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Afterschool Art Club is something new I've added to the schedule this year, and it's been a blast! Twelve lively students gather on Thursday afternoons to create wonderful art, and for our first project, we created optical illusion "agamagraphs." Pioneered by the artist Yaacov Agam, this kinetic style art changes as the viewer moves. Two of Agam's pieces can be found in the Mayo Clinic art collection. I'm a big fan! This project took 3 weeks of 75 minute classes to complete. Each student created a starburst name picture on and an optical illusion "wormie" picture, which they colored with sharpie and watercolor on 140 lb. watercolor paper. Then we cut both into 1 inch slices and mounted them alternately to an accordion folded page. The final effect is so cool! If you stand to the left, you see one image and when you move to the right it morphs to the other image. Check out the slideshow below!  Grace took 10 little girls under her wing this week to teach them cake and cookie decorating skills, fill them with sugar, and send them home! Sorry if they were a little wired, moms & dads, but we hope you enjoyed their delightful handiwork! The themes included Galaxy Day, Succulent Day, Animal Day, and a final layered cake with a melted ice cream cone theme. Everyone learned new skills such as making multi-colored frosting, cake balls, rainbow filling, and homemade cream cheese frosting and ganache, cake leveling, and experimenting with tips and royal frosting. The finished the week with a cake boss-type contest. My neighbor came over as a judge to choose the winning cake, and Ella received a Flapdoodles gift card for her 1st place creation. All the girls did a great job on their 2 layer cakes. They all had a sugary blast and made lots of gorgeous creations. Here's the slideshow to prove it!   This is my 3rd summer of offering Crazy Art Camps, and all year long I am on the look-out for art projects that are going to WOW my campers! I think this year's projects were a hit. I had 16 talented, enthusiastic kids, ages 7-12, ready to try anything! Projects 1, 2, & 3: When the kids arrived, they stained and beaded wooden name tags, which my husband and I designed and etched on our Glowforge. They also colored two big Crazy Art banners. Then we went into the studio and viewed a slideshow of the work of artist Peter Anton, who makes giant, hyper-realistic food art. We made pinch pot cupcakes with coiled frosting out of air-dry clay, then painted them a few days later and boxed them in adorable bakery cupcake boxes. I have a policy that I won't do for the kids what they can do for themselves, so I let them figure out on their own without instructions how to fold the origami-style boxes. Some of the kids loved the challenge and figured it out quickly and others had to persevere and get a little assistance from their neighbors. It's definitely a spacial skill. The kids also enjoyed some outside play time in my WonderYard each day! Here is a slideshow of our first few projects... Projects 4 & 5: We watched a slideshow of the Pop Art prints of Andy Warhol and then proceeded to make our own using gelli plates, texture items, and acrylic paints to pull our mono prints. The kids printed on black & white photos of themselves that I had snapped on Day 1, then put them all together on black paper to make them POP! We also learned about artist Georgia O'Keefe, who is known for her giant, close-up flowers. The kids sketched their own designs, outlined them with India ink-filled bingo daubers, then painted them with acrylics. They even sawed a piece of trim with a miter saw to use as a stylish hanger. Here is the slideshow... Projects 6-7: Friday was the BIG DAY! We blacked-out the studio, turned on the blacklights, and painted with fluorescent paints. There were lots of oohs and ahhh! The kids loved how my wall mural and their Crazy Art poster glowed under the blacklight. We designed and painted mad scientists in a cartoon style, with chalked bubbles in the background, and then I let them draw their own design and fill it in with glowing ice cream salt that I dyed with fluorescent paint. They also had a chance to paint their faces and made fluorescent balloon hats. Such a sensory experience for the kids! We invited families into the studio for a Glow Show at the end. Here is the slideshow... I have wanted to do this project with my elementary classes for a long time. It's one of my favorite art memories from childhood, except we did not cast our hands, we cast our FACES! The kids, who were initially skeptical and may have thought their teacher had lost her mind, warmed up to the idea of having their hands wrapped in gooey plaster gauze, allowing it to harden, and then sliding it off. The sliding off was the hard part! It would have helped if their hands were boneless! After they spent a week drying, the kids painted their sculptures and some added embellishments and fluorescent paint so they glowed during our Glow Parties. Here are the winners of our 2nd Annual Flapdoodles Ice Cream Art Contest! Nearly all my students created 3-D clay relief sculptures mounted on painted canvas panels with an ice cream theme. The owners of Flapdoodles selected the winners from 3 categories: 7-9 yo, 10-12 yo, and Intermediate. The art is currently displayed at Flapdoodles South through July. Our 2nd Annual Flapdoodles Ice Cream Art Contest is underway! The students planned and executed these adorable clay relief sculptures, mounted on painted canvas panels. Some are still life sculptures and others incorporate animals enjoying ice cream, inspired by the book "Gorilla Loves Vanilla." Here are all the entries. Winners announced in April! |
AuthorJill Pearson, owner & instructor at Riverwood Studio, Oronoco, Minnesota Archives
October 2020
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