
. 1 black bird
. 3 brown bouses with windows and doors (but someone cover them with a big brown mountain)
. Text below the houses bearing "Home Sweet Home", (later cover by someone with grasses)

My reflection:
At the begining, after watched everyone have and set on their space, I chosen mine at the bottom so as not to invade my members sapce. Hmmmm. what to draw, I use circle and in magenta, I put 3 circles facing upright. Since I loved flowers, why not made some flowers grew from them. I drawn stems/stalks then put some leaves on them. Flowers followed, I did not use only 1 colour but various colours - red, yellow, light blue, and the last 1 orange which was supposed to be a butterfly.

Since I have flowers, there must be butterflies - so followed by 3 butterflies but 1 got erased. After that, I looked up the whole picture, found that there are some empty space on the left hand corner, hmmm... may be I put some birds - resulted 2 blue birds - on the right hand corner - there was a little small space, I put a black bird.

At the middle right, there was some empty space - I was wondering if I can draw some house there and I did drawn 3 houses with windows and doors (but later were covered by a big mountain, oh no....) At the bottom of these houses, I wrote 'Home Sweet Home" (fully grown grasses covered it up later).

After seeing that, I decided to leave.

My last phrase -

THE CHANGING OF ENVIRONMENT AND LIFE.


.

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

I am a little buzy honeybee
Yellow and black is my coat
See me gather
Hear me buzz
Flower to Flower I will go
Bring back honey to my Mighty Queen
To make you sweet Honey that you Love.

Reflection of Picture 1

If you can give an age, what age can you give to this person?
24 years old
(In the picture, the girl look about that age, young and care free. The bone structures perfect no abnormities. The skin looks smooth – no wrinkles.)

What is her status?
Married
(As I am going through the interview, it only struck my mind that the person that I drawn was me, at that time I was married)

Who does she stay with?
She was staying with in-law with big family.
(I married into a very big family, and was very scary as I am an only child from my own family, just my mum and me, therefore I need to really adjust myself into my husband’s big family)

Who are there in the big family?
Granny, father and mother in-law, 1 sister in law, 4 bothers in law and also brother in-laws' wives.
By looking at this picture, who is she more likely to be attached with?
She is very attached with her own mother and also her husband.
(My mother was my pillar before I was married, and later when I was married, my husband became my other strong pillar – every now and then I use to travel back to my mum place to seek her comfort)

The way she is standing, where is this she at present?
In the market place.
What is she holding in her hand?
She is holding a basket of small flowers for selling to donate to the children charity.
(Somehow and other, I link back from when I was 24 back to now at present – I would love to give out my own money to the charity but was unable therefore the only thing that I can do was to sell thing then give the money to the charity organisation.
Then why did I use flowers to represent the item that I am selling and why not flag?
The nature, it is symbolic of transitoriness (I mentioned later that some are withered) of Spring and Beauty.

In looking at the person, what emotion is she more likely to express in the way that she is standing?
Shy, unable to talk much, unable to ask the pass by to buy, very shyly holding up the basket, showing people that need to sell the flowers.
(At the age of 24 years old, I do not talk much; I will be exactly like the person in the drawing, smiling shyly holding up the basket of flowers, asking in a low tone voice, “Would you like to buy?” and the people passing by need to strain their ears to listen)

If she is currently at the market place, can you describe the place?
Very busy market place, a lot of people walking pass her, some look at her strangely, some wondering what is she doing.
She standing like a statue, without uttering many words, just smile.
Did she manage to sell any flowers?
Some not much, some too got withered.
By the way of this person is standing, how does she like to be seen by others in the society?
Obedient, follows to the rule, respects the elderly, no nonsense, soft spoken.
(At 24, without experience I will do exactly what others asked me to do and without asking why? I will follow the rules strictly, I respect my elderly, and I can’t voice out or would not voice out much)

In her line of work, what does she do?
office admin.
How is she doing at her work place?
She is hard working, well like by most people, but there are a small group that are jealous of her.
(I was very hard working, I stayed back and sometime took back my work if I can’t finished it, my boss and some respected me very much, but there was a small group felt jealous, and may be they felt threaten.)

In this picture, how can she make her work place better
Work hard as always; be more nice to the jealousy group, hoping one day she will wins their heart too.
(Yes, I tried to be nice to them, but somehow and other they managed to make me sad)

What is it about with winning her colleagues heart?
so that everyone will work in harmony in the office, rather than having a negative environment, where everything will be chaotic, back stabbing each other.
(I do not like to have quarrelsome environment, I love peace in the office, where everyone is genuinely friendly to everyone.)

What does she love to do during her free time?
Lying down with a novel in hand, and loss herself in the fantasy of the novel.
(I love to read, and that is the only way I can de-stressed – but of course during 24 I do not know much about stress)
What genre of novel does she love to read?
Fantasy, romance, vampire-romance, shape-shifting thriller.
Which is the one that she loves the most?
Shape-shifting thriller.

If there is anything that irritates or frustrates her, what will that be?
Back stabbing by others.
(I felt betrayed when back stabbing happened to me, and it made my world chaotic, and also very sad)

If there is anything that makes her angry, what will that be?
When got scolding for no reason from other people.
If she has a chance, what can she do to minimize the problem?
Avoid getting into trouble.
(Yes, at 24 I always tried very hard to avoid getting into trouble, and I will always go out of my way to do things for them just to make them happy to minimise being the victim.)

If she has a chance to make a wish, what would that be?
Wish that people will buy up all the flowers fast so that I can donate the money to the children charity.
What is it with the children that she cares so much?
They are a group of unfortunate special children, where the centre needs a lot of money to provide them with a special education so that when they grow up, they can be independent and fend for themselves.
(Somehow, at this point I started to jump back to the present time, when I am helping to sell tickets for the Autistic Centre for a fund raising project)

By the way of this person is standing, which part of the body that she likes the most?
the hair
What is it about her hair that she likes?
abundance, moving freely, long and straight.
What can she do with her hair?
She put on a hair band to keep it in place.
(Why hair? Hairs – energy, the very top of the human body – the energy, the top and higher forces of the body, abundant of hair – linked to the will to succeed.)

Is there any part that she wishes to be different?
the leg, it is too straight.
How can she do better with that?
she can actually can relax a little bit, so that it won't be like she is standing like a statue.
How would that help?
if she is relax, then she won't be so tension and anxious, then she perhaps will able to speak more freely, rather too tension until she is almost mute, unable to ask people to buy her flowers.

Is there anything that stand out to you, more than anything else?
her skirt
Why is that?
it moves so freely, when the wind blows.

If you look at the picture again, if there was a word or a phase that you associate in creating a title what will it be?
An unfruitful day.
(There are some more flowers that are unsold)

Any thoughts that you want to relate to your drawing?
Mistakes to be corrected, wishes to make come true
(Mistakes – If I will to be 24 again, I will make sure that I will not be step on, I will make sure that I will voice out my unsatisfactory both in the office as well in my family, I will built myself more strong in my mentality, and etc.
Wishes – I wished that I can have more knowledge, I wished that I can be more capable to help the children that need my help, I wished that there are more rich organisations that can help to adopt some of the centres)

Shirley Awe: Pls allow me to do teh summary
In this picture, this 24 years old lady who just got married is currently staying with the in-law with a big family. She is attached to her own mother and also husband
She is currently at a market, holding a basket of small flowers for selling to donate to the children charity. She is shy, unable to persuade passerby the need to sell the flowers. People walking pass her, some look at her strangely, some wondering what is she doing.
She like to be seen as obedient, respectful and gentle.
She is an office admin who work very hard, well like by most people, but there are a some that are jealous of her. She believe that she can make her work place better by working hard as always, be nicer to the everyone, hoping one day everyone will work in harmony in the office
She love to read shape-shifting novel during her free time
She get frustrated with back stabbing by others and scolded for no reason. She prefers to avoid getting in trouble during any of that incident
She wish to help the special children by donating money so the centre can provide them a better place for special education which can help them to be independent later.
She loves her hair as it is free, long and straight and occasionally she put on a hair band to keep it in place. She prefers her legs to be more relax, with that perhaps she will be able to persuade more people in buying her flowers.
[7:59:51 PM] Shirley Awe: You named the work ‘An unfruitful day’.

(The whole interview process last 59 mins)

My 1st protrait - Lady at banquet

Here is my 1st attempt in SUMO - a protrait of a lady attending a banquet.

Sunflowers - by Vincent van Gogh

Sunflowers
1888
92.1 x 73 cm
oil on canvas

Vincent van Gogh painted these sunflowers after leaving his native Holland for the south of France with the dream of starting an artistic community. He began to paint sunflowers to decorate a bedroom for his friend Paul Gauguin.

