Toddlers Paint Valentines

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you all are enjoying this day as much as I am. Yesterday was a busy day at the OKCMOA. I started my morning with a great group of eager toddlers. We painted with "found objects."

When coming up with project ideas for my classes we are encouraged to focus on relating our project ideas to something from the permanent collection or our visiting exhibit. I have mentioned that Jason Peters is our awesome exhibit right now. I have had so much fun leading the kids through this and the parents love it too. It's fresh, exciting and I love to watch the faces of our visitors. They enter and mouths drop! Peters uses found objects for his sculptures. For this class we used found objects to paint with.

Sometimes we listen to music. I have a kid playlist that gets us moving, we start with The Imagination Movers, Paint the Day Away. I find all my music on iTunes. We also groove to The Laurie Berkner Band, The Wiggles, Raffi and more.



First my toddlers used a brayer to roll on pink paint. Most of the kids have never used a brayer. They loved to roll paint! We let this first step dry and visited the exhibit. When we returned to the classroom we used a heart sponge to stamp red hearts. (I cut heart shapes from kitchen sponges.) I have learned that sometimes it is easiest to give the kids one color at a time and with my small classes this works great.

Finally we used forks. I tell them this is to stamp, not to eat, and I go around to each child and dip the fork and show them we "stamp, stamp, stamp." They love repetition and making a word connection with motion. (like brush, brush, brush...dot, dot, dot, you get the idea) We used aqua paint for that and the fork creates neat little lines. We had so much fun!

You will need:
-drawing paper
-brayer
-3 paint colors
-sponge cut to shape
-fork

Here are some of our works!

Local

Just saw this in the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum E-News. All credits go to them! If you are local, I hope to see you at the opening Sat. night!

Oklahoma Artists Donate Guitars for Exhibition Giveaway In a fun twist related to its original exhibition, "The Guitar: Art, Artists and Artisans," the National Cowboy Museum has invited three Oklahoma artists to paint guitars that will be given away in a drawing at the end of the exhibition which runs from February 12 through May 9. Visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to enter the prize drawing. The decorated guitars were painted by Matt Goad, Erin L. Oldfield and Clint Stone. Museum visitors will be able to see and hold the guitars and take photos holding them in from of a specially design photo opp background that resembles Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium, home to some of music's most revered performances. Photo: Erin L. Oldfield with her donated and painted guitar.

Valentine Window Art

A beautiful fun project with toddlers this morning at the OKCMOA. First we gathered for circle time and read, What is Valentines Day? It is a short little lift the flap book that the children really enjoyed.
Then I spoke to the children about light. We visited the Jason Peters Exhibit and looked at how he uses light.





In the classroom I had contact paper taped to the table ready for the kids to apply cut tissue paper, printed cellophane and Valentine glitter. We finished by adding another piece of contact paper on top of that and glued a red construction paper frame to the top. To this we added peel and stick foam hearts. These will look beautiful in any window!

You will need
-contact paper
-construction paper for frame
-tape to keep contact paper flat
-scissors
-glue for frame
-cut tissue paper
-sequins and stickers

I found printed cellophane treat bags and cut those up too!

Stuck on You

It is one of my favorite times of the year. I love Valentines Day. I love all holidays really. It's especially fun with my boys. My Mom always made Holidays extra special and I try to do the same. Over the past few days we worked on making Valentines for the boys classes. I love working with felt-it's so easy not having to finish any raw edges. Although I'm not big on sewing, I guess it's in my blood. I know however that if my Mom made these she would blanket stitch around all the edges-which would beautiful if I didn't make 38 of them. :)



These are sweet and easy. We made little heart felt pins and that cards say, "stuck on you". For the girls pins we cut pink, red, purple and white felt. Then we added a two-tone leaf. For the boys we used Navy, light blue and red felt. We used a fabric glue to piece them together and hot glue to attach the 1.5 inch bar pin to the back. After they dried I pinned them to cardstock. They are ready to be handed out! Enjoy!

Clay Vessels

Super day for Drop-in-Art at the OKCMOA yesterday. I had about 60 people come through. That is a good number. I had just enough clay and will do a project like this again as the parents and children really enjoyed it. Drop in art is from 1-4pm at the Museum every Saturday. I see all age ranges so I try to do things that can be done by everyone. I also have to do something that can be completed quickly and ready to take home. We used Crayola Air Dry Clay to create a basic vessel using the pinch pot method.

