Snowman Collage

Seems like everyone does these in one fashion or another. I really tried to have the children create their own personalized snowman. Noses don't have to be orange, etc. This might be the artist in me rather than an educator. There was one thing at the workshop last night that I didn't agree with and that is templates. I don't want to give the kids all the same pre-cut shapes and say, glue these in this way. I like to see them create something uniquely theirs. This also might be easy for me since I deal with small classes. What do you think about templates?

I began the class with a story and we looked at snowmen in different books. In the gallery we studied portraits and got ideas of different things for our snowmen to wear. I know, this is reaching but the Museum just doesn't have any snowmen in the galleries! :) Back in the class we talked about collage. I had examples from different artists, Bearden, Matisse and book authors they recognize Carle, Ehlert and Lionni. The kids were excited to begin. One girl saw "princesses" in the museum and could not wait to make a snow princess!

I gave everyone a blue background, white paper and had them cut out circles. Then I had an assembly line of embellishments for them to choose from. I gave them a plate and had them pick things out to take back to their workstation. We had paper, buttons, felt, fabric, feather, sequins and foam to personalize our snowmen.

You will need:
-18x12 blue construction paper
-white paper
-scrap paper in different colors
-glue
-embellishments
The kids got busy and here are some of their fantastic creations!

Local

Last night I attended a wonderful event for Teaching Artists at the Arts Council. Oklahoma City has so much offered to artists right now. It was part one of a four part series by the Arts Council of Oklahoma City and City Arts Center. Last night I gathered with Art Education and Program Directors, Educators, Artists and more. There was some super creative energy flowing through as we listened to 3 speakers talk about Curriculum Planning.

I learned quite a bit, but more importantly I networked. I sat next to friends, one an artist-he talked about getting himself psyched up for this year, getting things done and being on the verge of an explosion. It's how I feel. This is my year. I have had so many wonderful opportunities offered to me this past year I am only building on it this year.

I mentioned sort of cryptically a while ago that I am working on something. I am not quite ready to purge the specifics, but I am committing myself to my artwork and more as I continue my search for studio space/small building in OKC. I am promising myself to paint more, volunteer more, share art with more children, network more and push myself further than I have gone in the past. I am happy I have the support of my family and of course my friends. One friend has really made me believe in myself-even if she doesn't know it-I owe a lot of my break out attitude to her. You know who you are. :)

Okay, other excitement is Jason Peters at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. I CANNOT WAIT to attend the members preview and lecture on the 27th. His work is really exciting. I don't believe anything quite like this has ever been in OKC. I took this pic the other day after one of my classes, he did a small installation outside the Museum Gift Shop. This picture doesn't do it justice. It's actually lit from the inside. Way different. Way cool.


It's hard to tell, those are buckets-suspended from the ceiling. They wrap and twist like a serpent. Love it. He has been working for a few weeks or so with OU students on filling our exhibition space with more extraordinary works.

I am wrapping up my painted acoustic guitar for the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and it's pretty darn cool if I do say so myself! Thursday after my class at the Museum I am headed over to OVAC office to help with some mailings. As part of my networking 2010 pledge I am joining two other arts related Organizations this week, The Paseo Arts Association and IAO (actually trying to get 2 pieces finished for Money talks, Art Walks in Feb.)

I will post fun pictures from my snowman class after Thurday! I am really looking forward to it. As much as I am dedicating myself to my work, I am dedicating myself to children and the arts as well.

Have a Creative Day!

Magic Snowflakes

Kids love how magical it is to use watercolors over oil pastels or in our case, White Crayola Construction Paper Crayons. This class was full of eager 3 and 4 year olds ready to tackle this project. We try to relate our Museum classes to pieces from the collection or special exhibits. Relating snowflakes was difficult since there are no paintings of snowflakes. However, we broke the snowflakes into lines and that was easy. Lines are everywhere.

I brought the class into circle time around me to talk about lines. I put a big piece of butcher paper on the ground with crayons. I invited the kids to gather around and draw lines. I showed them some (straight, curved, wavy, dashed etc.) Then we practiced pressing our crayons hard to make a dark line. This is needed for our resists to work. We read a quick book, Millions of Snowflakes by Mary McKenna Siddals and lined up to discuss our Museum rules and visit the gallery.



