Please Draw!

Until I post my next exciting entry please direct yourself or your children to this link. It's so much fun! You can draw and paint on the computer, frame your picture. I drew a knobby knee-d chicken which I then placed in a bright insanely ornate virtual frame, and hung it in a gallery. What could be better?

http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/

Vivid Layers: Art Teacher Blog Directory

Here's a link to some fine other Art Teacher Bloggers. Because you know I'm not the only one! (Insert smiley face here!)

Vivid Layers: Art Teacher Blog Directory

The Year of the Rabbit (Or “How to Make A Chinese Dragon Mask to please the finickiest of kids”)

We like to celebrate a lot of holidays at my house. Usually they are actually the ones that pertain to our backgrounds (which for my melting-pot kids is anything from Russia, Spain, England, Ireland, and Poland) but sometimes we turn to outside cultures for our festivities. We’ve hung lights for Diwali and made Dia de los Muertos cookies.  

And we always decorate for Chinese New Years. Except for this year. This year we forgot.

Months later my seven year old remembered Chinese New Year and he began to do what any poor neglected seven year old would do.  He began to hound me to make something with him. He was quite specific. He wanted to make a Chinese dragon costume. A FULL costume. The kind that usually is worn by several people. No can do, I said. But I was willing to work with him to make the mask.

It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to make some again with my class! Here’s what we did.

MATERIALS:

• Scissors
• 1 Milk Jug, washed well and dried.
• Newspaper, torn into strips. Around 1- 1.5 inches wide, the width of one page. But any size can work.
• Water
• Flour
• Acrylic Paint           
• 1 Sheet Heavy white construction paper or craft foam
• A few additional sheets of brightly colored construction paper

HOW TO MAKE YOUR MASK:

Upside-down jug with paper mache strips painted white and ready for color!

Time to paint!

1. Spend some time on the Internet looking at Chinese Dragon masks. Find some favorites and print them out for inspiration.
2. Cut the jug in half from the top to the bottom.  We used the side with the handle as a “nose” (although we later decided to cut the nose off!)
3. Measure the child’s eyes and cut eyeholes and a mouth. Take a good look at a Chinese dragon mask picture to get the right shapes.
4. Make Paste of 1 parts flour to 2 parts water. There are other recipes involving glue or boiling that you can find online but this is the simplest.
5. Dip strips of paper into the paste, squeeze off some excess by dragging paper through your fingers but don’t make it dry. Apply it to the jug horizontally. Continue to add more strips, allowing for overlap. Do it until the mask is covered. Use shorter strips where needed such as between the eyes. Let it dry. It will take about a full day to completely dry.
6. Do the next layer vertically. Alternate layers. We made 3: one horizontal, one vertical and the top one was horizontal again.
7. Cover your paste and put in the frig between dryings. You can put it in the microwave for a few seconds each time you take it out.
8. You can start making shapes with your paper. We added horns, big lips and bulgy eyes.
9. You can do the last stage with white paper to make it more paint-ready but I just painted the last dry stage white before applying colors.
10. If it needs a little more drying use a hairdryer but at a distance.
11. Paint!
12. Once paint is dry you can glue in teeth, add strips of colored paper as a dragon mane, add feathers or whatever you like.

Here’s how my son’s mask turned out! 

Happy Year of the Rabbit!

Blogging with Purpose

Those of you who have been tuning in to read my rants about suburban living, attempts at self-motivation, and the stresses of parenting while trying to find a new direction in life may notice the focus of my blog shifting a little.  What's happened, you ask? Well, I'll tell you.  If you remember my very first posting (and I know you all read my blogs repeatedly and can recite them by heart) I said this would be the Year of Paula. Well, I’m as surprised as anyone to be able to say it really became just that.

Here is what I’ve done within the last  10 months in no particular order:

• Passed the Art Teaching praxis test.
• Received my certification to teach art in NJ which now requires me to find gainful employment. No more bon-bon eating for me.
• Started sketch work on a mural being designed at the request of my town Mayor.
• Started a home-based art program “Picasso’s Basement” where I have been teaching young children from my newly cleaned (although not quite renovated) basement.
• Vacuumed the floor. At least twice.
• Returned to the workforce as a substitute teacher in the local elementary and middle schools (High school schedule was too difficult to work out with my kids. Although that did not stop the automated system from attempting to retain my services as a fill-in for the male Gym Teacher. Those who know me may appropriately guffaw now.)

So here’s what you’ll probably see a lot more of in my future blog posts:

• Art projects and lessons
• Photos of cute kids “arting”
• Photos of my basement
• Craft ideas
• My sketches

Here's what I promise you won't ever have to see:

• Photos of me from behind picking up the mess left behind by cute kids who were busy "arting". Not to say I won't clean up but no photo of me taken from behind can be allowed to be publicly displayed. Photos of me from behind are THE main reason why digital cameras have all been equipped with a DELETE button. I promise you it's true. Check Wikipedia. 

Here’s what I promise to not lose:

• My sense of humor.
• My appetite.
• My mind. Here’s hoping.

STAY POSTED FOR CUTE KID PHOTOS! 

No more checking YouTube for cute cat videos!**

Just check in with me!

