Artist Trading Cards

I have been having a great time this summer sharing printmaking on a small scale with kids through the Metropolitan Library System in Oklahoma County. I have almost visited all of the local libraries and the attendance has been great.

It has also been a big reminder in the fact that not all children are exposed to art. But they are hungry for it. My last visit a child ran after me at the end, hugged me and pleaded, "Please say you'll come back Miss Erin!" Heartstrings pulled!

I have been teaching printmaking and we have been making Artist Trading Cards, or ATC's. To keep cost down we are using craft paint, and brushes instead of inks and brayers. I start by supplying the kids with a small foam rectangle cut from foam plate (the size of our ATC), pencil, flat paintbrush, water dish, paper towels and 6 blank cards. Workstations are set up on newsprint to keep mess to a minimum.



I explain the process of using a pencil to draw our design on foam, pressing hard. We discuss our cards printing in reverse so any writing needs to be backwards.

I set them loose to draw then invite them to a front table of supplies to choose paints using a plate as palette.





At their workstation they used a flat brush to lightly coat their foam with paint. They use a pencil to go back over their valleys (lines they drew) if it filled with paint. They press their first card and voila! First card done. We talk about the first print being the artists proof. It shows us where we might have gone wrong and allows us a chance to learn and make changes for the rest of our printing run.

My example, draw on foam, cover lightly with paint and printed for my cards to trade with the kids.





The kids made many cards and at the end have the opportunity to exchange cards with one another. We had so much fun. Here are a few examples from my last visit. Have fun!

You will need:
-craft paint
-flat paint brush
-pencil
-foam for printing
-cards or paper
-water bowl for rinsing brush

Some of our works!

Ossorio Assemblages

Using Alfonso Ossorio as our inspiration, we created little Ossorio Assemblages on cardboard for drop-in-art at the OKCMOA in June.

Assemblage in art is a 3-D composition put together with found objects...or in our case an odd variety of purchased item you can get at a hardware store, craft store or dollar store.

I laid out the items in assembly line fashion for the kids to choose their objects.




crafting goodies


electrical items from hardware store


random plastic toys I bought at a dollar store.


Recycle! So many things to save lids for!

CAUTION: We did use glue guns to assemble our pieces for instant hold. Parents and I were there to assist younger children. You could use a craft glue and wait for your piece to dry, but it just may not hold some of the items.

To take this project further you could paint a small canvas or board and lay your objects on top of it.

We had a great time and here are some of the finished pieces!

You will need:
-background piece of heavy cardboard, wood, canvas etc. to assemble pieces on
-fun objects either made or found!
-hot glue
-imagination!

Returning soon!

Wow, a month gone by?

Summer is passing by quickly and I have mainly been enjoying this time with my family. We have had so many fun things going on. Lounging poolside, playing games, building a hotel-elevator and all!, nature outings and projects, gardening, zoo visits, hanging with friends, cooking out, hiking, building campfires-eating hobo dinners and smores!, reading, playing school, many adventures, arts gallore and so much more. I am teaching once a month at the museum. My classes might be full, but please come see me for drop-in-art!

July 10th we will be making Design and go Costumes.
Aug 14th we will be painting O'Keeffe Flowers

I have been fortunate to share art with kids at the OKCMOA for a few years. I am still amazed when I walk in the doors and I never take for granted the awesome exhibits and pieces from the permanent collection I am able to see anytime I want.

New to me though, on my own, is working with Metropolitan Library System.

I have done outreach through the museum with the MLS on a few occasions, but this summer it's just me! I have been visiting different libraries around the OKC area bringing art to a lot of kiddos. We have been busy making artist trading cards and learning about printmaking. I have met so many neat kids and parents. I have seen a lot of talent and ambition this summer. Kids hungry for art. Eating through supplies faster than I can buy them. Not only from my own children, but from kids all over the city. It continues the battle in me...artist vs. educator. What do I really want to be when I grow up? Can I really be both?

Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? ;)

Dress Me Up

This morning at the OKCMOA I had an eager group of toddlers join me for a fun class revolving around our new exhibit, Sketch to Screen: The Art of Hollywood Costume Design. It is a glorious exhibit filled with over 85 garments and accessories worn in Hollywood films that are on loan from private collectors and Hollywood Studios. IT IS AMAZING. It was a lot of fun to share with the children. In this class we gathered ideas from the exhibit and translated them to a collage person.

To begin we created a background for our costumed people. I gave the kids tag board and cut squares of construction paper. The used a glue stick to apply.





Next we visited the exhibit for inspiration and returned to create our little people. I had an assembly line of fabrics, felt, yarn, buttons, sequins and more for the kids to go through and take back to their workstation.



The kids made design choices, but the parents were on hand to help to cut the yarn and fabrics.





To finish we glued our people on our backgrounds and called it a day! Here are some of our finished projects.

1,2,3 Paint with me

Happy Birthday Jasper Johns!

One of the most important American artists of this century, we celebrate you today! This morning at the OKCMOA a great group of kids ages 3-5 joined me for an exciting artistic journey through paint and collage to celebrate Jasper Johns.

To begin I shared a little bit about Johns and we looked at examples from a few books. We created our own version of his numbers series and they turned out FANTASTIC.



We began at our first workstation. I had 11x14 paper set out along with newspaper scraps, glue sticks, paintbrushes, q-tips and paint palette.



To give us texture like Jasper Johns we used newspaper scraps. Rub your glue stick on your paper and apply newspaper randomly.





Then we used our cool color palette and covered our paper.







We moved to a second workstation to paint our numbers. I precut the numbers 1, 2 and 3 and laid them out on newspaper. Here we used warm paint palette plus white and used paint brushes and q-tips.











Then we glued our numbers on top to finish our masterpiece! While our pieces were drying we gathered beneath the glow of a Chihuly chandelier to read Chicka Chicka 123 by Lois Ehlert. It is a wonderful book all about numbers. We visited the galleries and returned to the class to pick clean our workspace and collect our artwork.

Close up of the newspaper under the paint.




You will need:
-11x14 student grade watercolor paper
-newspaper scraps plus newspaper to catch mess
-scrap white paper pre-cut into numbers
-green, blue, red, yellow, orange and white tempera paint
-brushes
-q-tips

Here are a few of our finished works!