The series of paintings was made possible by the innovations in manufactured pigments in the 19th Century. Without the vibrancy of the new colours, such as chrome yellow, Van Gogh may never have achieved the intensity of Sunflowers.

These most famous of all sunflowers in art hold at their heart a simple parable about the brevity of life; they are at varying stages in the life cycle, from withered and wilting to vibrant full bloom.

When sunflowers were introduced from America in the mid 16th Century, news of their vast height and radiant flowers spread rapidly through Europe. The first description, written by the Spanish botanist Monardes, reached England in a book entitled 'Joyful news out of the new found world'.

The name sunflower was already used for related flowers, especially marigolds, and the idea of opening to face the sun and following its course across the sky also applied to daisies - originally 'day's-eyes'.

A flower motif inspired by daisies or marigolds, but exaggerated to look more like the sun and its rays, appeared in Roman mosaics and medieval church carvings long before sunflowers themselves arrived. In this sense the new sunflowers seemed to embody ancient traditions, and this was echoed in the Latin name Helianthus, deriving from the name of the Greek sun god Helios.

Meanwhile, in America, the Incas had made sunflowers the symbol of their god, but in 17th Century Europe sunflowers came to represent kingship at its most vainglorious. For instance, Charles I of England and later Louis XIV of France were referred to as the Sun King.

Like royalty, sunflowers lost favour and 18th Century gardening manuals suggested banning these oversized plants from flowerbeds. Instead they became useful crops, producing oil from the seeds, and also fibres, dyes and medicines.

But sunflowers were to rise again in artistic status. In the 19th Century the aesthetic movement, led by fashionable figures such as Oscar Wilde, popularised the sunflower as a motif in decorative art. Far more enduringly, Van Gogh imparted new heights of meaning and popularity with his series of sunflower paintings. In these he sought to reflect the heat of the sun during the summer at Arles, and its creative energy. (Notes from BBC painting)

Upon looking at the Sunflower painting these came into my mind:
- the colours are vibrant, striking
- the bright yellow gives me the emotions of happiness, brightness
- the full bloom, fullness of life
- the wilted bloom, browns - showed the tiredness, the near to death because the stem still in green, meaning there is still life but near to death.
- the fulfillment of cycle of life
- the community living together, understanding of how all live together, going through the cycle of life.


I still remember the very 1st time I saw this painting of sunflowers, it was in Dr Teng's clinic, I was very down that day, because I have not yet achieved my sales of the month, as I opened the door of the clinic, the painting was hung directly facing the door. As I looked at it, that moment it really gives out a cheerful, bright, vibrant colour. I commented to Dr Teng that it was really a very nice painting, very suitable for his clinic, as there are so many sick people coming in, and when they see the painting for sure it will cheer them up, and he agreed with me. But, he told me that it is a replicated one. I knew that Van Gogh is a famous painter, but do not know his paintings.

After that incident, I went looking for sunflowers poster, but could not find one. But as years go by, the sunflowers still in planted into my mind, until this assignment which gives me the opportunity to research and write about it.

Pairing assignment with Shirley

Process of the facilitation -
Questions asked:
Picture 1:
• If you can age, what age can you give to this person?
• In this picture, where is she at present?
• If she is currently at home, can you describe her home?
• In looking at the person, what emotion is she more likely to express in the way that she is standing?
• By the way of this person standing pose, in front of the gate, let say there will be people passing by, what can the people see her emotionally?
• If this person is to make the clothes that she is wearing now, what colour will she choose?
• If she happens to be in a situation, what will provoke her to be angry?
• If you look at the picture again, if there was a word or phrase that you can associate in creating a title what will it be?

Picture 2:
• If you can give an age, what age can you give to this person?
• The way he is standing, where is this person at present?
• In this picture, what is the thing that he likes most?
• What type of fashion does he likes?
• In looking at him now, what emotion is he more likely to express now, in the way he is standing?
• If there is anything that irritates him or frustrate him, what will that be?
• If he has a chance, what can he do to minimise the miss-communication?
• In his line of work, what does he do?
• What is he holding in his left hand?
• What title or phrase can you give to this picture?

After the projection – I summarised the process – putting back the originated story of Shirley after talking more through the dynamic process. I helped her to discover and explore more. I help her to learn from both pictures, uncovering many layer of the two pictures, to communicate into different level of unconscious.

