Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday to celebrate the dead.

While I was away on vacation another Mom lead our art class at Co op. I left her with printed pictures of sugar skulls and masks created for the holiday to share with the kids. They used acrylic paints to paint the blank masks I bought at Michaels. Then used a hot glue gun to attach fake flowers and ribbons. They came out really great!!

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Post tags: art, art class, day of the dead, day of the dead masks, Dead, dia de los muertos, holiday, mexican holiday, Michaels, sugar, sugar skulls

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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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Jake and I went to Kmart and stocked up on some pretty color spray paint and cupcakes.

Then my kids proceeded to lose a few brain cells all in the name of art, graffiti art. Even in the wide open air there were some serious fumes! It was great to watch how each kid tackled their blank wall so differently. Molly just grab the paint and started spraying.

Jake looked for some inspiration from a book we just happened to have checked out from the library

He was really methodical in his approach. Stepping back thinking about it–all while Molly worked furiously.

Ginger knew exactly what she wanted…This is a picture of our friend Chloe and her new boyfriend kissing. Awwwwwww

Then after consulting with the book, she found her inspiration too!

Of course things got a little out of hand!

If my neighbors didn’t blink at what they saw or grimace at the smell I am guessing they cringed when they heard me yelling “You may NOT spray paint your sister!!”

This window looks cool when lit from the inside

So let me ask you would you rather look at this?

Or this??!!!

I am glad we get to enjoy it for a few days…..it’s all coming down this weekend.

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Post tags: addition, art, Artist, Artists, color, demo, demolition, garage, Graffiti, graffiti artists, Kids, kmart, neighbors, Paint, photo, photos, recycling, Spray, spray paint

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Over the weekend my very nice, helpful and generous husband mixed up several buckets of plaster of paris and poured it into empty milk cartons. We let these dry or “cure” for a couple of days.

Most of the instructions I found for this included adding vermiculite to the plaster of paris to make the carving process easier but because of the health concerns over breathing in the vermiculite we decided to leave it out. You can also add sand or dirt but I was already way over budget and could not purchase another thing so straight plaster of paris it was.

I brought lots of different tools to class and we were lucky the weather allowed us to do this messy-dusty project outside. We looked at works of art of Barbara Hepworth, George Segal, Jean Arp and The Nana’s. We talked about abstract art vs realistic sculptures.

And then we got to work:

Hammers and mallets were pounding, flat head screw drivers were poking and lots of plaster was flying around. The kids really enjoyed this physical process but were definitely challenged by the material.

Once kids were happy with there work they sanded their sculpture and used tempra cakes to paint their pieces. The paint dried almost immediately on most pieces.

And I love the consideration of all sides and angles on this piece!

This was the final week of this session of our unschooler’s co op. I absolutely loved leading these classes. I learned so much along with the kids. Looking forward to doing it again!

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Post tags: abstract art, Additive, additive sculpture, art, art work, barbara hepworth, class, empty milk cartons, george segal, husband, jean arp, Messy, milk carton, nana, Outside, Paint, Paints, PepperPaints, photo, photos, plaster of paris, process, project, realistic sculptures, screw drivers, Sculpture, sculptures, scupture, tempra, unschool, unschooler, vermiculite, works of art

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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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