Do Art Make Stuff

messy art!

Chrissy and Julia paint together. This piece went from printmaking to every color mixed to mud in a matter of 5 minutes. Although I was sad to see the original printed piece gone the girls were in their process and in touch with creative energy and experimentation. My philosophy is to lightly guide and then let them go. The final piece came out beautiful and is a rich shade of brown.

Kora age 6 is a quiet whirlwind with a true artist's soul. Here she has gone from printing to paint to crayons to markers. She is in constant creation in the class.

Love this collage by Sadie age 6. Sadie is bold and definitive with her work, never a hesitation. There's something about a table covered with a frenzy of collage material that excites me.

 

i love the paintings of 5 year olds

mural by oliver and alex age 5 - looks like we have the hand of a mom in there also with the spirals.

artwork by alex age 5

chloe is feelin' it...

Chloe is 8 years old and has been taking class with me for 3 (or more?) years now. She came in as the youngest and tiniest and is now an art powerhouse. Last year she was into building 3-d environments, designing characters and making things to play with. Through drawing I could see she had an excellent graphic sense but she only drew in class once in a while. This year I am amazed! Her focus and inventiveness is kicking into to high gear. So much feeling in her new dreamlike images. I am in love with her new work.

 

one on one with ryley

 

One of my favorite teaching experiences is my one on one lessons with Ryley. I have the freedom to follow his creativity anywhere it wants to go (and it goes!). In this painting activity he was amazed and fully consumed by the tactile experience, encouraging me ("Jacque, you've GOT to try this!") to which I had to decline (unfortunately my adult kicked in). This child teaches me so much about process, experience and experimentation. He's 5 years old and creatively fully in tact - it's awesome. To read my documentation of one of Ryley's classes click here.

fall session begins!

bold and powerful graphic style; looking forward to what else julia, age 7, will do this semester. she is fearless on the page!

inspiration notebooks

We started off our fall semester in each class with inspiration notebooks. Tiles, paint, craypas, sharpies and fingerpriting experiments made for a wide variety of artwork. The kids will work in their notebook every class. They are a place to play, record and collect.

a little experimentation

bridin, age 9, goes for abstract design and proportion in this painting. this is a nice departure for her since she is in a more figurative phase right now.

mixing colors right on the brush. Anna, age 7, uses a large house painting brush to make this little gem.

sadie, age 6, mixes mediums (sharpies and tempera) to create and interesting graphic effect.

summer art camp highlights

 

more about adult class

This summer my friend and fellow Artist/Teacher Jeannine Bardo and I are hooking up to team teach an adult art and creativity class. Jeannine often co-taught with me at Do Art! this Spring and we thought the combination of a creativity, imagination based approach (me, see my work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/artschool/sets/ ) and a sight based, realistic/skills based approach (Jeannine, website in progress) to working and art made a really dynamic and interesting teaching approach.

There are so many ways to see and do art, so what we are thinking is we expose the student to many possibilities thus making it easier (and more fun!) for the student to find their own truth and most natural form of expression.

We have been hammering out the details and the combination of philosophies, points of view and approaches are opening us both up to the infinite possibilities of art and personal expression. Within all of this Jeannine and I find our common ground in the idea that it is our job to help  students find their unique voice and natural talents.

So come check us out this summer! We have some interesting projects planed to get you "there". The cost is $175 for 5, 2 hour classes beginning July 21 at Bright Ideas in Bay Ridge. See flyer below for rest of details.

Spread the word!!! And remember art is fun!!!

introducing adult summer class in bay ridge, brooklyn!

Discover your creative self! This unique class is taught by a team of teaching artists who seek to inspire creativity and build skills. This class will be taught by Jacque Wadsworth (creativity based) and Jeannine Bardo (skills based), both artists and teachers.  We will explore a variety of mediums and approaches to help students find their own sources of art and inspiration. It is not a class about being shown a way of doing art but discovering your own way.

5 week course begins Tuesday, July 21st from 7:30 to 9:30 at Bright Ideas 249 86th Street, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Cost: $175.
Contact doartmakestuff@aol.com to sign up.

my all time favorite project!

collaborative abstract mini murals

This project is all about getting it down, spitting it out, being free, breaking rules (well, some rules you still can't put your entire hand in the paint like some kids always want to do and you aren't allowed to interfere with what anyone else put down) and anything else that I come up with in the moment of the lesson - the sensuousness of paint or what exactly IS a mark?  It's the perfect project to help the mind leave (not a lot of time to think) and because you move and rotate it's hard to get attached to what you put down. It's about responding to words as imagery and responding to what someone else has put down. It's about experimenting and playing and having fun. At least I do!

Here's how it's done: Two large sheets of paper are taped to the table, even more if there's room on the edges. Paint is lined up in the middle with brushes for all. Everyone picks a starting spot, I read a word I have pre-prepared then the artists respond by painting the word. Words begin as concrete (3 circles, 10 dots) and grow more abstract (squishy, funny, ethereal). The I call out "rotate" and everyone moves around  the table to the next spot. At that certain point of almost done-ness, we fill in all the white spots that are left. Lately I've been introducing cray-pas at a certain point. Over wet paint cray pas have an interesting effect thus encouraging experimentation. I also did it over scribbled paper last week.

When dry I cut the murals up and each artist takes home a piece. I have yet to do this project when the mural doesn't turn out gorgeous! Note: choose a yummy limited palette for best results.

 

 

artwork (top 3 images) by the 5th graders at Steven's Cooperative School of North Jersey. This group of creative kids just got it. By the end of the project they were shouting "art is freedom!" An art teacher friend of mine cringed while watching the video of this project when I say "you can put the wrong color brush in the wrong color paint". You have to teach them there are rules and then you are free to break the rules. The right color brush in the right color paint has it's place but art is reactive and experimental also.

 

I think adults benefit so much from this project, maybe more than the kids. Pictured artwork done at the Consciousness, Creativity, Community retreat at Lifebridge Sanctuary in High Falls New York. This group of 25 adults (poets, artists, musicians, healers, actors) actually broke into song during their mural making session.

artwork by the 4 and 5 year olds