SPRING: BRING IT ON!

One of the many beautiful
birdhouses created by the Young At Art Artists

I am really a big fan of Spring. It's a great season. It looks good, it feels good, it smells good. Plus it ushers in the start of the best time of year of all: Garage Sale Season. (I'll admit it. I'm an addict.)

I start getting excited about Spring pretty early on. Probably around November I'm already thinking about garden gnomes and wondering which of my garden flowers will get confused and push to the surface first. (This year the daffodils won--one fluke of a warm day and they were half-way up by mid-February.)

In Picasso's Basement's YOUNG AT ART CLASS (for 4-5 year olds) we are already getting ready! The young Artists took recycled cereal boxes and painted bird houses on them. I helped them holes in the front for the bird entrance. We glued the paintings to cigar boxes that had the lids removed. The Artists painted corks and drew in eyes and beaks to create birds and then glued them to popsicle sticks perches that we attached. They were so excited by their creations that they continued painting beautiful Spring scenes!

Anyhow, this is just a quick post to say HAPPY PRE-SPRING!  

MORE Face Jugs!

Before painting

In a previous post I shared our Face Jug project made from recycled jars and clay. The artists worked really hard on them. They were so incredibly varied and whimsical. Some were a little crazy looking, which is pretty appropriate considering how insane traditional face jugs can be.
 Here's a few more to share with you all. 

Enjoy!

Face Jugswaiting for their glaze to dry.

Add caption

Still to be painted.
Whiskers were made from
paper clips. 

Face Jugs and a Hurricane

Last night I dreamt that a nasty hurricane hit the East Coast, knocking out power, taking down wires, leaving people cold and cranky and bored and hungry. And then I woke up and remembered that it all was real. Such a crazy time and this Thanksgiving I had to be thankful that the worst that happened to my family was losing heat and power and having our schools closed. We were cold and bored but we had friends that lost property, faced terrible cleanups, were left temporarily homeless. Many people lost their homes, their cars, and were left in terrifying situations. I'm truly grateful that my family remained together, safe and secure.  I'm also grateful for the workers at the utility companies, the townships, and the volunteers that are still working trying to help get everyone back in their home

Last week my kids finally returned to a full week of school. And as I clean out my studio and straightened up my supplies (which, being in the basement, all ended up on top of my work tables to protect them from any possible flooding) I've found many projects that I should share.

I always like to break up my posts so I'll share one with you all here and post more later. 

So let's talk about FACE JUGS.

Jugs and urns with faces on them can be found in many cultures going all the way back to the ancient Greeks and the Egyptians. They were often crafted by African American slaves in America and there's speculation that they were used almost as a burial memorial because slaves were not allowed proper funeral markers. They later became a common American folk art. They are often grotesque or goofy and sometimes feature human teeth!

The Picasso's Basement artists looked at many pictures of the jugs. They each chose a recycled glass jar or bottle to work with and a big ol' hunk of Prang Das Modeling Clay which is  a little pricey but excellent because it doesn't crack and crumble like most air-dry clay. (Just see my Terra Cotta Warrior post to see what disasters await when you use the wrong clay.)

Zombie Pig Pencil Holder Face Jug/Front

They painted them with acrylic paint and later glazed them with Modge Podge.

Zombie Pig Pencil Holder Face Jug with 2 tails/Back

I always encourage the Artists to just go to town with their imaginations. I think you will see that they certainly did! I'll feature some more of them on my next post. 

Hamsa Hangings

I wish I could take credit for this wonderful craft project but I can't. It's straight from this fantastic eclectic site called Kid World Citizen. I have always loved hamsas, hand shaped "amulets" that are made in the Middle East and elsewhere. I have several hung in my house, all made in Israel where some of my family lives.

I knew hamsas were Islamic in origin but at this site I learned that Jews consider it the hand of Miriam, Moses's sister who protected and saved him, that the five fingers can be representative of the five books of the Torah, or Old Testament. And that some Christians call it the Hand of Mary.

The Picasso's Basement artists used old cereal box cardboard as the base and cut the shape, covered it with heavy aluminum foil, and painted the eyes on with acrylic paint.  They started designing into the foil with blunt pens and pencils but in the end all made the decision to use thin sharpies to really get the designs to pop! They also punched holes in them and strung them with a strand and a bead or two. The link I mentioned has a series of photos that show the process so I'll get to the punch.

Here's what our artists created!

