Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Group Diego Rivera Mural

Our last class in Modern Art covered the work of Diego Rivera. I like to do a group project for the last class and this time we did a group mural in pastels.  First we did our standard brief introduction to the artist and looked at these three works.
From the Pan American Unity Mural at City College of San Fransisco
From the Detroit Institute of Arts mural
The Kid, image source:  Wikipedia
We segued into our project with a brief discussion of the history of students reproducing the works of great artists for practice.

For our mural, I scanned the painting Dance in Tehuantepec from Pete Hamill's book,  Diego Rivera.  I then divided it up into 6 equal parts, one for each student.  The parts were printed out full size on to an 81/2" X 11" and I trimmed the art paper down to be the same size.

 They got plenty of pastels with the directions to recreate what they saw in their sample.  We talked about how to blend colors and they each got some qtips for rubbing tools.  They each did a good job and reproduced their sections really well.

 Older Toad got the top left hand side.  This is his finished contribution.


Resources online for more information

 National Gallery of Art's inside scoop publication
Here's the American Master's PBS series. The website includes lesson plans.

Books for more information about Diego Rivera

Materials we used





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Monday, December 10, 2012

5 Eco - Friendly Gift Wrap Ideas For Kids

 
Each year I use less wrapping paper, which is great.  However, I'm more proud of the fact that this year I involved the kids in doing it and I'm getting more creative about it to boot.  Here are 5 ideas we used this year - and so can you!

Decorating food boxes



Take any old food box (we used two cereal boxes) and pop it apart.  Then reglue the side seam with the 'wrong'/pre-printed side in.  Once that's dry you can decorate it.  Older Toad drew his own tree to decorate and I drew one for younger Toad.  Then they used their favorite, glitter glue pens, to add in ornaments.  Doing this flat is easier.  Once it's decorated, glue the bottom closed too (I used rubber bands to apply some pressure while it was drying).

 
















Creating gift tags from paperboard packaging


You can use any paperboard packaging you've got laying around for this.  Draw small shapes on the blank side of the packaging.  In this example I traced small Christmas cookie cutters.  Cut your shapes out and hole punch a hole.  Then apply glue to the already printed side.  Finish with a generous sprinkling of glitter. 




Painting take-out food clams


The cafe next to my husband's work uses paper to-go packaging.  We end up with a lot of their packaging because his colleagues save their unwanted leftovers to go home to our chickens.  The paper containers are great to decorate because they accept paint readily compared to the styrafoam or plastic.  The Toads painted one side, let it dry, and then painted the other.  The next day they decorated them.


Dressing up plain paper bags




All that's required for this is a hole punch and some ribbon.  Take any paper bag you've received, fold over the top, punch two holes, tie a bow.  On the smaller bags, or those you want to lay flat, it's helpful to staple the bottom to the sides so it's not floppy.  This is great shoelace tying practice too!


Beautifying packing paper

Some companies are doing much better about not using plastic peanuts in their shipping.  When you get that plain brown paper, before you just recycle it, try upcycling it into gift wrap.
 
 You can draw on it.

You can stamp on it.

Or you can apply any art materials you've got around to dress it up and personalize it. 

There's lots more ideas for upcycling packing materials into gift wrap out there.  If you've done any fun ones with your kids, please comment with a link so we can see your fun ideas too.

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Sunday, December 9, 2012

Spoke Too Soon


On Monday I posted our summary of our embassy requests. I thought since it'd been over three months since I mailed the requests, we wouldn't be receiving any more packages. The day I did that post we got a large envelope from Panama. 

 Inside it contained:

  • Panama - a trifold brochure in a mola design. Since we have molas on the wall from my husband's stay in Panama that's very relevant. 

  •  A CD with Panama info 

  • A super large format map.

 Muchas gracias! 

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Friday, December 7, 2012

Chore Boards

 
I know many people implement chore charts to help with family management. Our guys have chores but we've never codified them into a document before. We hit our limit on an issue, so we finally did. We've been awoken by screaming 6 days out of 7 for weeks on end. I haven't read the Geneva Conventions but it sure feels like it would qualify as cruel and unusual punishment. It definitely sets a bad tone for the day even if it's not technically torture.

The screaming involves the morning routine. Someone feels they should control someone else and that someone resists with every fiber in their vocal cords. They both do it, I can't pin it exclusively on either one. Since I try to solve problems with actions, I made chore boards. I was hoping that by giving them something of their own to focus on, they'd stop picking at each other. So far this week it's been great. Four mornings in a row with no screaming - which has become so rare, it's memorable even if the record doesn't hold.

The basis for the idea was all the menu planning boards I've seen on the craft blogs. I thought magnetic boards would be very versatile, easy for younger Toad to use, and easy to create. However, for the life of me, I couldn't find non-Teflon cookie sheets. I went to four stores and then gave up. I think if I wasn't in a hurry I could have found the old steel ones at the thrift store so I'll have to keep looking. Mother Earth News has been running articles about the dangers of Teflon coated light bulbs in chicken coops. I thought if that could kill a chicken in a night it shouldn't be in my kid's room.

Since plan A was nixed I went with stuff I had around. The clothespins came off my laundry line, the wood was left over from art class sculptures (post here), the paper and shells were from my scrapbooking supplies. I always have contact paper around for laminating. Grand total the project cost $.57 for the little train. They took about three hours to do including formatting the chart on the computer, laminating the cards, and painting the clothespins. It was more time consuming to do two different versions, including pictures for the pre-reader but I didn't want the yelling to change into “No that one is mine.”