The whole process of Shirley's reflection can be read from her blog.

Each picture, we took about 1/2 hour.

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

Thunderous and violent wave pounding you every now and then,
Nothing breaks your strong powerful structure,
You still stand so tall and mighty,
You provide light to those who are lost,
It gives hope to them, when they thought there is none.

Reading assignment

Title of paper:
Hospitalized children drawing their pain: the contents and cognitive and emotional characteristics of pain drawings.


Publication:
Journal of Child Health Care

Method:

Aim:
The aim of the study was to examine how children’s illness and hospitalization are associated with the contents and cognitive and emotional characteristics of their drawings about their pain experiences. The pain drawings of the hospitalized children are compared to healthy control groups and the impact of the child’s illness diagnosis on the content, cognitive quality and emotional disturbance of the drawings in the hospitalized group were analysed.


Study Design:
Group 1:
37 inpatients children at a university hospital in four wards. Aged from 5-11 years
Hospitalized children’s diagnoses:
37.8% (1/3) problems in locomotive systems, such as rheumatoid arthritis, myositis (inflammation of muscle) and Legg-Perthes-Gakve (inflammation of both bone and cartilage)
8.1% Accidents
16% problems in various tumours = cerebral tumours, Wilms’ tumours and kidney tumours.
10.8% Hematologic diseases
2.7% Diseases of circulatory organs
5.4% metabolic disorders
2.7% Diseases of nervous system
8.1% Diseases of urinary tract
8.1% of digestives system

Group 2:
22 healthy children – 8 from a day care centre (Kindergarten) aged 1-7 years, 14 from a small local elementary school aged 7-11 years.

The hospitalized and control groups did not differ in their age and gender. The whole sample consisted of 59 children (37 girls and 22 boys) The children’s aged ranged from 5-11 years.

At the time of data collection the children had been in hospital from 1 day to 26 weeks. All had undergone examinations and treatments, more than half of them had undergone an operation, they were in hospital either from examination or preventive or conservative care. Pain experienced could be a symptom of a diagnosed illness, or caused by medical or diagnostic procedures or basic nursing. Pain was caused by accidents such as falls, blows and burns. These children also had ‘inexplicable’(which cannot be explained) pains which were not caused by a particular illness or injury.

Procedure:
For Hospitalization Group
• 10 mins on average to complete drawing task.
• A4 paper
• A set of 6 colours – red, blue, green, black, yellow & brown
• Draw a picture that showed a lot of pain, and then talked about what they depicted (means show in a form of picture).

For Healthy Group (received identical instructions to the hospitalization group)
• Please draw a picture that shows a lot of pain and tell about what you have depicted.
• Child-carer & teacher instructed them on routine drawing task in their curriculum.

Result : content of the pain drawings.


Discussion:
Drawing is a universal language of children and the use of drawing has been
widely recommended as a means of assessment of, and communication with,
children. The children experiences of illness, pain and hospitalization are highly stressful, and they like other children faced difficulties in expressing out their pain meaning. This study also show meaningful differences between ill and hospitalized and healthy children in the cognitive and contextual (according to) dimensions of their pain experiences.

• The results concerning the emotional experiences of hospitalized children
was counter intuitive (immediate understanding), showing more emotional disturbance among control children.

• In the thematic (a test used in psychiatry – whereby to interpret a series of drawings) content indicated higher demands, distress and strain among the hospitalization children. They also experienced more often as targets of medical procedures.

• Somehow, there are some hospitalization children drew their own actions aiming to managing the pain.

• Hospitalization children drew to expressed in technical, non-human and operational aspects of pain, indicating control and non-emotionality.

• Healthy children ides of pain involved the family coming together, seeking and receiving consolation and a deeper expression of emotions.

• Similarities in both group children preferred to draw themselves in pain or a part of a person in pain, or placed their pain in a certain part the body.

• Hospitalization children showed lower cognitive performance in expressing pain.(especially older children who are frightened about pain which may have tendency to regress to a more primitive level of reasoning)

• The reason being the hospitalization children the low cognitive performance level may lie in the fact that illness and frequent hospitalizations interrupt children’s school participation and thus training of cognitive skills and also the children’s motivation and concern about their illness. The poorer cognitive quality lack of human details and decorations in the drawings may reflect a lack of concentration and energy, which is sapped by illness and fronted by ‘being brave and enduring’. The adult-like control and formality depicted in the drawings of the hospitalized children supports a multiple interpretation of cognitive aspects in child development.

