Art Camp Day 1

The first thing we did was decorate our sketch books, there were so many stickers....

...and so little time.

First project: Lines

Each student had to come up with different types of lines

We moved on from there and incorporated the element of line into our "string painting" which is an art form done by an indigenous people in Mexico called the Huichol people.

Here's a link to a few examples of the Huichol art all made with yarn and beeswax.

Indigo Arts | News | Huichol Visions 2005

We continued to work with yarn for the rest of the day,

Here we are starting our weaving project.

screen printing

First peruse your favorite instructional manual, mine is always the one with lots of pictures!

Next, draw the image on to your silk screen using "drawing fluid"

Once the drawing fluid has dried cover the whole screen in "screen filler"

Like so...after that you spray it with a hose and you're ready to print

onto a t-shirt

choose your ink color

Squeegee the ink in an even layer across the screen print

TADA!

Voila!

Back Blogged

This summer Jen and I instituted art day, though it sounds like something you would do if you were five.... well it is something you would do if you were five, or if you were an artist. Actually its made me quite productive, where as usually I only paint, I reserve art day for all the other projects I want to do but can't with out feeling guilty.

As you can tell by the pictures we were making some high

quality paintings that day (paint by numbers)

sweetness

So I've been working on my first screen printing, which I shall soon inflict onto some helpless t-shirt, and though I doubt that any of you are that interested in screen printing, if you happen to want to learn how to do it AND be entertained here's a great YouTube video. The hosts are humorous.

Also I went to their site and then I found something amazing it's called "magazine carving". Upon coming across the name I immediately clicked to Nate's site, and I am impressed if not a little weirded out. Enjoy! nate page (check out the Vogue image first)

Banksy

Banksy is an illusive but famous street artist of Great Britain 

See This-

Another installation artist

 Introducing Mark Jenkins!

  

More at his website http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/outside.html

also very cool

cool

we interupt this broadcast......

OH, I almost forgot to journal after painting! I've been making a point of it so as to have an accurate account of the influences and progress I'm making as I paint.
For those of you who think, "gosh I really like this blog but I wish Lindsey would write a little about the rest of her life" :) I finally caved and created a third-second blog, I already had one but it lacked focus so I axed it. But don't worry It still won't have that much to do with my everyday life and it WILL be interesting and hazardously non-self indulgent, I hope! here it is! I just put my first entry in. http://72wordsorless.blogspot.com/ Make sure you check out the ever changing random thoughts on the side! a new bonus feature! (its my own version of deep thoughts)

back to your regularly scheduled viewing!

Today I painted.
Sigh.
I feel better.

From "walking on water: reflections on faith and art" by Madeleine L'Engle

"I was outraged a number of years ago to read a book by an eminent Freudian analyst whose theory was that all artists are neurotic, psychotic, sado/masochists, Peeping Toms; that not one is normal.

At this moment I do not know why it bothered me so. He means one thing by his labels; I would call it something quite different; but there is no denying that the artist is someone who discovers rainbow answers in the darkness, and then rushes to canvas or paper. An artist is someone who cannot rest, who can never rest as long as there is one suffering creature in this world. Along with Plato's divine madness there is also divine discontent., a longing to find the melody in the discords of chaos, the rhyme in the cacophony, the surprised smile in time of stress or strain.

It is not that what is is not enough for it is; it is that what is had been disarranged, and is crying out to be put in place. Perhaps the artist longs to sleep well every night, to eat anything without indigestion; to feel no moral qualms: to turn off the television news and make a bologna sandwich after seeing the devastation and death caused by famine and draught and earthquake and flood. But the artist cannot manage this normalcy. Vision keeps breaking through, and must find means of expression."

Rather pertinent to what I was just talking about, I hope I can be that kind of artist.

Because the dog ate my camera cord

Actual ramblings, no pictures because the dog really did eat my camera cord and therefore I cannot download anything.
I could blame the recent shortage primarily on the dog but it would be slightly untrue because nothing is finished. Is anything ever finished?
Fransisco De Goya left this world having finished more than 700 paintings, not to mention the 1000 drawings and 300 prints. Think of the things he scraped, the art that didn't survive. He's 14 when he starts studying under Jose Luzan and he paints for 68 years. Incredible, to have that much time at one pursuit. Incredible.
When Henri Matisse was sentenced to a wheel chair, essentially bed ridden for the rest of his life, he transformed a medium by "painting with scissors." He turned a fad into a fine art form and this was after he'd already made a name for himself.
The arts has no shortage of crazy, most lives seem to be riddled with depression and tragedy but I admire them, in some aspects at least. There are few of us that have so much fortitude so deep a desire and drive to move forward, day after day at the same thing. So much courage to fall in love, with the world, with work. Maybe I'm not afraid to be passionate, I admire passion. (I would limit the "few" to my courageous friends and bold family, passion and commitment is alive and well there)
What about the plenitude of artists out there now, what are they saying, and what are they doing? There are so many. Is there anything left for them, is there anything left for me? Does it matter? The answer is no, because it's actually time to get on with it. To commit, to be passionate, to be in love. I wouldn't mind going crazy if it meant I had that kind of commitment. And I know a little about crazy.
Don't worry about replying, anybody, I'm breaking my rules anyway, I try not to write personal things on the Internet. These are just some cosmic ramblings sent out into the chaos with the click of a button.
On second thought maybe I'll go be a nun :)

Too Many Daves

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess, (march 2)

at school we do quite a bit  to celebrate his birthday, which was also the kick off of Read-Across-America. at Mary Eyre we had different guests come in to read to the kids, firemen, parents, and Joey Harrington! (I even took a wack at it and read the "Stinky Cheeseman") We also have a door decorating contest and since I have a door, I decorated it! Our theme has to involve a book or story and if you can incorporate Dr. Suess in, well, you're golden I chose the story "Too Many Daves" from the book "The Sneeches," a classic if ever there was one. I thought it appropriate as I work with 150 kids each day. I had them each color a dave and then I drew a picture of Mrs. McCrave (who had 23 sons and she named them all dave) calling to her sons. We got honorable mention and thus won a round of ice cream sandwiches!

The door

    Mrs. McCrave as drawn by Miss Walker 

 Daves 

           More to come my computer isn't being compliant right now though

too many fish in the sea

First the children created their own undersea creatures

then they took a picture with their fish and (crabs) in front of a blue shirt I gave them

waiting in line to put on the blue shirt

The finished product

The class of A-2  (second grade)

even when I'm not I am....still creating that is.

working title for a work in progress

"lights"

the kids were doing it why can't I?

Christmas present for Amy

TEXTURE

"Does anyone one know what texture         means?" 

it's a simple question but when you're only 7 you can't be expected to know everything. After spending a day at in-service learning about how to teach writing I stumbled into a class on making different kinds of alphabet books, "why not turn the alphabet into one giant work of art?" i thought. "We could use it to create a dialog on the elements of art, specifically texture!" After we discussed what had texture, (the wall, the rug our desks) and tried to feel the imaginary texture of a few examples i had we set to work. Armed with an array of plastic utensils, Popsicle sticks and any ordinary object you could think of we set to work experimenting. Once they had decided on their preferred utensil we let them at the alphabet!