HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center VISUAL DIARY Project.8 6/17/2021

 

HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center

VISUAL DIARY Project

Blog 8 6/17/2021

Trying something a little different we warmed up by playing a word association game called Scattergories. I said a category, “family”, and the students said the first word that they thought of related to the topic. The rule is that it must be a tangible object. Hui Fen said “bed”, Ru Ping, “house”, Julisa, “cellphone” and Pun, “key”. When the Category was “travel”, Jing Wei said, “plane and boat”, Lao Yu, “medicine” and Pun “chewing gum”, referencing an aid for helping pressure in your ears when descending. 

Next, we shared their homework which was their visual diary of the seasons.  In Susanna’s word “hot”, the “o” seemed to be sweating as it was surrounded by flames. Her second drawing depicted a whimsical woman sipping a cool drink and a dog panting. She drew a man cooking a BBQ at the grill bedecked in a green apron while much smaller figures sat waiting at the large table. Stella chose to depict the changing seasons around a central repeated drawing of a tree. Her second image, colored with brush markers, was simplicity itself yet clearly evoked the changing seasons.

Sook Fong drew a variety of small figures engaged in the different activities associated with each season. In one image she showed two different reactions to winter, the joy of playing in the snow and the exertion of shoveling it. So Sim drew a figure relaxing under a gumtree, two birds inside a circle and a figure holding a bunch of flowers to depict Spring. She chose graph paper to draw a house with smoke from the fireplace and another figure within a leaf shape. Ru Ping’s simple outline figures with arms around each other colored in brown, clearly suggested Fall. She chose to use two colors, red and green in her central drawing of a budding rose to suggest Spring.

Pun’s humorous graphics showed a small figure holding a giant plated turkey above its head for Fall and for Winter she drew figures decorating a Xmas tree. She drew two figures skating down the Chinese character for Winter. Miu, represented each of the seasons in typical vibrant colors. For Spring she included a small figure flying a kite within the circle which surrounded the Chinese characters. Hui Fen chose two colors to depict Spring, red and green using them to color a rose and a smiling sun. Her next drawing features the objects associated with the different activities for each season.

Lao Yu’s humor was evident in her addition of three tiny pools with swimming figures built into the design of her Chinese calligraphy. For the word Spring, she created the feeling of walking in the park with her colorful design. Julisa’s intricate drawings are always carefully colored. To represent the Fall, she drew two stick figures sitting back-to-back leaning into each other, suggesting a first date. Above them she drew falling leaves with smiling faces on them. Her delightful “good night’ is a drawing of a man hugging the moon, creating a sense of childish innocence. In “cool”, the Chinese characters seem to be floating in water surrounded by splashes and a lifebuoy. Jing Wei wrote the Chinese character for “having fun together” and designed each stroke with figures of people, birds, sprigs of leaves and flowers. It’s simply beautiful!

Our students collected ephemera for today’s class and chose 1 piece to tell its story. We asked them to categorize their collection and write words that came to mind when they looked at each piece. Julisa had a 1982 baggage claim form for JFK. This was when she traveled from Hong Kong to New York. She felt the pull of family and was excited yet nervous. Pun had a concert ticket she kept after seeing the Taiwanese band “Mayday” at Madison Square Garden in 2013. Her words were happy together and friendship. In 2014 Stella traveled to Beijing and toured the Forbidden City. She kept the ticket, and her words were tour bus and museum. 

Hiu Fen had some Chinese stamps from 2000 when she received a letter from a friend. She commented on how things have changed now that we communicate via WeChat. The last time she visited was in 2008 when she stayed in a hotel for the entire trip as so many of her friends and family had left. Jing Wei also had stamps from a letter a friend wrote from Sichuan. It evoked memories of homesickness and friendship. Sook Fong shared the certificate she received when in 2015 she walked a part of the Great Wall of China. Ru Ping, who every year returns to Shanghai to visit, kept the ferry ticket from the time she visited EXPO. Lao Yu also went to Shanghai EXPO and had a souvenir from that visit. She also shared the sticker she received when she was vaccinated against COVID 19. 

As they may not want to or be able to glue in some pieces, they learnt how to make mock-ups of three simple pockets. Lao Yu added the idea of recycling an envelope you already have. I shared my samples and Spica demonstrated how to layer their visual diary, by including the selected piece surrounded by simple line graphics, small figures, and the Key Word. We also encourage them to include color if they so choose. By dropping our samples into the group WeChat, we hope students have models by which to develop their own designs. Although we could have stayed after the end of class, today they were all off to a party organized by the Center. Let’s see what amazing creations are completed for homework.