Window

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A mother and baby look through a window at a view of wilderness and sky as far as they can see. As Sam, the baby, grows, the view changes. At first, in a cleared patch of forest, a single house appears, A few years pass and there is a village in the distance. The village develops into a city. Sam, now a young man, gets married, has a child of his own and moves to the country. Now father and baby look through a window in their new home. The view again is of a wilderness, but in a cleared patch of forest across a dirt road a prophetic sign reads, ‘House

With some projects I produce additional artwork where my concept for the exhibition needs it and I don’t necessarily exhibit every piece of book artwork. Baker provides the audience with the same viewpoint, a window, throughout the entire book. However, as the story progresses and time passes, the view that can be seen from the window gradually changes to show the consequences that occur over part of the boy's life. Changes that can be observed include building developments, a decrease in nature/ wildlife, deforestation, urbanisation and human population increase. The book ends with the boy, who is now grown up with his own child, stood at a new window with the view resembling the one at the very start of the book (and at the start of his childhood). Baker's carefully assembled collages are impactful as enable the reader to realise that the small changes made to the environment add up to produce threatening outcomes. How many animals can be found in each illustration? How many trees are there? How do the numbers of these items change as the story progresses?

p. 20-21 ) From Eden to Suburbia : Perspectives on the Natural World in Children's Literature John Stephens, Presentation of analysis: Students willgather together, where one by one, each pair will go up to the front of thegroup, display their particular illustrations that they had to focus on,including from Mirror and the dream view collage. They will then giveexamples of how both Jeannie Baker and the student incorporated the particularelements of shape, colour and/or texture into the artworks.

The cyclical nature suggests that the boy and his new family have moved away to start afresh but doubt sets in as the reader is left to wonder whether the process will occur all over again. To sum it up in two words, it’s about exponential change, accelerating change. The book is really a metaphor for the changes that are happening in the world, including Australia. In my head, it’s set in the suburbs of Sydney, somewhere like Campbelltown, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. All the birds and vegetation shown in the book can be found at Campbelltown.’ polished or smooth surface (e.g. of polished metal or silvered glass) that forms images by reflection.Draw another view from the same window before the first image in the book and / or after the last image in the book. In this learning opportunity, students will focus on the particular artelements of shape, texture and colour, expanding their knowledge of these elements. Students will be introduced to the picture book by Jeannie Bakercalled Mirror, which shows the comparison of two boys and theirfamilies, one in Sydney and the other in Morocco. Students will be able toapply their knowledge of the particular elements through focusing on specificillustrations that exist in Mirror as well as their ownartwork created in the previous lesson.

Kids will love searching for clues as to how old Sam is, and noticing all the changes that occur through the years. Sydney: Royal Botanic Gardens, (Sydney, N.S.W.), 1991 Z998034 1991 anthology criticism Abstract From May 1991- August 1992 an exhibtion on Jeannie Baker's picture book Windows travelled to seven Australian cities and towns. The exhibition of fourteen collages was accompanied at all venues by this resource guide and a picture book of the collages published by Julia MacRae books. Discussion of particular elements: Classwill come together as a whole, where the teacher writes three elements of artonto the board: colour, texture and shape. As the class have previously foundknowledge of the elements, teacher will ask students to explain what each element means in reference to art. This discussion should be colour includingthe primary and secondary colours, complementary colours as well as warm andcool colours (National Gallery of Art, 2013). Texture will be referred to as howa surface actually feels and looks (National Gallery of Art, 2013). The classwill discuss shape as a flat area that is enclosed by the use of edges orthrough a particular outline to achieve a two dimensional shape, with manydifferent shapes being used by artists (National Gallery of Art, 2013). In a sense, listening to information like that is something that everyone, I think, feels disturbed by, but it’s easy to think, ‘I don’t play a part in this.’ I’m trying to show exponential change, which is a concept many adults find difficult to understand, in a simplified way so that it can be understood. All the changes in the book have a pattern – all the natural things like birds, animals, trees, decrease exponentially alongside the manmade changes.’

The AusVELS standard that will be used as part of this learningopportunity is from the ‘exploring and responding’ strand in level 4, and is asfollows; ‘students comment on the exploration, development and presentation oftheir arts works, including the use of specific arts elements and techniques.They identify and describe key features of arts works from their own and othercultures’ (VCAA, 2012). Draw what that view might have looked like ten years ago and how it might look ten more years in the future. Look at each illustration and describe how the use of colour changes throughout the story. Why is this? How many different creatures can you identify in the illustrations? Can you find out more about some of them?