Inspiration from Young at Art - MISCELLANEOUS PROJECTS

The San Francisco Youth Arts Festival "Young at Art" at the DeYoung Museum in May was full of so many creative, inventive and inspiring ideas for art exploration with kids. There were some really projects in the show, including:


These two pieces were amongst my favorites in all the show. It's a new spin on the classic lesson where the students trace each others' bodies on the large butcher paper. These however have been painted and collaged in a way that elevates them to true fine art. What a fantastic outdoor activity with the younger kids!






These pieces are a nice re-take on Asian inspired landscape drawings. The lines of the branches are created with India ink, then the cherry blossoms are created with tiny bits of pink tissue paper.




These pieces were created by our Mayeda students, inspired by last year's Maya Lin exhibit at the de Young. They explore the typography of land forms, as well as make for a great lesson on the use of negative space.





Perfect for third graders learning cursive, this is a cool oil pastel abstraction on the lines of a first name in cursive.






This dragon was a great example of wax resist and oil pastel with watercolor. The patterns of the swirls on the background vs. the scales of the dragon's skin really make this dragon POP off the page.






These paper bowls would make a great curriculum tie-in with Native American studies. Using a hexagonal base on a piece of manila tag board, the basket woven patterns are drawn in with color pencil. While the kids wouldn't have the true experience of basket weaving, it does give them the opportunity to explore the intricacies of Native American designs that they wouldn't be able to accomplish if actually weaving.







All kids love pop-ups! This cityscape is particularly clever as it's also a fun lesson in perspective.





These abstract drawings were a fun exploration of creating visual texture. I'm guessing that the drawings began with adding random shapes and lines to the paper and then breaking them into areas to create different patterns. It looks a bit like something one would see in a biological cross- section or under a microscope.






I went bananas for these silhouetted pieces. Granted, they were made by older students, but they were so charming and cute that I'm going to have to figure out a way that we can do this type of work with the younger kids.







These "stained glass" images were made from colored acetate with black puffy paint as the leading.




I've always enjoyed doing the foam sheet printing with the kids. There were two projects that used that technique in different ways to create different results. This one was interesting because the prints were done with the speedball inks, but when dry, the were further worked with oil pastels. It would make a nice exercise in a seasonal changes - a tree with empty branches could be the printed part. The student could then make multiples and add blossoms, green leaves, and autumn leaves. The color used to print could also help depict the seasons.






This one was also really fun with the animal blocks printed on fabric. The teacher did a really nice job masking off the fabric areas so that everything was very neat and tidy. This could make a great auction project.