I thought the play was phenomenal. Totally worth the trip! And as always– it’s so nice to travel back home to Cleveland!

After the play we headed to The West Side Market  and Ohio City for lunch.

Then we were off to The Great Lakes Science Center

Apparently there are people with a fear of knees. huh–who knew???!!

We did all of this in about 13 hours-including about 5 hrs in the car- start to finish. I’m going to bed now!!!

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Post tags: art, Artist, artist mark, broadway play, Cleveland, cleveland ohio, field trip, great lakes science, great lakes science center, homeschool, mark rothko, Market, Ohio, Play, Playhouse, playhouse theater, science, Theater, tony award, West Side, west side market

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I started off this activity with a practice version so kids could see the importance of drawing and placement of the art. I made a simple picture of a pumpkin. It was like a puzzle.

This may be one of my favorite group projects so far! For the real activity– I took a poster of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and cut it up into 12 pieces. Each student received a piece of the art work along with a blank piece of paper cut to the same size. I numbered the back of the poster and the corresponding papers along with an arrow pointing to the top.

We used oil pastels to fill our papers. Trying to copy what was on our piece of art work.

After everyone was finished we put both the original art work as well as the students art work back together.

I love it! I am planning on pasting the pieces on to a black matte board to hang up at The Rec Center.

I got the idea from TEACH KIDS ART —thanks!!

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Post tags: activity, art, art work, class, drawing, group, group projects, matte board, oil pastels, original art, picture, project, rec center, students art, sunflower, sunflowers, van gough

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Puffy Paint is super expensive to purchase–especially for a whole class. This DIY version is not meant for fabric but more for a paint that dries bumpy. It adds a little depth and texture to the work.

It’s cheap and easy to make. Equal parts salt, flour and hot water. Stir until dissolved. Add liquid or powder tempra. This potion is very forgiving. Add more water if too thick and add more salt and flour if it’s too thin –especially after adding the liquid tempra.

Pour or spoon mixture into squeeze bottles–I bought empty ketchup and mustard bottles. You want the consistency to be runny enough to squeeze out of the bottles with out splatting. Understand? You will once you start mixing. Think frosting–creamy frosting! You can even add a little glitter for some fabulous sparkle!

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Post tags: art, class, creamy frosting, dale chihuly, DIY, glitter, Homemade, mixture, Paint, Paints, puffy, puffy paint, recipe, squeeze bottles, tempra, texture

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Unschooling Co Op is back in session so that means I will have something to post other than updates on our remodel! We talked about the paintings of Dale Chihuly for our first class.

Chihuly is well know for his glass works but his paintings and his painting style is also impressive. Here is a link to a few google images of his paintings

http://www.google.com/search?q=chihuly+paintings&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Xlq&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=QuZxTuPUCKffsQKKvOXICQ&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBMQ_AUoAQ&biw=1035&bih=465

To mimic Chihuly’s style of painting we layered paint on to canvas through several steps. We used sheets from a canvas pad. Be sure to paint on the correct side so the edges don’t roll. We used acrylic paint.

The first layer of paint when on with a brayer

The second layer went on with a broom-allowing the first layer to show through

Next layer was splatter painting

And then we used “puffy paint” for the final layer  DIY puffy paint recipe here

Each one ended up so different and the kids really enjoyed applying each different layer. I did choose specific colors for each layer so that the darker colors went on first and and then in small amounts last, hoping to keep the layers visually separate.

This collage is made up of all the kids paintings

I can see why Chihuly is also well known for his splatter painted shoes after this class!! I loved both the process as well as the product of this project!

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Post tags: acrylic paint, art, art class, brayer, broom, canvas, class, collage, dale chihuly, DIY, google images, Kids, layer, Paint, painted shoes, Painting, paintings, process, project, puffy, puffy paint, splatter, unschool, unschooling

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Our unschooling co op is moving right along. Hard to believe we only have one more week of the session. This week during art class we looked at the works of Louise Nevelson and tried our hand at our own additive sculptures.

We used hot glue guns to build our pieces with various odds and ends and bits and pieces.

Next kids chose a color to paint their sculptures.

Next week subtractive sculpture.

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Post tags: Additive, additive sculpture, art, art class, Artist, class, color, glue, hot glue gun, hot glue guns, Kids, louise nevelson, Nevelson, Paint, Sculpture, sculptures, unschool, unschooling

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Color Project 1

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Post tags: Arlington, art, Artist, Artists, artists at work, blog, blogs, color, Concourse, concourse gallery, facebook, Gallery, group, LABORING, mother, opening, photo, photos, project, screening, show, upper arlington, woman, Women

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We talked about The Linares Family of Mexico and their spectacular art of paper mache. Here is a link chock full of information and links to some of their works.               http://www.driftwood-dreams.co.uk/learn_papier_mache/history.htm

The Linares Family is well known for the mythical like beasts they create known as alebrijes. Popular artists like the Linares are known as cartoneros.  Most cartoneros make fanciful paper mache objects for major celebrations during the year, most notable Day of the Dead and Easter week.  I didn’t know this when I planned out six weeks worth of our Unschooling Co-op art lessons but it ended up perfect timing that we made these the week before Easter!  After looking at some of Felipe Linares Mendoza’s work we created our own little beasts out of foil, covered in newspaper and masking tape.