• The healthy group children expressed more emotional disturbance than the hospitalized children, indicated by strongly shaded and disintegrated drawings, because this group may have included children with acute family problems and conflicts in their lives, which explains their greater emotional disturbance.

• Wherelse for the hospitalization children they have parents, siblings and friends to care for their illness, which becomes emotionally compensates for their suffering. Hospitalized children receive attention and love, which reflects their harmonious emotional development.

Conclusion:
Children’s drawings are used frequently in educational settings for evaluation and in clinical settings for diagnosing the quality of family relations, emotional disturbance and subconscious processes. Drawing is one of the most natural ways of expression among children; it can provide information about the drawer. This study even though is a small study, in a specific illness related focus, given the results that show meaningful differences between hospitalization children and healthy children.

In this study demonstrates that children’s pain stories can be read from their pain drawings. The evaluation of children’s drawings seems to be a relatively simple and useful aid in clinical practice to find out children’s pain-related emotions.
The drawings from the children may provide guidance for intervention aiming at pain alleviation and at reducing distress and anxiety, to strengthen faith in using children’s drawings in clinical practice and encourage further research in this important area. The moral obligation of nursing is to shed light on the experiences of those most vulnerable within health care.

I may not be in the BOLD hospital play group, but art therapy may be one of the important useful medium for the children in the hospital to express out their pain.

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

THEME: SURVIVAL - THAT IS THE ONLY SURVIVING WAY THAT I KNOW.

The mountain of rubbish smell and when the wind blows made it worse. Hands of mine, kept on digging and digging. Remembering that there are still brothers and sisters of mine, waiting for food to be put on the dinner table. Oh, when can I be free from this. Dreaming of better times, that was so far away. But meanwhile I need to dig and dig to feed brothers and sisters of mine.

Sumopaint - Kaleidoscope effects

(Picture 1) It started as a simple drawing


(Picture 2) Now it turning......


(Picture 3) To a total different drawing.


Yin-Yang
Negative and positive forces
Both are not the same
Both can't leave without the other,
Both form the unity of the Universe.

Tribute to Rembrandt.

I got this video from one of his fans, enjoy the paintings in this video and the music too. Have fun, everyone.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn(Part 2)

NIGHT WATCH (Night Watch refers to a lookout)

My 1st encountered with Rembrandt paintings was the Night Watch, while exploring to get myself a painter profile for this assignment. It is in this photograph from the museum, I can see some of the visitor looking at the painting. It is a very big painting. Mr Rembrandt painted it in full human size.

When I looked at it, as if the main character is having his foot walking out from the painting or both character walking forward, the effect was stunning.

Night Watch or The Night Watch or The Shooting Company of Franz Banning Cocq (Dutch: De Nachtwacht) is the common name of one of the most famous works by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn.

The painting may be more properly titled The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch. It is on prominent display in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, being the most famous painting in their collection.

Key elements
The painting is renowned for three elements: its colossal size (363 x 437 cm ~ 11ft 10in x 14ft 4in), the effective use of light and shadow, and the perception of motion in what would have been, traditionally, a static military portrait.

This painting was completed in 1642, at the peak of the Dutch Golden Age. It depicts the eponymous company moving out, led by Captain Frans Banning Cocq (dressed in black, with a red sash) and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch (dressed in yellow, with a white sash). With effective use of sunlight and shade, Rembrandt leads the eye to the three most important characters among the crowd, the two gentlemen in the centre (from whom the painting gets its original title), and the small girl in the centre left background. Behind them the company's colours are carried by the ensign, Jan Visscher Cornelissen.

The militiamen were also called Arquebusiers, after the arquebus, a sixteenth-century long-barrelled gun.

Rembrandt has displayed the traditional emblem of the Arquebusiers in the painting in a natural way: the girl in yellow dress in the background is carrying the main symbols. She is a kind of mascot herself: the claws of a dead chicken on her belt represent the clauweniers (arquebusiers); the pistol behind the chicken stands for 'clover'; and, she is holding the militia's goblet. The man in front of her is wearing a helmet with an oak leaf, a traditional motif of the Arquebusiers. The dead chicken is also meant to represent a defeated adversary. The colour yellow is often associated with victory.

