Inspiration from Young at Art - FELT 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 several very charming projects made with felt.

I just love the whipstitching and the charming expressive faces on these puppets. (And note to self: this stand is simply paper towel rolls, hot glued to a plank of wood and painted black - remember this for any auction display if ever needed):



These little teddy bears were also quite charming, complete with the hand woven yarn blankets:




But, by far, this following project stole the show! It's the periodic table, with each element represented as a charming little critter with its own style and personality. What a very clever mix of art and science!

Inspiration from Young at Art - DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

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. The following are a few of my favorite DAY OF THE DEAD (DOTD) PROJECTS that were on display in the show:


I quite enjoyed this DOTD Calacas - it has a very traditional appeal and made from old-school materials (wire and plaster gauze) It's nicely decorated as well.




This was a clever project that used cardstock, cut with a single cut and then folded to make a 3-D backdrop. The figures were made from wire and model magic clay. It would be great fun to make four of these - four different scenes that could be mounted back-to-back and then spun on a "lazy susan" It would make a great storytelling device for any story (not just DOTD), or a fun way to create a four-scene stage design maquette.

wer



There was also a fun class set of DOTD pillows made from fleece and felt pieces. Not exactly traditional, but a fun re-interpretation of a cultural tradition. They looked great all piled up together, but I'm sure the kids really enjoyed taking them home as well!







Here's another fun felt project with DOTD skulls in embellished felt on felt squares. Super easy and fun to make, I'm sure! I like how each is personalized in a unique way and that the kids actually stitched them in place. It gives them nice hand-crafted appeal.



There are other fun felt projects from the festival that use this same technique. Check out my blog entry on Fun Felt for more ideas.

Inspiration from Young at Art - ANIMAL 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. The following are a few of my favorite projects depicting many kids' favorite subject, ANIMALS!


This is a beautiful use of metallic color pencils on black matte board. The metallics really capture the opalescence of butterflies wings. These were mounted on a long piece of ribbon, but the would also be beautiful if cut out and used in a 3-D collage (imagine them on natural branches, dusted with silver or white glitter!)





Here's two projects that experimented with using watercolor to create texture. For the fish painting, I'd guess that the fish outline and large scales were created with white crayon (wax resist). The "water" background was texturized either with salt or water spritzed from a spray bottle (or both). I'd imagine that the background was done first then allowed to dry completely, and then the fish was painted in second (thus the contrast in textures).



For this funky ant, I think the background was "bubble painting" (put paint in a shallow dish, use a straw to bubble it up and then press the paper down on top) and then allowed to dry. The ant was created with black sharpie and oil pastels. I love the gesture of this ant's body. It reminded me of Egyptian hieroglyphics!






Here's two animal paitings that struck my eye. They feature very nice broad shapes to depict the animals in their natural settings. They reminded me of Henri Rousseau's work. The black sharpie defines the lines quite nicely. I'm not sure the paint used - it looks like gouache, but I'm thinking that most school budgets don't support the purchase of gouache. Maybe they used tempera cakes or very watery tempra? Either way, these would be great as illustrations to go with the 2nd and 3rd grade animal reports.






This was an interesting group project with different animal eyes painted with either fabric paints or acrylics on fabric. The resulting effect is pretty cool. I'm not sure what the artists titled this piece, but I'm thinking it should be called "I Got My Eyes on You!"






Aboriginal dot painting has long been a favorite of mine. It's a technique that kids can execute easily and most find it to be quite fun. Did you know that the Aborigines used dot painting as a storytelling method? It was a way to record and pass on ritual practices and traditional folk stories. They would use the pictures as a guide while reciting the story to the sounds of didgeridoo players. Often, the stories would be a sacred secret, so the dots were added to the painting to help camouflage the subject so that only those "in the know" would recognize it. Many times, the dot paintings depicted the aboriginal creation story "Dreamtime."






There were several other great animal projects, done in collage, so be sure to check out that blog entry as well for more ideas.

