The group entered a raffle to take home some gorgeous glass.
We did not win the raffle :-(
We then traveled to the newest wing of the Corning Museum of Glass, theContemporary Art & Design Galleries. These beautiful galleries are housed on the footprint of the old Steuben Glass factory. Steuben Glass is once again owned by Corning, but the production of the glass occurs off campus.
Meet, then disperse to draw!
We gave the students drawing supplies, then sent them into the galleries to draw what interested them. Many of the kids had never been to the new galleries, so this was a treat.
Constellation, Kiki Smith
My favorite piece in these galleries, at least at the moment, is Kiki Smith's "Constellation." It is set in a room solo from the other works, giving it a grand presence when viewed in the gallery. The set up of this piece was quite intensive. I love this time lapse video showing the process.
The students were quite content to sit and draw their favorite pieces throughout the galleries.
The hard part of this program was pulling the kids away from the galleries to go home. I call that a major success! Next time we visit, I want to display the drawings within the library.
This blog will be on hiatus for summer chaos. Check back in September for our Tie Dye results, just in time for back to school season.
VTS or Visual Thinking Strategies is a "problem solving process" that most art students develop in college. It helps people work in groups and respect each other's ideas and perspectives. This technique is valuable to all age groups in many subjects. VTS works well within the Common Core standards and I thought it would be fun to try out in
First Friday Art Club.
Mieke Fay from Corning Museum of Glass is a VTS enthusiast,
so I invited her to lead the group in this activity.
We started with this image. Can you tell me, "What's going on in this picture?"
The group was smaller than usual. Once kids see the words "thinking" and "strategies," their eyes glaze over and they look for ways to escape. Only the most art focused joined the group, but it was an educational experience nonetheless.
It was slow going at first.
The ladies were fairly silent at first, but I had a sense there was a very valid reason for that.
Black and white does not appeal to this age group. I clearly remember a disconnect with black and white imagery. Give me color photography or paintings and I could decipher the image for hours as a teen. This was the same circumstance for this group of teens.
Color imagery and a little patience makes the difference.
Once we shifted to a color painting, we had a slightly larger group of participants and much more enthusiasm. I did recognize their urge to create their own artwork, but these ladies proved respect and patience within in their peer group, which is a VTS skill.
A lesson in this process is to give the kids hands-on projects. They spend enough time sitting and thinking in school that all their hearts desire is freedom for creativity. Once we handed collage supplies to create their own "Self-Portrait" collage, the room was a-buzz with activity and excitement. When I attempt VTS again, it will be in a critique setting after work has been created by the students. That way, the skills are being developed, but the teen's need to create is also being nurtured.
Please enjoy the self-expression collages made in a rush by these creative young ladies.
Encaustic is a wax based paint, applied while hot. Our never ending crayon supply donated from various families needed to go, so I thought Crayon Encaustic would be a neat adventure. This is the blog entry that goes from "Hmm, that's interesting" to "Oh My Goodness, this is an atrocity!" With an overflowing crayon collection, this Crayon Encaustic for Kids tutorial surfaced in my Google searches. Candle burning is NOT ALLOWED in my library, so I considered another method. Lo-temp hot glue guns were suggested in other tutorials, so I decided to venture down that path, hoping along the way that no child get marred in the process.
Things started like this
The very small class of 4 girls helped me set up the space with drop cloths, extension cords and color stations. We labeled each glue gun a different color to keep the color true through the gun. We did not want muddy colored paintings. It was quickly realized that imagery was not very reachable, the crayon just dripped from the gun. It was further realized that the guns were terrible! They leaked crayon from the seams and even shot hot wax crayon out unexpectedly. I am lucky that mature students were present for this class. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PROCESS TO ANYONE!! (<if you've had luck with this process, please leave a comment--I'd love to hear your experience.)
Things were really just a series of colorful drips of wax.
Imagery might be achieved if we used a different method. A few years ago, we used hair dryers and heat guns with more direct results, but not better imagery. Perhaps we need a hot plate and lots of brushes like the pros. Since I was using up old materials, I took the least expensive route. Canvas panel boards (8x10") were sourced from Amazon. Lo-Temp glue guns were sourced from Walmart. This program cost about $60 with enough supplies to serve 24+ students. Perhaps on another day (our class was on Good Friday) more students would have been present. Perhaps more students would have experienced the frustration we did with this terrible art process.