Painting's commission
The painting is said to have been commissioned by the Captain and 17 members of his Kloveniers (civic militia guards), and although 18 names appear on a shield in the centre right background, the drummer was hired, and so was allowed in the painting for free. A total of 34 characters appear in the painting. Rembrandt was paid 1,600 guilders for the painting (each person paid one hundred), a large sum at the time. This was one of a series of seven similar paintings of the militiamen (Dutch: nl:Schuttersstuk) commissioned during that time under various artists.

The painting was commissioned to be hung in the banquet hall of the newly built Kloveniersdoelen (Musketeers' Meeting Hall) in Amsterdam. Some have suggested that the occasion for Rembrandt's commission and the series of other commissions given to other artists was the visit of the French queen, Marie de Medici, in 1638. Even though she was escaping at the time from her exile from France by her son Louis XIII her arrival was met with great pageantry.

The composition of the painting was very different for the period. Instead of showing the figures in a neat orderly fashion, where everyone was given the same prominence and space on the canvas, Rembrandt has painted them as a busy group in action.

Around 1715 a shield was painted onto the Night Watch containing the names of 18 people, but only had ever been identified. (So remember if you paint a group portrait: draw a diagram on the back to go with the names of everyone so future generations will know!)




The most stand out character in the painting:



Captain Frans Banning Cocq (dressed in black, with a red sash)
My interpretation –
Black knight defended the war – dressed in black
Red is associated with blood, wounds, sublimation.
In Roman times red symbolized triumph. – Red Sash.

His lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch (dressed in yellow, with a white sash).
Yellow knight brought with him the light of sun – illumination, magnanimity and dissemination
White – purity, pure spiritual aspect, the Chinese’s Yang-Yin – White sash.




The small girl in the centre left background (dressed in yellow)
Yellow - shower with the light of sun

She holds the militia’s goblet (chalice - symbo of the human heart, symbol of containing - power of talismans)
and wears a pistol (protection, watchful) and dead chicken (food, nuture, re-energise) at her waist. The claws of the chicken specifically represent the “Clauweniers,” this regiment. Additional symbols are scattered throughout the painting: a helmet is decorated with the motif of the Arquebusiers, the oak leaf, and the lieutenant’s coat bears three crosses like the Amsterdam coat of arms.

I might not be right totally, if you do have any comments, I would like to learn from you. Thanks.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn(Part 1)

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age.

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, his later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high, and for twenty years he taught nearly every important Dutch painter. Rembrandt's greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.

In both painting and printmaking he exhibited a complete knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam's Jewish population. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization."

Brief Rembrandt's History:-

As a boy he attended Latin school and was enrolled at the University of Leiden, although according to a contemporary he had a greater inclination towards painting; he was soon apprenticed to a Leiden history painter, Jacob van Swanenburgh, with whom he spent three years. After a brief but important apprenticeship of six months with the famous painter Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden in 1624 or 1625, which he shared with friend and colleague Jan Lievens. In 1627, Rembrandt began to accept students, among them Gerrit Dou.

In 1629, Rembrandt was discovered by the statesman Constantijn Huygens, the father of Christiaan Huygens (a famous Dutch mathematician and physicist), who procured for Rembrandt important commissions from the court of The Hague. As a result of this connection, Prince Frederik Hendrik continued to purchase paintings from Rembrandt until 1646.

At the end of 1631, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, then rapidly expanding as the new business capital of the Netherlands, and began to practice as a professional portraitist for the first time, with great success. He initially stayed with an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburg, and in 1634, married Hendrick's cousin, Saskia van Uylenburg.

In 1635, Rembrandt and Saskia moved into their own house, renting in fashionable Nieuwe Doelenstraat. In 1639, they moved to a prominent house (now the Rembrandt House Museum) in the Jodenbreestraat in what was becoming the Jewish quarter; the mortgage to finance the 13,000 guilder purchase would be a primary cause for later financial difficulties. He should easily have been able to pay it off with his large income, but it appears his spending always kept pace with his income, and he may have made some unsuccessful investments. It was there that Rembrandt frequently sought his Jewish neighbors to model for his Old Testament scenes.

Only their fourth child, Titus, who was born in 1641, survived into adulthood. Saskia died in 1642 soon after Titus's birth, probably from tuberculosis. Rembrandt's drawings of her on her sick and death bed are among his most moving works.