Inspiration from Young at Art - CERAMICS

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. The following are a few of my favorite PAPIER MACHE PROJECTS that were on display in the show:

These little clay tiles created in the Arts and Crafts style pay homage to early 20th Century California industry. Our state has a great history of artistic ceramics from companies like Bauer and Arequipa. These tiles evoke those made by the Batchelder company, that were often used decoratively in Mission / Arts & Crafts style homes:







I quite liked these little ceramic frogs. The glazing was deep and vivid on these, making them look like they'd just hopped from the water:





Granted, these ceramic pieces were made by high-achieving high school students, but their mastery blew me away. I love the organic shapes of the vessels and the incised designs with beautiful matte glazes were stunning. Where can I buy these??!!





Another fabulous high school level clay project were the bridges. Created from slab construction and jointed to fit together, these were incredibly elegant in their design and structural integrity:





A similar, jointed technique can be used, however, for projects with younger kids. Here are some fun self-portraits in clay, made with a rolled clay, slab contruction. Pieces are punctured with a skewer while the clay was moist, to allow for small holes for wiring together the jointed pieces.






Funky and fun "dinnerware" projects were also on display with some coil construction figural mugs and some pierced plates with beautiful color glazing.




This is a fun ceramic project that would make a good curriculum tie-in to the study of Victorian homes as part of the third grade social studies curriculum. Rooftop students have made these in the past, but here's a good photo of a nice one that was on display at the festival:




Speaking of third grade, our own Mr. Mattson's class, with guidance from teaching artist Lilli Lanier and art parents Lori Quan and Danielle DiSalvo, created these very fun ceramic tennis shoes!

Inspiration from Young at Art - PAPIER MACHE

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. The following are a few of my favorite PAPIER MACHE PROJECTS that were on display in the show:


When entering the de Young Museum, visitors were greeted with a fantastical bamboo tree covered with hanging papier mache dragonflies. They featured great mixing of media, with tissue, colored tape, fadeless paper and sequins.






These Humpty Dumpty figures were also a fun use of papier mache. With a simple balloon base, these rotund and jolly sprites were give colorful stuffed tube socks for arms and legs.




As with the portraiture on display, Barack Obama was on the minds of our young artists this year. Here's a great 3-D rendition of the President created in papier mache.




These fun puppets feature papier mache heads that use a small plastic bottle as a base. Into the bottle is inserted a dowel and covered with fabric to create the arms and body. (To give extra stability to the body, a second dowel could be fashioned to cross the main dowel to make stronger arms). I liked the use of materials in these projects with the fabrics and yarns - each puppet really has its own personality.




There are some other fun puppet projects you'll find on the blog entry "Fun with Felt."

Inspiration from Young at Art - MASKS

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. The following are a few of my favorite MASKS that were on display in the show:

This was a great African or South Pacific Islander inspired mask that used a cardboard base, wrapped in tooling foil. The foil with tooled with a great pattern and vibrantly colored with permanent marker. The crepe paper streamers really add to the beauty of this piece. (It reminds me so much of the upper level of the de Young!) Especially fun on this art work is the addition of a long dowel to the mask so that it can be held easily at the face or even higher. What a great technique for a dramatic application - be it a theatre, opera, or dance performance!




These examples are an interesting take on mask-making, also with a vibrant use of foil. Using tooling foil and Sharpie pen, the masks are created flat and then mounted on backgrounds designed with oil pastels for a striking combination of media:




For younger grades, there were a few masks made from recycled materials that were particularly successful. These reminded me so much of Mardi Gras, and thought it would make a fun art project to go with our Fundred Project New Orleans style celebration in December.






This mask, made by an older student, really blew me away. It has a papier mache base, onto which a variety of types of paper, raffia and yarn were added to create the details of the mask. This young artist really masterfully understood the properties of the different materials and used them to best advantage in this creation:





For a simpler papier mache mask project, I also really enjoyed these paper mache cows. A simple balloon base for the head, onto which the nose was fashioned with a wide masking tape roll (or maybe a wide tube, cut in segments). Ears and horns were created with cardboard. Rather than a painted finish, strips of fadeless construction paper were used to add vibrant color and collage of shapes for eyes, stripes, etc.








There were so many great papier mache projects this year (a sign of the economy perhaps - papier mache is a great material to use with limited budgets!). Be sure to check my other blogs for more great samples of paper mache projects.