Abstract Animals

A class full of eager 3 year olds joined me at the OKCMOA for a fun class about animals. We gathered around and read the book, My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. Not only is the book about colors and feelings, but it is full of animals. We enjoyed calling out the names of all the colors and animals.

After our story I line the kids up to prepare them to visit the galleries. We talk about our Museum manners-using our eyes and not our hands to look at the art, using our walking feet and quiet voices. The children did excellent. In the gallery we visited our 2nd floor collection and we found many animals. In one part of the gallery we sat down to play a game of I Spy. At this time I gave each of the children a chance to "Spy" something. It could be a color, animal or whatever! They really enjoyed this.

Back in the classroom we talked about animals we have at home. We talked about animal faces and what we needed to draw. (head, eyes, ears, body, details etc.) First we started with a black oil pastel to draw the outline of our animal. Then we used other colors to fill in details. To finish we used watercolors minus black and brown. I pull those colors out so they don't get too muddied.

Some children may not follow directions completely and do their own style of animal. I love it when this happens. It's okay to just let them enjoy and experience the materials. While an adult might think or say, that doesn't look like (whatever). I can listen to a child while they are creating and as they talk to themselves they ARE creating in this case, an animal. I watched a child draw big circles and say here is my dogs head. He is in the clouds. There is a rainbow. I believe this is a very important part of creating. Art is about the experience not just the end results so enjoy this special time full of imagination and wonderment with your own children!

You will need:
-student grade watercolor paper
-oil pastels
-watercolors
-brushes
-bowl of water

Here are some of our other creations!

Express Yourself

We have been talking a lot about how we express ourselves. Through body language, facial expression, voice, writing and art there are a lot of ways to do so! Right now at the OKCMOA a wonderful part of the permanent collection is on view through July 11th. Alfonso Ossorio: Gifts from the Ossorio Foundation are eleven pieces of various mediums that were donated to the Museum in 2008.

Ossorio, among many things was a Filipino American artist, an RISD student and friend of Jackson Pollock. I encourage you to learn more about this wonderful artist and if you are local, head to the Museum to see his work in person. The details cannot be appreciated by looking online alone.

His works are in a variety of mediums and with my boys today we focused on using wax, watercolor and ink. We are going to put together a cool assemblage piece later this week so stay tuned.

Here is what we did:

My boys are ages four and six. First we put out a big plastic tablecloth on the kitchen floor. We always wear old t-shirts to paint in. Then we used wax crayons on watercolor paper. Then I had my boys use watercolors. For fun we sprinkled on salt and let dry.





We hit them with a hairdryer to speed up the process. Then I gave them india ink in a squeeze bottle with a nib. (I used an eye dropper to fill it with ink.) You can improvise if the thought of ink scares you. My two boys, although young follow directions well and actually didn't get a drop anywhere but on the paper. You can use black tempera paint and brushes! Use the idea to suit what works best for you and the supplies you have on hand!



I bought the little squeeze bottles at Hobby Lobby. I am sure you can find them at most arts/craft stores with watercolor/paint supplies. My boys LOVED this part! This really made the pieces come alive. My 4 year old liked to squeeze the ink and scribble it in. My 6 year old was a bit more careful and really took his time. It was something new for them to try and I think matted and framed these will be extra special!









In the above photo you can see some of the salt detail.

You will need
-watercolor paper
-watercolors
-wax crayon
-paint brushes
-India Ink or tempera paint
-Squeeze bottle with nib.

I think next time we will use more ink instead of watercolors. I plan on experimenting a few times with this artist as inspiration over the next few weeks.

In other news I was excited to get a letter in the mail the other day from Allied Arts, asking me to donate a piece for their fundraiser, ARTini. I will be thrilled to do so and will keep you posted! I hope you have a creative day!

Hanging Sculptures

What a weekend! If you are local, chances are I saw you at the OKCMOA's super sized Family Day! It felt like the entire city was there. It was a huge crowd of all ages that enjoyed the many activities revolving around the Jason Peters exhibit.

Be sure to save the date for the next family day. It is Sat. May 22 and it will revolve around the next exhibit, Sketch to Screen: The Art of Hollywood Costume Design.

Amid the facepainting, scavenger hunts, story times and dance, there were 3 art activities featuring three different artists. I made hanging sculptures. (I'd say the average age of my little artists was age 4, and as young as 2.) We folded, bended, hole punched and cut a variety of papers and attached them to a strip of tagboard that we made into a circle. When we were finished, we punched 2 holes at the top and threaded some yard to hang these beautiful moving hanging sculptures. They turned out great!

Some of these kids really got creative. The little ones liked using the hole punch-that is a great fine motor skill for your little ones to build hand/muscle coordination!



