2012: Project 6--Frank Stella-Inspired Cardboard Sculpture

This was one of the last projects we tried this past summer. I came across the artist Frank Stella on Pinterest. I had not heard of him before, but I was immediately drawn to his geometric artwork and his bright sculptures. I thought it would be fun to show the girls his artwork and create cardboard sculptures. I was first inspired to try this project after seeing this project posted on The Chocolate Muffin Tree blog

Here are some examples of Stella's work that I showed the girls before we started our project:

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I thought it was fun to show them images with people in them so the girls could get a sense for the large scale of his artwork.

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 And some of his sculptures:

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After I showed the girls Frank Stella's artwork, I showed them Chocolate Muffin Tree's cardboard project. Then I gave them a piece of cardboard and our bin of recycled materials and told them to get to it. We received how to use a hot glue gun safely and they were off! I think they really enjoyed the process of creating these sculptures. I love all the concentration you see in the photos as they are creating!

I thought it was simply amazing how they manipulated the cardboard and worked the glue fun! I didn't help them with these AT ALL!

Top image is my 9 year old's, bottom image is my (then) 6 year old's.

After they were done creating their sculptures, I spray painted them white.

And then they were going to paint them with acrylic paints. Ella picked cool colors.

Lily picked warm colors.

I admit that this project might have been a bit too ambitious for the end of the summer. Even though there was more than a week between when they created the sculptures and when they were going to paint them, the girls just were not that interested in painting the sculptures. They did a few tubes the first day. Then I tried to get them to keep going, but they just didn't feel like it. So unfortunately, we don't have a finished project. I still have them up in the closet. Maybe they will finish them someday. Maybe next summer. ;-) They absolutely LOVED the construction part of this though. I will have to remember that and see what I can come up with in the future that can feed off that.

2012: Project 5: Keith Haring-Inspired Figures

I was so excited about our art projects this summer and I have to admit after the bird camp (which I still need to post about) we kind of fizzled out. Or maybe I did. Or maybe we just were so busy with other things there just didn't seem time. So overall, we didn't get as many projects completed this summer as I hoped. But the girls have consistently used the art room on their own and created some of their own projects. I sort of went with it and just let them be creative too. I didn't want to always direct them in a certain way.

With all that being said, one of our organized projects was inspired by 80's pop artist Keith Haring. We looked at several pieces of his artwork:

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After showing the girls some of Haring's art, I asked them what common elements they saw in his work. They said things like bright colors, people, designs. Here is what we wrote on our chalkboard as we talked about his work:

I also showed them how to draw the figures in his style. We started with the head, then neck, arms, torso, legs. There are MANY Haring art projects for kids out there in the blogosphere. I showed the girls a few different projects. And they were most inspired by this image on Artsonia.

My 8 year old LOVED this project! My six year old I think was a bit overwhelmed at the thought of all the lines she might have to draw so she just filled hers in with shapes. :-)

 First, they drew three figures with pencil, then started outlining with marker.

 My 8 year old decided to use warm colors for the people and cool colors for their motion lines.

 My six year old just colored however she wanted. ;-)

And here are their finished Keith Haring projects:

 I LOVE how they turned out!

2012: Project 4: James Rizzi-Inspired Birds (Bird Art Camp)

My girls have taken part in many, MANY art camps in the last few years around where we live in Eden Prairie: at Kidcreate Studio and the city's Art Center. Everything from Journey through Art, Art Around the World, Pinkalicious and Friends, Dress Up Camp, Lego Loco Art camp, Fairy Camp, Angry Birds Art, and more. They are in a few camps this summer as well, but I decided after spending two summers doing art projects with the girls and seeing so many fun projects on Pinterest that I would attempt my own form of Mommy Art Camp. We usually do one art project a week here at home because we have so much going on. But I picked this week and blocked off enough time to do four days of art projects all relating to birds. AND, to top it off we are going to make a trip to the MN Zoo on Thursday to tie in our Science Friday (albeit on Thursday) activity with it. It won't be too exciting, but we're going to pay extra attention to all the different types of birds we see while we're there.

At first, I planned one project for each of the four days, but the girls were pretty excited about the whole thing, so I quickly threw together an extra project on Monday. I have since planned other projects so that we're doing a couple things each day.

I gave them their art journals and showed them several images of James Rizzi's (1950-2011) art work. He was a New York artist whose pop art style was fun and whimsical. The girls thought his buildings in Germany and his stained glass window in a shopping center were really cool. But they loved the rest of his art too. We had fun looking for birds throughout his work.

Happy Rizzi House, Germany

Rizzi Cupola in shopping center dome.

Once we had looked at the images, I used Deep Space Sparkle's Rizzi birds art lesson as a guide and showed the girls how to draw a bird in Rizzi's style. We were also inspired by this image from Cedar Creek Elementary on Artsonia. They used pencil and then I outlined their drawings in pastel for them. I typically would let them do the outlining, but I knew from past experience that it is difficult for them to outline with pastels without smearing it on the page. I wanted to keep them happy and in good moods without thinking they had "messed" up their artwork. They also didn't object to my outlining or I would have let them do it. After this step, they used liquid watercolors to paint the birds in bright fun colors.

I drew out each set on the chalkboard while the girls followed along.

Outlining finished!

Starting to paint

I actually preferred the contrast with the lime green, but Lily wanted to mix colors for the background. I didn't say anything and she went on her merry way. ;-)

And here are their finished Rizzi-inspired birds:

My six year old's. The background turned out pretty darn cool! I also love the expression on her sun. :-)

My eight year old's. So cute!

The girls liked this project. They have both drawn this style of bird on different paper when they were creating on their own in their rooms. :-)  And I learned about a new artist too! I hadn't heard of James Rizzi before and really think is art work is quite fun and would be an awesome theme for a child's bedroom.