Next month, join us for a lesson on Visual Thinking Strategies with Mieke Fay from Corning Museum of Glass. Until then , please enjoy my Crayon Encaustic painting.
Setting up a still life for drawing is pretty fun. I went around the library and collected so many various items from unusual locations to create an interesting scene.
There were a few story book characters, lots of textures, and plenty of objects to focus upon and draw for the second part of our Still Life Drawing session. I provided view finders to aid students in finding their preferred scene, setting up their composition and keeping track of item placement. The results of their focus was remarkable.
Despite any personal fears of class excitement, these students excelled in focus and drawing dedication. Simply seeing and drawing what they saw was plenty of excitement for them. Several were enthusiastic to take their drawings into the digital realm on March 20 with the Teen Tech Friday program.
The idea of meshing First Friday Art Club and Teen Tech Friday is to introduce the artistic method to our students. We also want to introduce career possibilities. In our fast paced world, considering career options is important. Investigating creative avenues can also provide more critical thinkers who are able to face a problem and think "outside the box" to discover solutions. Although art and technology are the focus of these programs, our students are likely future scientists, engineers or politicians who are building their keys to success through art. Art matters.
Visit again in April to see our Crayon Encaustic creations.
One of the fundamental skills of fine art is drawing. Getting the eye and hand to work together as a team is a challenge. Your brain will fight your hand to draw what it knows is there, while your hand struggles to draw what it THINKS is there. This skill can be scary. I programmed two Still Life Drawing sessions this year to begin training my young artists to force their minds and bodies to coordinate with each other. This Still Life Drawing program is a three part session. Two sessions of drawing, then one session in Teen Tech Friday on March 20, in which the drawings created can be digitally altered. These programs provide young students with a view of the real art process, which prepares them for real world art experiences. Everyone had a supply of drawing pencils of varying density. We took each pencil and created a VALUE SCALE. I discussed the difference of paper quality. Copy paper is smooth and great for quick sketches, but final drawings should be on high quality paper that has a tooth. This is the comical sketch I discovered as I oversaw the class progress.
"I am a tooth of my paper."<<some kids always kid!
With multiple objects of varying textures and purposes, I created 5 still lives. Each student had a small still life set before them at their cluster of tables. My main goal of the afternoon was to connect the eye and hand to work in unison. Contour drawings and LOTS OF SKETCHES were the result of this first program.
Everyone had their own approach to the process, but they all settled into taking one object from their still lives and drawing one object at a time. The result was fascinating! It is always impressive when students go from chatting away to focus and quiet. That is when the real work is created.
By the end of the first session, each student had over 10 sketches, some great enough to further embellish. I have a different plan for the second part of this drawing class, but the first sketches are so great, they can be digitally altered in Teen Tech Friday on March 20.
As we wind down 2014, I realize the struggle I have experienced with this blog thing. It's new to me and I've never consistently recorded all I do, but it's a good challenge. I want to share my work and experiences, so my new year's resolution is to record these happenings on a regular basis. Sorry this year went awry. Rather than struggle to write a new post so many moons late, I will count down the 12 months of FFAC on this fine Christmas Eve eve. ;-) January 2014 was Duct Tape Designs. We have done this program in years past. We worked on a wallet pattern, but the kids always have other interests and goals. Pictures are lost in space for this program, but I want your attention to go to Duck Brand Promotions. We were given a case of Duck Brand Duct Tape from ShurTech Brands (makers of Duck Brand Duct Tape) and I really appreciate what the company will do for communities. As a fashion enthusiast, I am enamored with the Stuck-at-Prom contest. The ingenuity involved in these creations is mind boggling. I challenge you to create for this contest. I would certainly support your efforts!