I had portions under plastic ready for the kids as they came through the door. I had them each work their clay by squeezing it in their hands first. Then I had them make a "crab claw" with their hand. I told them to stick their thumbs in the middle and use their fingers to pinch around the clay ball, forming a bowl shape that could be further manipulated into whatever vessel shape they wanted. I saw a lot of hearts, so I think these will make a great Valentine Present!

The problem with this short time frame is decorating the clay. It can't be painted or anything yet, which I would do if it was a 2 part session. So, I thought it would be fun to use beads, buttons, and other things to decorate our bowls. The kids loved picking out their pieces from an assembly line of items I had out on a table. Little fingers picking up little objects is great for building hand strength and using fine motor. Enjoy!

You will need:
-Air Dry Clay
-Pony Beads, buttons, shape sequins...

Here are some of their creations!

My Art-Guitar Love

The front


and the back


What a busy time of year it has been. This may be the last post that consists of "my art". I hope to have paperwork completed this week for my new adventure (an LLC) the name of which I will reveal when finished! I'd like to keep my artwork separate from the teaching artist page that this has so lovingly become. I hope to have more of both to share with you all!

The latest project I just finished is the painted acoustic guitar for the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Their incredible exhibit, The Guitar: Art, Artists, and Artisans is opening Feb. 13th. If you have a love of music or have any interest in the guitar, you really have to go see this. Here is a snippet from one of their press releases:

There is something about a cowboy and guitar that says "we belong together." Today they do, but that was not always the case. In spring 2010, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum^® offers a new exhibition showcasing the instrument.

"The Guitar: Art, Artists and Artisans" spotlights three aspects. “First, the guitar is a work of art itself, providing a canvas for artwork that enhances the instrument’s beauty. Secondly, there are musical artists who are identified with the guitar when they perform. Lastly, there are the artisans who create these beautiful instruments,” said Don Cusic, the exhibit’s guest curator, in an article written for the Museum’s Persimmon Hill magazine, Winter 2009.

Organized by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, the exhibit opens February 12 and runs through May 9. There will be a “sweet” exhibition preview that is free to the public, February 13, 6 to 8 p.m. Whether attending solo, visiting as part of a group or treating your Valentine, enjoy extended hours and be among the first to see this colorful exhibit.

Included in the exhibition are approximately 50 guitars worth millions, from top entertainers — recording artists whose image and career is tied closely to this instrument. These notable artists include Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, Toby Keith, Lynn Anderson, Brooks & Dunn, Eddy Arnold and Marty Robbins.

The 3 guitars that local OKC artists painted will be on hand for children to play and then GIVEN AWAY at the end of the show. You just have to attend the exhibit and stick your name in the raffle!

I was a bit nervous about this project. I have never painted a guitar! Sanding it was a feat in itself. Thrilled and honored to be asked, I could not turn down this amazing opportunity. Well, I finished her up and delivered her today. While I was there I got a "behind the scenes" tour that seriously blew my mind. All the things people never see at any Museum I got to peek at today. Pretty neat!

Paper Sculptures

What is sculpture? It is a 3-dimensional work of art. A work of this kind, whether large or small can be viewed from all sides. We can walk around it, and sometimes under or over it. Sculpture has come a long way from carved marble, stone or cast bronze pieces. Now we see sculpture in all shapes, sizes and materials.

Yesterday the OKCMOA had a table at the OKC Philharmonic for the Childrens Concert Series. Trying to relate a project with their theme for the day which was Music in Motion and our current exhibit, Jason Peters: Anti.Gravity.Material.Light was not as difficult as I thought. Peters does sculpture. The Phil does music. I thought about moving sculptures and what we could create with over 200 kids in an hour. Paper sculptures! I love to see kids build in this way. It forces them to think about art differently. Most kids can easily pick up a crayon or paintbrush. This pushes them to be hands on. It is also great for those motor skills! It was a busy day for the roads being so icy. I guess everyone had cabin fever. I would have taken more pictures, but we had SO many kids come through, I barely had the time to take the few pictures I did! Have fun with this project!

We started with our base piece of construction paper. I had the kids cut pieces and asked them what happens when we fold or bend paper. We worked on accordion folds, tubes, curling and more.

You will need:
-Construction paper (one piece for base and scraps)
-Other papers (I like the fadeless art paper, but you could even try scrapbooking papers for a different look)
-scissors
-double side sticky tape
-we used colored masking tape too-fun!

Here are a few examples: