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.

 

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.

 

spring semester under way!

artwork by mckenna age 12

Although we always loose a couple of kids to softball (boo hoo, Izzy and Maya! see ya in the fall), we also gain a few kids. A big fat welcome to our newest students Anna and Christina, both awesome artists!

anna's first class

Allergies are hitting the artists pretty bad this year - we are doing some outside drawings and one of our kids just can't participate and another wears a mask. When Jacques Anthony's allergies got him down nothing, as far as art goes, was striking his fancy. After giving him about 10 project choices I knew he would have to do something all about play. Mary's first suggestion for him to draw what he feels was a good one (Mary is definitely a future teacher) but it only lasted a few minutes. I knew he would need something collaborative. I started doing this thing called "follow me" with the little kids on the music murals. It's a kind of follow the leader with pencil - you make a continuous line and the kid chases you with their pencil, very fun and engaging. We started that on his "how do you feel drawing" and soon that drawing became the surface of a planet and the pencils space probes drawing lines, making tracks and sending pictures back to earth. McKenna then continued the project with him and the drawing that resulted is amazing!

art as play, mckenna and jacques anthony

once again a huge thanks to our volunteers!

What would we do without the help of our awesome volunteers McKenna and Katherine? The kids love them, they work their butts off and they make great art. Here they are showing their contributions to the community paper peace quilt.

little kids: color experiments & notebooks

I am in the process of hanging a wall full of circle paintings the big kids made (slow going). To add to this "mural" and to get right into color mixing, the little kids made big circle paintings. click here for more on this lesson. Most of the kids got right into the painting, the others who didn't were content to work in their notebooks experimenting with smudgy chalk pastel and slick oil pastel. I had forgotten how chaotic it can get when the little ones paint (8 little ones truly equal 15 big kids). Thank God for my volunteers Melody and Katherine! more...

artwork by maeve age 4

artwork by cate age 5 - in progress and finished product.

artwork by jenna age 5

artwork by eli age 5. oil and chalk pastel experiment.

heart art

Happy Valentines Day! This week we made Styrofoam prints inspired by Jim Dine and others. Here is our inspiration wall:

Below are some of the prints. Not sure who's is who's but they all are very beautiful and interesting. We will be exploring more printmaking this semester because it is so much fun! These prints are made by indenting styrofoam with pencil, painting the plate, then pressing it on paper.

mary's page of prints. she really got into it.

painted frames and artwork

izzy, marisa and maya make various forms of artwork for their painted frames.

Last week we painted frames donated by artsit Susan Rehberg. This week the kids could choose their medium to fill their frame - painting, collage or printmaking. Click here to see more from this class.

love this! inspiration notebook work

chloe makes interesting and energetic heart artwork

art in a series - drawing and collage

artwork by chloe age 7. chloe's graphics in this are amazing. line weight and mark variation make this an interesting and sophisticated drawing.

This week was all about art in a series. I used a series of eucalyptus by artist Jim Morgan as the point of departure and brought in real eucalyptus for them to work from. I was amazed at all the different ways the kids came up with for drawing the simple plant. Click here to see more eucalyptus drawings.

 

artwork by Sadie age 5 - where most kids used a totally different way (style, colors, line weight, idea) of drawing each time sadie changed only the design of her pictures. very interesting designer we have in sadie!

collage

For this project I showed the kids the many different ways art can be produced in a series. I gave them tri fold papers, collage and drawing materials.

artwork by Christiana age 8

Below is one example I showed the kids of work in a series by artist Blanca Gomez. Along with tradition work I always like to include some fun and quirky current art and illustration. You can see how it influenced Christina - then she gave it her own touch. The kids always respond well to work with a sense of humor.

Paintings by Blanca Gomez

artwork by Sadie age 5 - the designer at work!

 

odds n ends: open studio time

artwork by jacques anthony age 9

artwork by izzy age 9 - izzy made this in anticipation of 3-d work next week.

artwork by jake age 9 - just a small glimpse into the wonderful world of jake's drawing.

 

color! the winter session begins...

artwork by mary age 9

our new ad campaign

art show!!!

Here's everybody (except John and Evan who had to leave early and Natasha and Mikey who were sick - boo hoo!). Sorry about the bird in your face Jacques Anthony, but the other group shot didn't come out!