While a glue stick is good for adding small things to the top of your sculpture, tape is instant hold and will hold the heavier items better. Thinking about Peters: Focus on using all scraps! You cut it, punch it, you use it! The punched areas also allow light to come through which is a fun feature.

You will need:
-strip of tagboard/posterboard for the top
-Variety of papers
-scissors
-hole punch
-yarn
-tape
-glue stick

Here are a few examples!













This last one is not hanging, but was a really interesting. She told me it was an homage to the artist, Jason Peters. They added pieces from the Museum handouts they got-including a Peters portrait, attached their exhibit tickets...very fun. Love to see people expand on a basic idea! This is why I do what I do. I love to watch creative minds at work!

Bubble Wrap Printing

What a fun group of little print makers we had today at the OKCMOA. The average age today was 2 years old. They were excellent little students. I had our workstations set up with bubble wrap taped on top of newspaper with brayers and plexi ready to go.



First we used a brayer to cover our bubble wrap with our first color, yellow. We rolled, rolled, rolled. Then we pressed, pressed, pressed our paper on top. We peeled it away to reveal our first layer of paint. We made 3 prints today so we would have artwork to share.



I gave each child a bubble wrap shape with a new color and they brushed that new color of paint on and used it as a stamp. We used circles, squares, rectangles and triangles...working on that shape recognition! For each shape I introduced a new paint color along with a clean brush. And talking about paint, I will tell you I like these paints. They are Color Splash!
I find the color to be more vibrant than other brands. I am sure most of you have a brand you prefer...tell me about it in the comment section! While our pieces dried we read a book...The House in the Night.I picked this book up at my sons Scholastic book fair last month. It's a beautiful book. I thought it would relate well with the Peters exhibit and discussing light. It's a big hit at our house and the children enjoyed it this morning. We visited the Peters exhibit and returned to the classroom to sign our pieces.

Here is what you need:
-bubble wrap
-paint
-brayer or just foam brushes
-drawing paper
-tape
-newspaper (makes cleanup much easier!)

Here are a few more!

Mask Making

Mardi Gras has come and gone but I have been so busy I didn't have time to share them earlier. We made masks at the Museum on Fat Tuesday. Sticking with Peters and using "found objects" we colored and covered our masks with all sorts of "found" embellishments. Everyone had this basic work station then used a bowl to gather items from the assembly line of cut foam, sequins, beads, pipe cleaners and feathers.



First we talked about Mardi Gras and read a fun book called The Jazzy Alphabet. I also had other books on hand for everyone to look at. We visited the Peters exhibit and returned to the classroom to make our masks.





I cut paper plates in half to begin. I had parents cut eyeholes and then the kids began to color their masks. After they finished coloring they used glue and embellishments to decorate their masks. We used a wooden craft stick to finish-I actually hot glued the stick when they were finished so they didn't have to wait for school glue to dry-it's also a strong hold and the masks were heavy. You could make these for any occasion. We sure had fun!

You will need:
-paper plate
-papers to cut and glue
-markers
-scissors
-glue
-embellishments (foam, sequins, feathers, beads...)
-craft stick
-hot glue for ADULT use only

Here are a few!

Printing Perfection

What a printing good time we had at the OKCMOA yesterday. I took several printmaking courses in college and although serigraphy was my favorite, this is much easier!

I washed the brayers from my earlier toddler class and had them ready for a fun printmaking afternoon at Drop in Art. It was a busy day with over 50 people coming through. At one point I was so busy I couldn't stop to make a tally! That is GOOD thing! As people came in the door I got them set up with foam and a pencil. I explained that we would draw our design on the foam pressing firmly with our pencil.

I wrote a few reminders on the board, the biggest one being being that you think in REVERSE! This is most important with any writing. They got busy right away- some making Valentines, others making whatever they wanted to draw.



I had printing stations set up with different colors of water soluable inks, plexi, and brayers. I put this all on a layer of newspaper for easy cleanup. For cost, I squeezed out the ink...I was afraid the little ones would use too much. This worked out fine. We talked about signing our print editions (ex: if we made 5 prints our first print would be 1/5-then 2/5 and so on) and where the title, signature and edition goes. This info goes in the white space below your print. Typically for printmaking, the edition on left, title in middle and signature on right.



Steps:
1. Draw on foam (remember design will print in reverse!)
2. Work ink with brayer on plexi to get a smooth inking surface. I apply a small amount of ink in a horizontal line a little wider than the brayer.
3. Roll ink on foam design
4. Lay paper on foam and PRESS PRESS PRESS! I showed the kids how to rub all over their designs to get full coverage.
5. Carefully peel and VOILA! This part is magical. They really were amazed!
6. Re-ink and go again!

Kids and adults had a blast!

You will need:
-foam
-brayer
-plexiglass-or other smooth surface you can roll ink on
-drawing paper
-ink (can use tempera paints, but I prefer the ink)
-imagination!

Look at some of the incredible prints!