unschooly art lab

Spring session - week 1, getting warmed up.

The idea behind this class is that I provide an opportunity for the kids to explore a variety of materials - drawing, water-based paint, sculptural, found images, & objects, but it is really up to them what they wish to create.  I am providing a studio environment for an hour and a half each Friday (this particular session is 8 weeks) for the kids to ponder, explore, and chit-chat while they make art together in a fun, low-pressure environment.  This is about process and discovery.  When you are an artist, sometimes that even means sitting and staring off into space for awhile - imagine that!  I bring in examples of my own work, I show them a variety of famous artists' work, and when I see someone doing something that reminds me of a particular artist, I bring it up on the internet and show them their kindred spirit.  The kids are invited to push the boundaries and definitions of art, and learn new skills in an environment of self-discovery and inspiration.  They are invited to come with questions if you are interested in learning specific skills.  I expose them to various movements in modern art and techniques of different artists to be inspired by as they develop their work.

kids create with clay: winter trees

   I am subbing for some classes at Art Works Now this month before settling into a regular schedule with them, to be determined.
   For the next three weeks, I will be teaching all of the Kids Create classes, Monday through Thursday, 4:30-5:30.  M - Clay, T - Fiber Arts, W - Color, Th - Drawing.

   This Monday, we created bas relief winter trees.  Beautiful work!
   We started with making a slab, and the kids were given two options to approach the project.
 
This first image is my demo in progress.
  
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of class, one of the students came up with a great idea for displaying the piece - using a picture frame style foot!   I executed the concept for each of the kids' pieces (as we were out of time!)

 

 

Here are my completed demo pieces. 

 

 

 

mixed media stories - week 4

   These kids are awesome, I love working with them. They are so focused and 'on it'.
   Today most of them finished up their 'scenes' from last week, painting them with gouache. (A couple here are still in-progress.)
  

The next assignment is to purely play around with the paint - watercolor and gouache - creating textures and fields of color, experimenting with puddles, drips, runs, bleeds, taking their paper out in the rain, just filling the page with color with no specific imagery or story in mind. Next week they will 'daydream' on their painting, rotating it and looking at it in different ways, and see what pops out at them, a face, an animal, a setting, and work from there, allowing their painting and imagination to reveal a story to them...  

mixed media stories - week 3

   This week, the kids' assignment was to illustrate a story or a scene with one image. I asked them to include at least one Person (or Animal, if they preferred), Place, showing some type of setting (are they indoor, outdoor, are there buildings, trees?) and Thing (the thing could be an object, an idea, or a situation).
   We also talked about perspective, how things look when they are far away vs. close up (smaller/bigger), and drawing the things closest to you first, then filling in behind that. I asked them to visualize their composition before they drew it out, challenging them to draw straight away with pen rather than sketching it out with pencil first. Then, the kids began adding color using gouache.
   Most of these are still in progress, and I only got a few of the kids' fabulous work. I love seeing what they come up with and witnessing their process!