Rembrandt lived beyond his means, buying art (including bidding up his own work), prints (often used in his paintings) and rarities, which probably caused a court arrangement to avoid his bankruptcy in 1656, by selling most of his paintings and large collection of antiquities. The sale list survives and gives us a good insight into his collections, which apart from Old Master paintings and drawings included busts of the Roman Emperors, suits of Japanese armor among many objects from Asia, and collections of natural history and minerals; the prices realized in the sales in 1657 and 1658 were disappointing. He also had to sell his house and his printing-press and move to more modest accommodation on the Rozengracht in 1660. The authorities and his creditors were generally accommodating to him, except for the Amsterdam painters' guild, who introduced a new rule that no one in Rembrandt's circumstances could trade as a painter. To get round this, Hendrickje and Titus set up a business as art-dealers in 1660, with Rembrandt as an employee.

In 1661, he (or rather the new business) was contracted to complete work for the newly built city hall, but only after Govert Flinck, the artist previously commissioned, died without beginning to paint. The resulting work, The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, was rejected and returned to the painter; the surviving fragment is only a fraction of the whole work.[20] It was around this time that Rembrandt took on his last apprentice, Aert de Gelder. In 1662 he was still fulfilling major commissions for portraits and other works. When Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany visited Amsterdam in 1667, he visited Rembrandt at his house.

Rembrandt outlived both Hendrickje, who died in 1663, and Titus, who died in 1668, leaving a baby daughter. Rembrandt died within a year of his son, on October 4, 1669 in Amsterdam, and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Westerkerk.

In a letter to Huyghens, Rembrandt offered the only surviving explanation of what he sought to achieve through his art: the greatest and most natural movement, translated from de meeste en de natuurlijkste beweegelijkheid. The word "beweechgelickhijt" is also argued to mean "emotion" or "motive." Whether this refers to objectives, material or otherwise is open to interpretation; either way, Rembrandt seamlessly melded the earthly and spiritual as has no other painter in Western art.

At one time about ninety paintings were counted as Rembrandt self-portraits, but it is now known that he had his students copy his own self-portraits as part of their training. Modern scholarship has reduced the autograph count to over forty paintings, as well as a few drawings and thirty-one etchings, which include many of the most remarkable images of the group. Many show him posing in quasi-historical fancy dress, or pulling faces at himself. His oil paintings trace the progress from an uncertain young man, through the dapper and very successful portrait-painter of the 1630s, to the troubled but massively powerful portraits of his old age. Together they give a remarkably clear picture of the man, his appearance and his psychological make-up, as revealed by his richly weathered face.

In a number of biblical works, including The Raising of the Cross, Joseph Telling His Dreams and The Stoning of Saint Stephen, Rembrandt painted himself as a character in the crowd. Durham suggests that this was because the Bible was for Rembrandt, "a kind of diary, an account of moments in his own life."

To be continued....

TOUGAIM Online 210710 - reflection (Part 2) contd

Once the person gives some flesh in to the story of the picture, invite the person at all time to link to the object of the projection – “Could you look at the picture again, which part of the person you like best?” At all time, link back to the picture, do not go verbalize missing the point of linking it to the drawing.

As the person describe to you, you are going to hear metaphor, symbol that is to take you to a literate level, eg. Which part of the person you like best? If he said leg which is a metaphor for offering mobility, freedom, which means that he is not stuck, not fixed, the legs is moving already. But leg also means grounding, security, connection to the earth, stability. So in term of legs, the picture indicate to the drawer, the leg is strong and well connected, not unbalance, not whent the wind blows he will falls.

Then invite the person to draw another person of the other gender, you might see a certain common style, certain contrasting style that will speak out from the picture. Note to notice – we cannot depend on a single painting, before certain things will surface. The whole idea is not to depend on one reliable hypothesis, whereby to make a straight forward simple interpretation based on a single object.

SUMMARISING
Another ways to do the projection and connection -
• If you look at the picture again, if there was a word or a phase that you associate in creating a title what will it be?
• If you get the chance to say that if this picture were to be drawn by a person what will the person be liked, a girl a man who draw this picture?
• Is there anything that stand out to you, more than anything else?
• Can you say something about the head?

