Experiencing Art Week 2

(This is a really old penny.)

What an awesome week! I am so pumped that most of the kids worked in their art journals. Almost everyone had filled at least two pages. That is wonderful. This is a wonderful first step to seeing things as an artist does.


This week the kids drew pictures of their bedrooms in their books. We talked about them at length. I loved hearing about their "studios". A child's bedroom is a great picture of the art going on in their mind. I also asked the children to bring in something special from their bedroom. It was a great show. Here are some of the things they said and did:

-Neil brought in a Lego scorpion. "I love to build things for my room." he said.

-Ellie showed us a picture she drew of her bedroom. It was so interesting that she made her bed huge and her twins bed tiny. Maggie thought it was really funny.

-Max told us that he really enjoyed cutting out pictures of cars and comics. He filled many pages.

-I think it was Eian who drew us a picture of his walls with no furniture so we could see the art on his walls. His dad had painted him a skateboard. He also drew us another picture of his room with the furniture in it so we could see the layout of his room.

-Justus had a picture that didn't have rich artistic detail but it did have detail to scale. He included every window, door, shelf and even the heating vent.

-When asked what he brought to share Sam held us both of his thumbs. He had drawn two faces on them and gave us a little concert. The best part was I remember hearing him ask for a marker before class started.

-Maggie filled her journal with really funny stories. The above picture made me laugh out loud all day. She had about ten drawings just like it. I think Threadless should buy her design for a t shirt.

Here are some of the pictures of the fantasy rooms the kids designed.

The top picture is Neil's room. Notice the craft stick entry way. The next picture is Eian's room. He really concentrated on his carpet. The third picture is Sam's room. He brought his own stickers from home to use. The last picture is the room that Davis still hadn't glued when class was over. He wanted everything laid out just perfect before gluing. I wonder if he ever got around to it.:)

The most fun was had pilfering through all my junk. I let every child take as much home as they wanted. I can't wait to see what they do with it.

For next week they are supposed to draw, glue or take pictures of a dream they have had. We are going to talk about artists who use optical illusion in their work. It has such a dream like quality. Then we are going to spend the rest of class painting.

Here are some ideas you can use to help your kids this week:

- Talk about colors. Look at a favorite picture and have your child pick out the different colors. Have her/him draws those colors in circles in his/her journal.
-Talk about a dream you have had with your child. Have them draw a picture for you of your dream. Have them pick out colors to use with you.
- Spend time building a fort with your child on their bed.
-Take all the pillows in the house and build a palace. Have your child take a "nap" in the palace and then ask about the dreams they had.

Looking forward to talking to your kids about their dreams.
Mary

Experiencing Art Week 1

"Art lessons need to be in touch with Children's lives and center around things that have meaning for us all. Instead of exercises, art lessons need to be inspiring, tapping in to universal experiences and memories. Art or art lessons are real because they are deeply motivated from the artist's heart." George Szekely

I like to start each class by talking to the kids. We sit on the floor and talk about art and what they want to do in the class. Today we talked about what kind of art they most liked. Most of the kids said drawing was their favorite. A few enjoy making crafts. I also asked about their bedrooms and their beds. I like to know how each child decorates or plays in their own safe space. Here are my favorite points during that discussion:

-Maggie and Ellie are twins. Maggie tells Ellie, "Tell her what you made yesterday." Ellie says, "O.K." She smiles and whispers to Maggie, "What did I make yesterday?"

-Maggie tells us that Ellie likes to make things out of garbage and Justus tells us, "If we are using garbage I am out of here!"

-Sam tells us that he has some beautiful fish on his wall that have many different colors. He says he likes to go to the state park and fish. He also tells us that he was just bitten by a shark. I think Sam is going to be a writer.


We finished our discussion by talking about Art Books. I showed my art books filled with things that inspire me. It is my hope that the kids will use their books everyday and fill them with interesting items that we can talk about. As artists, we have to learn to see and feel before we can learn to draw or paint.

The kids made their art books. Here are some pictures of their work.




Encourage your kids to put things in their book and bring them back next week. It would be great for them to feel free enough to put more than drawings in their books. My art books are filled with pictures I have cut out, candy wrappers, cards, trash and anything else that seems too cool to forget about.

Next week we will be making small models of their fantasy bedrooms. They are supposed to put some things in their art book to share about their reality bedroom. Anything that they want to bring to add to their fantasy model will be happily used.

Here are some activities you can do to help them feel freedom in their art books:

- Look at magazines together. Encourage your child to cut out pictures they like and paste them in their art books. Have them write down what they liked about the picture. Walk around the house and find objects that remind your child of the picture they cut out.

- Take a walk. Encourage your child to pick up little scraps of "garbage". If your home is anything like mine they will find lots of interesting surprises under the beds and behind the TV. Have your child organize all the toys/trash/junk that he/she has found and take a picture to put in their book. Or you can have them draw a picture of their sculpture. Or they can even glue some of the junk in to their books.

- Go through the junk mail with your child. Have them make a collage from the patterns on the insides of envelopes.

Have fun!
Mary

Thoughts on How Children make Art

"If the sound of a drawing is exciting, it will be an incredible piece to look at."

"When a child looks up and says "I cannot draw," perhaps he or she is really saying, "I cannot play anymore; I cannot make an exact mark, and I know I am not supposed to make playful marks anymore without a line having to be something, or look like something. I cannot draw because I no longer feel how much fun it can be to just play with lines." - George Szekely in his book "How Children Make Art"


I am getting ready to start teaching Art in our home school co-op. It is a big responsibility and I take it seriously. I am trying to prepare and I am reading as many good books as possible by the masters.

Stay tuned for pictures from my class and our projects.

Also, stay tuned for a story about Miranda the Opossum!
Mary