**although those darned Scottish Fold kittens sure are adorable....

Inspiration Smells Likes Peroxide

I am completely distracted in my own home. Oh sure, I can paint and assemble and color at home. But the ideas, the real thinking, the actual inspirations and subsequent designs just don’t happen there. Much as I’d like them to.

Here’s last month’s scenario: I realize I must come up with a new illustration in order to create a self-promotion piece. I know I need to start the idea process but as I putter about my house this seems to become my priority list:

1. Check email and Facebook. Must get messages out of way so I am free to work.

2. Clean drafting table.

3. Pick up every sock that my husband and two children have left balled up on the floor.

4. Snack to boost energy.

5. Check email and Facebook again. Someone important may need to reach me.

You can see where this is going. This all leads to a marginally clean house and a remarkably spotless yet empty drafting table.

The following day after discovering that cleaning products do not make me want to draw, I go to get my hair cut and colored. In order to cover the vicious gray that my hair has been blessed with since my early 20's my Miracle Worker, the phenomenal Russell of Russell Scott Hair Designs in Clark NJ, must gunk me up and leaves me to sit in the corner in shame with my head resembling and a putrid bowl of ice cream covered in Magic Shell. I look ridiculous. I reek. The Black Eyed Peas are pounding in the speakers and I am stuck sitting next to two Kardashian-wanna-be housewives who are deep in discussion about their jewelry. 

BUT there are no balls of socks. No dishes to do. No one calling me “Mommy”. And so, sketchbook balanced on smock-covere lap, I find that my mind is actually functioning. In fact on that one visit alone I came up with a slew of sketches for a series of animal musicians AND a sketch for a painting of Coney Island that I’ve been thinking about for years. AND the start of this blog entry.

Here’s where I do and have done my best creative thinking:

1. Hairdressers

2. Laundromat

3. Doctor’s Office

4. At the drivers wheel when on long drives by myself (rare but precious occasions)

So fellow creative friends, where do find your inspiration?
Where do you do YOUR best thinking?

National Tiki Day

I'll start by acknowledging that I am waaaaaay overdue for a new post. And believe me, more are on the way. But I have an excuse. My poor old emac computer (posthumously named Fergus) completely, utterly and totally fried itself. I'm talking toast. Flambe. It took 3 days for my attic to stop smelling like a weenie roast. Luckily some kind friends have helped me set up shop again and I'm back to work.

So until that new post is ready I give you some inspiration from my wonderfully creative 7 year old who, last week, declared a "National Tiki Day". It required the wearing of costumes during dinner, an abundant supply of fruit (perhaps to humor the hungry Tiki gods), and of course some great homemade tiki decorations. 

Given that a busy day of football watching and shelf dusting was already in progress we had to use whatever supplies we could find to make our tiki decorations. "And what would that be" you ask? (Go ahead, ask!)  Why, the cardboard inserts from toilet paper rolls and a strand of holiday lights. The results speak for themselves. 

Museum Surprises (or how to get your child to turn off his Nintendo)

7 Year Old Inspired by Durer

Thanksgiving weekend is often one big overload; too much driving, too much food. This year I decided to break up our annual upstate NY Food n’ Family fest with a day trip. As a child my parents often took me to Williamstown Massachusetts and I wanted to take my kids to see it. The drive, I remembered, was always beautiful, hilly, full of steep inclines. There were terrifying moments with Dad, in the driver’s seat, making hairpin turns at 75mph while pointing out the window to show me the sights.

We'd usually go to the Sterling Clark Institute. I told my sons about this huge museum packed with French Impressionists.  Mostly Renoirs. I didn’t like Renoir as a child and I’m still not a huge fan. But I was always enthralled by the huge painting of Nymphs and Satyr by Bougereau and a naive wood carving by Gauguin that hung over a doorway.

Neither of these pieces was there anymore. Even the Renoirs were on tour. And the museum itself, while impressive for a small collection, was pretty…well…small. But what they do they do well. And they currently are running a fantastic Albrecht Durer exhibit. http://www.clarkart.edu/exhibitions/durer/content/exhibition.cfm His skill was amazing, his imagination mindboggling, his fantastical woodcuts and engravings were ground breaking at the time. But for a seven year old I wondered how a day in the museum would compare with a day full of TV and Wii games.

I’ll tell you how it compared. My boy fell in love with the artwork. There was a Durer Drawing Day underway when we arrived. He and I were handed pads of papers, portable drawing boards, some supplies, and the opportunity to sit for a lesson with a “real artists.” We concluded that WE were “real artists” and skipped the lessons. We headed in to see the drawings.  My son came face to face with some amazing pieces, some fantastic symbolism. Three-headed spewing dragons.  Angels battling demons. Odd looking roaming animals. What more could a kid want?

He didn’t want to copy Durer's artwork. He wanted to be inspired.  People sat all over the floor, drawing in corners, on benches, against the walls. I saw many children that were clearly gifted and spent hours on one piece. My boy’s drawings were quick and constant. He plowed through the drawing pad. He refused to leave. I dragged him to see other artwork but he was too moved by the Durers. He came back and drew his own demons. Angels. Gravestones. Skeletons floating into the sky. We went back to my mother’s house later and he dragged out the paints. He painted more.

I bought him a book of Durer’s woodcuts. “My first art book” he said proudly. It was a good Thanksgiving weekend. My boy is inspired and I’m truly thankful.