#8-Art Word of the Week: Fluency

This week's art word is fluency.  When I think of the word fluency, a sense of flowing or progression comes to mind.  According to Shirrmacher and Fox, fluency refers to "thinking that generates many ideas and solutions" (p.365).  Once I had created my imaginative person using objects around my house, my thoughts took on a sense of fluency that allowed me to come up with the likes and interests of the lovely Daisy Darling.

The Basics

Name: Daisy Darling
Age: 19
Born: in the city of Gardenia
Resides: in her parent's house called The Castle of Seeds
Occupation: Florist in training
Language spoken: English
Favourite food: florentine omelet





Daisy loves relaxing in the big armchair in her house.  Ever since her parents decided to get new furniture, she basically took it over as her own.  After a long hard day of work at her parent's florist shop, she loves to just plop down in the armchair and let all her worries slip away.

One of Daisy's FAVOURITE things to do is watch the Toronto Blue Jays play. She's been a proud supporter ever since she was a little girl, and still loves to go to games when she has the chance to go downtown.  Even though her hometown of Gardenia is far Daisy loves taking her two little cousins down there, since they get SO excited whenever the Jays score a run.  As for other sports, Daisy could not be less interested, especially when it comes to football and basketball!


Like any flowery girl, Daisy loves accessories. Bracelets, rings, earrings, you name it, Daisy has got it.  If Daisy wasn't going to be a florist, she'd probably be a make up artist, since she loves getting all dolled up...even if she's only going grocery shopping!

Daisy's number one desire in life is to travel the world.  She would love to spend her days relaxing on a beach and seeing the beautiful wonders the world has to offer.  Her travel list is long, including places such as Greece, Italy, Costa Rica and Fiji.  Her dream is to open up her own flower shop one day and visit different countries to get inspiration from the flowers there that are not grown in her hometown.

Once the day is done, Daisy loves to fall into bed and catch up on her reading.  Once she has had enough, she rests her tired eyes and slips away into dreamland.

EDUCATORS
The story of Daisy Darling is of course, completely fictional.  When creating Daisy out of different objects and then conjuring up her interests and likes, I realized that I was experiencing a sense of fluency that led my thinking to all of these different ideas.  Physically creating a "person" out of a variety of items and giving it a personality is a great imaginative activity for children.  There are endless opportunities for them to let their creativity shine by using materials in new and unique ways.  As an educator, providing activities that allow children to bring inanimate objects to life and create stories to go along with it are a perfect opportunity for children to be as expressive as they can.

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.).
         Belmont, CA: Delmar.