It would have been easier to print something out on the computer and post it on the fridge; but I've created little craft monsters and knew they would need more inspiration if the boards were going to get used. When younger Toad saw his board, he was really excited and showed it to Grandpa first thing. I smiled since I thought that meant I might actually be on to something.

The feedback from the Toads has been positive and they've asked why don't we have one for night time routine too. Nightime routine could always be smoother so, as soon as I can come up with some cookie sheets, I'll be redoing the boards with magnets.

I broke down and am going to try to learn to love Pinterest.  I love looking at other people's boards but felt like if I did my own I was just setting myself up for more work.  So as a trial, I'll see if it keeps me organized.  I set up a Pinterest board for this project here which shows the two versions of this project I used for inspiration and the two I created.

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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Self Portraits Inspired by Frida Kahlo



Our latest project to report on in Modern Art class was based on the work of Frida Kahlo.  Her work is intimately tied to her life story so it's worth doing a little homework on her before looking at her art.  Your interpretations will change dramatically with more information.  In class, we looked at these three works below.  I gave a brief biography of her life, including her health summary and marriage to Diego Rivera, and the rest of the time we spoke about the symbolism in the paintings.  That description might make it seem like I talk at the kids for hours but it's usually a 5 minute discussion where they do a lot of participating.

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, image source:  Philadelphia Museum of Art

Roots, image source: Guardian 

The Wounded Deer, image source:  Wikipaintings

 The assignment in class was self portraits.  I had brought the subject up in class several times in advance and did ask everyone to think about what aspects of themselves they'd like to present.  Even 5 year olds can get self conscious about painting themselves, so I didn't want to put anyone on the spot.

They were each given a double sided sharpie and a piece of watercolor paper.  The double sided sharpie was for drawing themselves.  Two sides can give variety to their line weights if they choose to use both sides.  They each had a mirror they could use as well.  Most of them looked in the mirror at first and then started drawing without looking in them again.  That's been my experience every time I do self portraits with this age group, but I still bring the mirrors in to introduce the idea for the future.

Once they had all their lines in, they got to add color with watercolor paint.  I set the project up as a self portrait of just their head with perhaps a border or other items in the background that were important to them (like Kahlo's work), or they could do an 'action' shot of themselves participating in their favorite activities.  One student chose to do themselves as a raccoon (with their own face) surfing.  I thought that was a much cheerier version of Kahlo's Deer.

Toad's version of the project, above, ended up interesting.  He was very self conscious of his work in class, the down side of your mom being the teacher probably.  He did a portrait of himself painting but chose very little color.  I thought that was great subject of course, but being the art teacher gave him the white space lecture.  We always struggle with time in class and he finished the project at home while I was out running an errand.  When I came back, I asked why he chose to cover everything with blue.   He explained, "It's me on a cold day so my skin has turned blue."  He had that look on his face so that's what I get for controlling his self expression!
 
This technique of sharpie then watercolor is so versatile I use it a lot.  It also is great for this age group as it explores two different skills - drawing and painting in one project.  You could apply this technique to many different artists to work up your own artist study.


For more information about Frida Kahlo:

 http://www.frida-kahlo-foundation.org
Interactive at the San Fransisco museum of Modern Art
Museo Frida Kahlo (her house in Mexico city which is now a museum)
PBS.org video about Frida and Parents Guide

Great reads about Frida:



Materials used:
Watercolor Sets square set of 16 Watercolor Sets square set of 16
Prang semi-moist watercolor sets are ideal for the beginner and often suggested on school lists for students taking art classes. It is very easy to pull up color from the semi-moist pans and also easy to clean. The plastic case makes them easy to travel with and the lid folds out to be used as a mixing tray. Sets of 8 colors contain red, yellow, blue, orange, violet, green, brown, black with #7 brush. Sets of 16 colors contain red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, black, white, red violet, blue violet, turquoise blue, blue green, yellow green, yellow orange, red orange with a #9 brush. Set of 8 glitter colors contains red, orange red, yellow, green, dark blue, purple, light blue, gold with a #5 brush. Set of 8 metallic colors contains gold, light blue, pink, hot pink, orange, yellow, green, blue with a #5 brush.

Twin Tip Marker black Twin Tip Marker black
Get Dual degrees of precision from the Sharpie Twin Tip. One side has a 0.3 mm ultra fine point and the other has a fine bullet point. The ink marks permanently on most hard-to-mark surfaces. It?s also fade and water resistant, quick drying, non-toxic, and alcohol based. Also available in a set .
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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

All By Myself

I finished a project all by myself!  For myself - totally and utterly unaffiliated with my kids!



 I signed up for a stained glass class at the local glass shop and this is my first project.  I thought it'd be nice to do something creative once in awhile.  Since I went back to school, changed careers, and had kids I haven't done any art.  Sad I know but it's the way it is right now.  The kids will get older, it will get easier.

 Now I'm off to get the second project drawn up...
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DIY Craft Projects
Mom on Timeout 
Salt Tree

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Monday, December 3, 2012

Please Tell Us About Your Country Summary



Asking the various embassies for information about their countries has been a rewarding project.  We got lots of helpful materials.  This is a summary of the project as the posts were strung out over the whole fall.
The countries we requested information from but did not get a response from were: Botswana, Brazil, China, Egypt, Japan, Panama, and Russia.

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