They were then covered in strips of newspaper moistened in a slightly watered down glue mixture.

We left them to dry until the following week when we painted them. We talked about the style of painting and the patterns used by the Mexican artists and the kids were encouraged to paint their alebrijes in the style of the cartoneros work we looked at.

I LOVE them!! They turned out great!! I would really like to try out more paper mache activities.

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Post tags: alebrijes, art, Artist, cartoneros, celebrations, class, co-op, day of the dead, Easter, easter week, Felipe Linares, glue, Kids, little beasts, Masking, masking tape, mendoza, mexican artists, Mexico, op art lessons, Paint, Painting, paper mache, papier mache, photo, photos, spectacular art, unschool, unschooling, week before easter

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Today at our Unschooling Co op we talked about Alexander Calder’s Finny Fish and Nathan Carter’s Radar Reflector. I was really excited to share the works of these artists with the kids because last Fall we went to Chicago to see this exhibit live and up close!!

We used coated copper wire to fashion  the outer shape. It wasn’t stiff enough on it’s own so I doubled the wire by twisting 2 pieces together. The kids each brought a bag of ” junk” from home—odds, ends, bits, pieces, old keys, washers, spools, buttons, caps, beads etc…

After each student was happy with their outer shape we taped them down to the floor to help with stability as they worked on adding more wire from end to end.

We used both galvanized and copper wire and floral wire to wrap objects and secure them on to their sculptures.

It was so neat to see how each was so different and how some kids spent lots of time beading or wrapping while others spent a long time on getting their piece to be just the right shape.

Some kids spent lots of time on the details!

Next week….paper mache!

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Post tags: art, Artist, beading, Chicago, class, copper, copper wire, exhibit, finny, fish, floral wire, Kids, nathan carter, odds ends, old keys, paper mache, PepperPaints, radar reflector, Reflector, school, sculptures, stability, unschool, unschooling, wire sculptures

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I am teaching 2 sessions of art. My head is so full of possible ideas it might just pop off and my kids are so glad I have a new audience to share all these ideas with! (Although both of them chose to take my class!)

Today we talked about artist, Holton Rower. You may have seen his YouTube video of his TALL PAINTINGS that has been all over the internet lately. I loved it so much and thought it was a perfect project for a first class discussion about process vs product. My husband I built a smaller version of Rower’s pedestals using a piece of 4 inch 2×2 on its end screwed on to a 4inch  2×4 on it’s side and finally screwing those to a 12 x 12 piece of plywood.

Rower uses acrylic paint and there was no way I could afford to buy that much acrylic paint. Then I realized that latex house paint is acrylic paint! Perfect!! We visited a few Habitat for Humanity re-stores and Home Depot’s for some cheap paint before remembering we have a friend with a painting business and TONS of extra paint. Perfect again!!

We looked at a few prints of Rower’s Pour Paintings and I let the kids try to guess how he put the paint down.

Then we watched the video and talked about product vs process.

Luckily I had tons of helpers today! This project was A LOT of set up! First I covered everything with tarps and cardboard. We poured small amounts of paint into dixie cups and let the kids pick their colors.

And the pouring began!

Each of my students made 2 pour paintings and luckily we were able to leave them undisturbed until next week. Hopefully they will dry by then!

I am so happy with the way this project turned out! The kids loved making them too! I would love to try this on a larger scale someday. I certainly have enough left over paint!!

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Post tags: acrylic paint, art, Artist, cheap paint, class, co-op, color, colors, holton, kid, Kids, latex, latex house paint, Paint, Painting, paintings, perfect project, photo, photos, Pour, prints, process, project, Rower, TALL, teaching, unschool, unschooler, Unschoolers, unschooling, work

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Friday we took the kids to our old favorite hang outs on Coventry (the Greenwich village of Cleveland). Most are gone now and the crowd isn’t quite so hippy but it was still fun. Playing at the playground and eating dinner at Tommy’s. We need a Tommy’s here in Clintonville. It would surely do a bang up business!!! Pretty Pleeeeeze???

Saturday we headed to the newly renovated and free Art Museum. It is awesome!!!

Then we headed to The Botanical Gardens. I can’t say enough good things about the Hershey Children’s Garden. We could play there all day.

Look –apparently Ginger has a twin in Cleveland

Saturday night we took my in laws to Sokolowski’s to eat.  On the recommendation of Anthony Bourdain of course– we got in touch with our Polish heritage!

Sunday morning we boarded The Rapid and headed to the Terminal Tower for a view from the observation deck. It has been closed since 9/11 and is only open for a few weekends.

Just about everyone in Cleveland had the same idea! We waited in kine for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Ginger was not happy

The ride up didn’t get much better

But the views were so cool! Cleveland really does rock! The ethnicity, the history and the big city feel.

Thanks Cleveland!  We will  be back soon!

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Post tags: anthony bourdain, art, art museum, Botanical, botanical gardens, Children, Cleveland, cleveland rocks, clintonville, coventry, dinner, ethnicity, Food, free art, Friday, garden, Greenwich, greenwich village, hershey, hippy, Kids, Museum, observation deck, photo, photos, playground, polish heritage, Sokolowski, terminal tower, Tommy, village of cleveland

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