On the 3rd floor we found lines everywhere. We discussed several paintings and then I had the child lead the parent for the final few paintings to tell them about the lines they saw. In the classroom we used our knowledge to cover our paper with snowflakes, lines and other snowy things. This is difficult for them to see using white crayon on white paper, but I assured them the magic would be next. We used our watercolors to cover our paper and our magic lines appeared! So much fun!

You will need:
-White crayon or oil pastels (press firmly!)
-50 lb watercolor paper
-watercolors
-brushes and water

Here are some other examples from my super creative 3 and 4 year olds!

Little Kandinsky's

Nice crowd today at the Museum for Drop-in-Art. I had this class prepared for last weekend, but the Museum was closed due to snow and ice. Today we focused on Kandinsky. At first thought I was going to concentric circles, but I could not find a single photo of it in any book at the library. I thought that would have been easy enough! Oh well. We had plenty of fun and a little more freedom doing it this way.





I had the kids look at a few examples from books. We broke the paintings down into shapes and lines. We talked about organic shapes and geometric shapes. We talked about lines and all the kinds of lines there are.

First I had the children draw lines and shapes using oil pastels. Then we used watercolors to fill in the white space. So much imagination...so much fun!



You will need:
-50 lb watercolor paper
-oil pastels
-watercolors
-brushes

Here are just a few of the wonderful pieces the kids created today!

Winter Resist

This is a fun resist project using oil pastels and watercolors. We used cool colors and the white of the paper and pastels to create snowy winterscapes. First use white oil pastel to make tree branches and snow. Go in with blue pastels to create cedars and other lines. When applying watercolors, the oil pastels will resist and show through. Add salt on top of water colors to create a fun effect! For extra snow, grab a toothbrush and white tempera paint for snowy splatter!

You will need:
-8x10 50 lb water color paper
-oil pastels
-watercolors and brushes
-salt (optional)
-white tempera paint & toothbrush

New Projects

Along with Christmas bells and noisy malls, I can hear the sound of brushstrokes and busy children. Over all that, I hear the constant stream of creative buzz going through my head. I have several projects in the works right now. Here is the latest.



I know you are thinking, what is with the picture of a guitar? Well, I am honored and thrilled to be asked with 2 other OKC artists to paint a western theme guitar for an exhibit at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. The exhibit is titled: The Guitar: Art, Artists and Artisans. It runs Feb 12, 2010 - May 09, 2010. It is going to be outstanding and 3 lucky people will be the proud owners of the local artisan guitars at the end of the exhibit. During the run of the exhibit children will be able to play the guitars and have their picture taken. I hope you will bring your children to take a look! I will be taking mine!

The guitar painting process should be interesting. I am a bit nervous. I don't want to mess it up! :) I am going to sand the guitar and begin painting right away. I will be sure to take photos of the progress!

If you haven't seen the Museum's Winter and Spring Class Schedule, you should take a look! Classes are filling quickly even though I think this is the most offerings they have had since I have been there. It's a big issue! If you have local little ones I hope to see you in the toddler and pre-k classes.

I am also happy to say I will be working with the Metropolitan Library System this summer doing a summer teen art program. We are going to do artist trading cards and I will let you know more when the schedule comes out.

Busy, busy! I have several new projects for children that I will post soon! Have a Creative Day!

Winter Collage

Yesterday at Drop-in-Art we created a winter wonderland in a mixed media collage project. I am the artist for December and we are doing fun things at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Dec. 12-ornament making (this is another artist, it's my little guy's birthday!)
Dec 19th- Matisse cut out Christmas Cards
Dec 26th-Kandinsky Paintings

Yesterday I encouraged children to think about what it looks like outside in winter. What colors made them think of cold weather, do trees have leaves, etc. We talked about background, foreground, and perspective.



I had two tables set up. One table was the collage table. The children cut and glued their background using bright non fade art paper and scrapbook papers. I showed them they could not only cut paper, but tear paper as well.



After they filled their page they took their piece to the painting table. Here I had black acrylic (the tempera was too transparent) with a variety of brushes for them to paint tree silhouettes in the foreground.

We dried our papers with a hair dryer (this was to help prevent smearing when we move to white paint) and then moved to the splatter station. Here I had white tempera paints set out with toothbrushes and more paintbrushes. This was the magical snowy part. We had a lot of fun and I hope you will too!

You will need:
-14x11 tagboard (heavy paper)
-paper for collage
-scissors
-glue stick
-black acrylic paint
-brushes
-white tempera paint
-toothbrushes
-hairdryer with adult assistance

A few of the child pieces