February 2014 was Needle Felting. This is yet another photo-less event. Items made were intended as Valentine gifts. The video here is a great beginner tutorial. Needle felting can be a relaxing and meditative craft. Beware that needle, though! It's a brutal beast if contacted with skin--OUCH!! March and April 2014 involved a special guest instructor, Laura Charles. We worked with character and scene drawing in March. Those scenes were then painted in water color in April. I even received a painting from this session as a gift for the library! Check out the lesson description here.
May was Beads for Mom. Please check my archive link for the full description. June was Baskets for Dad. We celebrate our parents these months leading into summer, so I offer programs to create gifts of appreciation for those special folks. We purchased these basket kits from Guild Craft. The kits were a great value. Special needs students integrated with the usual crew of crafters and this collage shows the results.
July was a month off from First Friday Art Club, because it was Independence Day. It was a momentous occasion for me. My long-time beau proposed and now we are engaged! We also traveled to Galeton, Pa for the most spectacular fireworks display I could never imagine. Take a peek at the finale.
August was a fun field trip to the Corning Museum of Glass. The Summer Reading Club theme for Young Adults was "Spark a Reaction" so I collaborated with the CMoG Youth and Family Programs Educator, Mieke Fay, to create an engaging glass-involved field trip.
Students watched a Hot Glass show with Gaffer G. Brian Juk. They visited the Rakow Research Library to view artist's original drawings of pieces in the museum collection. The group then went into the museum and hunted for the art pieces they first saw in 2-D form. They sat in the galleries and drew their own glass designs. This visit was successful and likely to happen again in 2015. Corning Museum of Glass is an amazing community resource and I like to remind our local youth to experience all the museum has to offer.
September was for Self Portrait Silhouettes.
Self Portraits are great for the artist in training. There is no better model than yourself, willing to wait while you perfect your skill. There was lots of room for expression here, too.
November was Colorful Crayon Creations. Color a design on sandpaper using crayons; the finer the grit, the better your image will appear.
Iron the crayon image side down onto a piece of fabric and your image transfers.
Heat set the image for 30 minutes in a dryer on HIGH.
The results are spectacular and fairly permanent.
December was a First Friday Art Club and Teen Cooking Club combination program called Make & Bake. The program is documented with images. Hopefully these gifts will be given out before the year is over.
Thanks for sticking around this long. Stop back in February when I return with notes from the first session of my Still Life Drawing class. Students are not very enthusiastic about drawing and rendering. I remember those days. Spread the news and help fill these classes.
That time of year has come and gone again. Make & Bake is a program combining Teen Cooking Club and First Friday Art Club into a 2 hour creation fest. I remember being too young to work and lacked enough craft supplies to make cool things for my friends and family. Therefore, I scramble through the year for supplies necessary for my teens to make marvelous treasures for those they love. This year we hosted a special collaboration with Amy Ruza from The Rockwell Museum for attendees to make ceramic ornaments for the holidays. Although I had several tables set up for various crafts, the ceramic ornaments table stole the spotlight!
The flurry of activity gave way to these:
The tough part of making ceramics is waiting for them to be fired (not like what Donald Trump does to people on The Apprentice!). We may not have these ready in time for Christmas, but I think gifts are extra fun when the holiday is passed, but there is still something special to give.
Along with these ceramic specialties, there were Snow Bottles to create.
Wine bottles look extra elegant when spray painted and dipped in Epsom salt. The inspiration came from this blog. I sourced plain bottles and was very happy not to peel off labels, etc. We drew in hot glue as a resist for the spray paint. Then sprayed white primer, followed by spray adhesive and Epsom salt. The hot glue can be peeled off to reveal the clear glass once everything is dry. I added LED lights to mine for a festive effect.
Hand sewing skills were required for these cute handwarmers.
Some kids got creative with the fabric designs. I wish these were made for me!
Scented pine cones were another option, although the ceramics took away any interest in natural objects.
After 1 hour of baking out any bugs, spritz the cones with essential oil water. We broke tradition and used oil of Wintergreen. Mmm!
These yummy Salted Caramel Turtle Thumbprint Cookies were a special treat made by me, because we simply ran out of time. While the kids created, I baked! These are so fabulous, go ahead and bake them, but please, please, PLEASE share with me!!!
Now you have the sources to make your own hand made gifts for your loved ones.