Example of summarising:
“So this young man, is very cool. All the world would like to see him nice and cool, relax and would like the world to take him seriously, respectfully and he prefer to be treated like an adult. Having the capacity to be an adult. From what I heard that this person has not find the social identity that indicate by the face of the social setting. So he is standing outside “

When we summarising it, then we will be putting it back to the originated story of the client who by that time will be able to talk more – into a dynamic process.

The key thing is not about all quick interpretation but is always a process of engagement. As a facilitator we need to communicate, helping the client to discover and explore. Be his willing partner to learn from, uncovering many layer of the picture, treating it as a communication to a different level of unconscious that is – social culture unconscious, collective unconscious, all will be express through the manifestation of the projecting drawing.

TOUGAIM Online 210710 - reflection (Part 1)

Picture/drawing – choose a size not too small, but must be enough within the vision for a person’s view, A4 is the most commonly used.

Thing to notice:
- Time it takes, if the person is to take an hour to draw the picture, meaning that he/she is spending his/her time to certain details upon the tasks that he is delivering.

- When as a facilitator, asking the questions – ask open questions because we would not want to lock it down meaning like – we should said draw a person and not draw a man or a women

- Preferable as the person to draw a full person and it happens that he/she is drawing the head only, ask him/her “I wonder you can draw a full person”

- Once the person has finished drawing a very clearly person’s gender , you could go to the next question “Is this a female or a male person you drawn? If it is male could you draw a female person?” But most of all, must be patience to wait for the 1str figure been drawn 1st, the reason being that you would not want to freeze up the person to draw the intent person, give him/her an option to draw a figure – give the wide degree of freedom in term of gender and in term of age.

- Not to lead the person to a particular image. If he/she happens to ask “shall I draw myself” Just tell him/her “Just draw a person”. The reason – if the person who draw himself, is connected of representation of himself/herself for himself/herself to the world. Wherelse to draw a person, you are working indirectly which leads to projection = key factor. If we said SELF, the person is more conscious of self representation. If to draw a person = neutralised.

To watch out
• how the person draw, eg. Where he/she starts first – the head, the leg, the hair, outline of the figure, when he filled in the inside of the figure and etc.
• How the person uses the paper,
• How the figure seems to filled in the paper.

QUESTIONING – will allow the drawer to inbuilt attributes to it as you started to flash out the skeleton metaphorically, uses more of open questioning, and go for projection questioning.

Examples:
Projection question:
• What gender is this person?
• If you can give an age, what age can you give to this person?
• Where is the person at present, in this drawing?
• Would you like to look at this person, what is the thing that he like?
• I wonder could you look at the picture again, in looking at this picture of a young man, I imagine whether he is in fulltime education, or has he left full time education, what is the more likely to be his status now?
• So, if he is in school, with a full time education, in the secondary education, how good is he in school?
• If he is an average student, what is his favourite subject in school?
• If he likes sport so much, any particular sport that comes out from your mind, when you look at the picture?
Emotional questions:
• In looking at him now, what emotion is he more likely expressing in that way he is standing?
• Being relax in his natural self in that picture, how does he to be seen by his friends or by the people that is passing by?
• What is his favourite colour at the moment?
Then from here you move on to other questions which can be projected further, a less concrete one)
• What is his ambition?
• If he has any quarrel with anyone, who is it that he most likely to have go for advice?
• For a 14 years old, he must have a social relationship, how is he and his family relationship?
• Which part of his body does he like most?
• If it is the leg, what is it about his leg that he likes most?
• And if being strong, what does the leg allows him to do?
• Is there any part of the body that de hoes not like?
• If he did have muscles in his arms,how does it make his life slightly different?
• If this person is a full adult, what will provoke him to be angry?
• If there is anything that irritates him or frustrates him, what will that be?

By this way, a story wills starts to emerge. This kind of Projective work using
visual medium which are focusing on a human figure drawing. When we start to draw we never think consciously – as we just draw. In here particularly the drawing, any kind of expression will contain what is conscious and what is unconscious, 80% is projected out is unconscious, as we did not think twice.

After the projection, the next thing is to flash it out more (Importantly to remember = for children may not be able to answer the question, because of their limitation in term of their speech and cognition of their intellect, they may not be able to engage, so it means that you have to work deafen)

In any kind of projection – do not move too fast as you want the person to feels safe, you do not the person to feels tension to project out his consciousness or unconsciousness. Using the interview technique.

(to be continued)

Pairing Assignment

Hi, Shirley here is my the other person. Lets have fun, yeah?