My Big Fat Greek Vase

 

How goofy is this horse? Goofy!

After years of being dragged through museums as a child and rolling my eyes in boredom at the Greek vases I have finally come to appreciate their beauty. You know what it took? A HORSE! The Greeks could make some darned nice horses. They were pretty and simply shaped and their teeny tiny hooves appealed to me. They were sort of comical. I can always appreciate something beautiful that is also a little bit silly.

So when I showed the Picasso's Basement artists the various black and red techniques used by the Greeks to adorn their showier vases I showed them many examples featuring horses. Like these:

I had considered having them make their own vases but I don't have a kiln and I already have a two-week project planned for the near future so instead I had made a run to the dollar store for a batch of terra cotta vases. Perfect. Cheap enough to buy extras.

The only paints they were given were black and red acrylic paints. We looked at typical Greek patterns. I encouraged them to paint horses on their vases. I made an example to show them. Here it is:

My Sample Vase

But as all great artists do, they followed their hearts. One of our artists is a well known (at least in his school) authority on Greek mythology. He painted Argo, the ship for which the Argonauts were named.

                   

                        Our resident Greek Mythology expert

His original sketch for his vase

Here are some of the other gorgeous vases that were painted:

For more on Greek vase techniques please check out this excellent link at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Athenian Vase Painting

Draw Like an Egyptian

OK, OK, I know it's a TERRIBLE title for this post. Sometimes you just have to follow your heart.

Day 3 of Art Camp: Sarcophaguses

This was a very ambitious project for one day. Maybe too ambitious. But it worked out pretty well. 

Sarcophagus and Mummy

It required the following:

• Pictures of Sarcophaguses for reference
• Pictures of Egyptian Hyroglyphics and Symbolism
• Pencil 
• Brown Craft Paper
• Craft Acrylic or Tempera Paint and brushes
• Wide Permanent Markers (All hail the Sharpie!)
• A pre-made snack
• A lot more time than we had

We looked at many pictures of Egyptian art and architecture but in the end settled on some of the most fascinating elements: the burial techniques and the beautifully decorated sarcophaguses.

The children took turns lying on the ground on top of a strip of kraft paper and we drew their outline. Then we formed the shape into a  sarcophagus and the children drew in their faces and body shapes. I asked them to look at how the hair was drawn, the headdresses, the facial features and the symbols used on the bodies.  We discussed the symmetry of the design and I was excited to see one artist completely disregard this and make hers intentionally asymmetrical. The artists sketched in pencil first and dove right in to the paint. I bought a nice high quality gold and they loved using it.

As the paint dried we ate hummus, pita, and olives (along with fruit snacks and goldfish, of course) and played the mummy wrap game. This was a bigger hit than I imagined it would be and it was played several times.

Lastly we returned to our work stations and added detailing and outlines with our markers. A few kids chose to finish up their work on another day.

In hindsight I wish I'd saved this project for a regular art lesson rather than camp so the artists could have taken more into consideration: how to hold their arms, whether to give their sarcophagus a staff to hold, etc. But the artists created some very very beautiful work.

Russian Architecture

Russian Architecture: Day 2 of Art Camp

Time to recap another day of my first Picasso's Basement Art Camp.

On the second day of art camp we traveled to Russia. We looked at Russian architecture, some of which is noted for it’s Byzantine influences. Many of the more famous structures feature onion domes, bold colors, and arches. Working with only recycled items (shoe boxes, food boxes, paper towel rolls, and soda bottles) and some plastic baseballs covered with Paper Mache the artists began to paint patterns with craft acrylic paint. When it dried later they became architects and worked as a group to assemble their structure with I helped them glue together with a hot glue gun. VOILA!

Russian Building

Snacks were just sad that day. The children helped me bake (what should have been) delicious Russian teacakes. Unfortunately, I’m not Julia Child and I measured the flour incorrectly. They smelled delicious but they looked like this:

Bad Teacakes

Good Teacakes

Luckily I had a little of the batter left and I added some more flour. The next day we were able to enjoy them.

Nesting dolls were the next order of business. I used manila cardboard to cut out the shapes of nesting dolls and the children made all sorts: animals, constellations, and EEEK! serial killers (because when you don’t watch the kids as you clean up, those pop-culture themes just creep right in!)  But I won’t bother showing them here. The kids had fun with them but truthfully a good part of their energies that day were used on the Byzantine building. 

Lesson learned: One good project is all anyone needs!