four&twenty

Mom’s Day Blossom Cards

I have to say, I'm always a little proud of myself when I can scrap together a cute and do-able art project for my 5 year-old with materials I already have on hand. And since I'm not a huge fan of pre-printed drug store cards I decided to make some springtime blossom cards inspired by the Bougainvillea growing in our backyard.

First I gathered some random envelopes and card stock in lovely spring colors. I think I've literally had these envelopes for over ten years. Today their destiny has been fulfilled!

Next I prepped the paint. I love craft paint. I'd buy every color if I could! I picked three colors for the blossoms, and for the stems I watered down a few drops of green paint in a small bowl.

For our "paintbrush" I used a cotton ball and clothespin to help keep little fingers cleaner. I decided to cut the cotton ball down to make it a bit more manageable and discovered a perfect blossom pattern hiding inside. I love happy accidents!

Time to make art! I puddled some of the watered down green paint at the bottom of the card and gave my boy a straw that I had cut in half. I encouraged him to blow the puddle around to create the stem and branches. It helped for me to rotate the card as he was doing this to spread the design out a bit. I have seen this techinque many times throughout my blog surfing adventures and I was thrilled to be able to finally try it out.

Next came the blossoms themselves. I squirted three small blobs onto a plate to mimic the colors of the Bougainvillia blossoms. Very little paint is required, depending on how many cards you want to make.

Taking the cottonball brush, my boy then added the blossoms. I encouraged him to "plant" them at the end of each stem. I have to say he did a pretty good job with that. Don't worry, should your young artist go on a wild dabbing-spree, the result will be just as perfect and adorable.

Once the cards dried we added a simple, heart-melting message to the inside.

This was such an easy, quick and fun crafting session with awesome results. And we've still got a day to get some of these into the mail for grandmas.

Honestly, even though I know what's coming, I'm so excited to open my own card come Sunday!

HAPPY MOM'S DAY and blessings to all of you amazing mothers out there! What you do is important!

Jasper Johns Number Paintings

Jasper Johns was born in America, on May 15, 1930 in Augusta, Georgia to be exact. As a boy, he knew he would be an artist one day. So when he grew up, he moved to New York and studied art. Jasper Johns became famous for painting ordinary things that people sometimes take for granted...

flags...

maps...

targets...

and numbers.

Using this last Jasper Johns painting as inspiration, our group of young artists learned how paint their ages! It was a great exercise in color, scale, form and composition!

To begin their paintings, each student was given a large 11 x 17 stretched canvas, a pencil, and examples of numbers in different typefaces. You can do this by typing a row a numbers on your computer, changing the font a few times and printing them out large for your children to draw from. Have them look at and observe the nuances of line and curve that different letterforms have.

Next, I demonstrated how to lay down a design first in pencil. Since the entire surface would be covered in multiple layers of paint, it was not so important to create perfect drawings but rather for students to concetrate on their compositions. I encouraged the use of the whole canvas, emphasising size and shape, and having students pay extra attention to white space.

"Make the numerals big so that the negative spaces around the image of your age are really interesting to look at." 

Then we talked about color. I reminded them that painters don't use color straight from the tube.

Using acrylics, I pre-mixed a palette of bright, complex colors to share so the artists could focus on design and painting technique. I explained how more interesting hues are created by combining a color with a bit of its complement—green has a dash of the red, blue has a dash of orange, yellow has a dash of  blue, and so on.

My students then helped me drape the table with a plastic drop cloth, I set out jars of water, and set paper towels at each place for blotting and drying brushes. Then the painting began!


This was a two session lesson, each session taking a little over an hour with a snack and stretch break in between. During the first session the artists drew their composition and blocked in their design, covering all the white canvas with paint.

During the second session the students built up their paint layers. In some of the negative spaces they experimented using dry brush techniques so that the under layers peeked through. And and in the positive spaces (the numbers), the artists experimented laying down wet thick paint onto the design.

The results were fantastic, gestural and bold—a friutful exercise in Abstract Expressionism! Mr. Johns would be proud!

Thanksgiving Making

Fall is cozy....and has to be the best season for making! We had so much fun this year getting creative ideas from many of you around the wonderful-wide-web! It's a blessing to be able to find inspiration at your fingertips and we're really grateful for the sharing that happens from blog to blog. Here are some of the projects we made...enjoy, and Thanksgiving blessings to you!

Fall Leaf Cutting Practice inspired by mmmCrafts

Leaf Lanterns inspired by ...imagine childhood

Handprint Mayflower inspired by Fryman Four

Thanksgiving Story Bracelets inspired by My Montessori Journey

Paper Leaf/Feather Garland inspired by Chasing Fireflies

"Coneucopias" filled with gummy fish, caramel corn, candy-coated sunflower seeds, berry chews and Reeses Pieces inspired by Busy Bee

Turkey Handprint Cards (in process)

Pumkin Cookies

Our "First Thanksgiving" Feast shared and ejoyed by our little ones. We served beef jerkey, baby carrots, fishie crackers, nuts, dried green beans, dried blueberries, grapes, apples and cranberry juice.

Yet Another Reason to Draw

This past week Søren added JFK to his Book of 100 Heads. This time I noticed that he drew in two sessions instead of one. He told me that after he set it aside the first time and looked back at the drawing, he noticed that he needed to add more range of value.  As luck would have it, I had photographed the drawing after the first session of drawing.

At the end, Søren was inspired to read a book about the man he had spent a couple hours drawing. He may even write a little report.

Creativity inspires the mind.

Our Fall iMadonnari

Our fall iMadonnari project is well underway. Stay tuned for progress!

Da Vinci Summer II: Back to School

It's time to transition from DaVinci summer back-to-school.

Coming Soon...“Welcome Fall!” iMadonnari Celebration fashioned after Edward Hopper's Approaching a City, 1946.

Da Vinci Summer II: Listen with Your Eyes

I love summer not because we are “off” but because we get to jump start and fine tune our rhythm of routine. We get to be outdoors. And this summer that fact, connected to our policy of TQM equaled a thriving garden, well, that plus plenty of water and regular food for our little green friends (thanks for mentoring us Sara).

When my boys came in a few weeks ago with a larger than life-sized squash that appeared over night in the garden, you know, the kind that was not quite ready to pick yesterday and has become a snack for Gargantua over night, the kind that is just too tough for a delicate meal, I ask, “How 'bout grate the mutant into another modified version of zucchini bread?”

A resounding, “No...!”

“Okay, we'll make art!”

So we pull out the sketch pads for an impromptu art session. Because squash (especially in this overgrown state) will last on our counter indefinitely, they are perfect objects to accent a still life composition. But this curvaceous object, I decided, was perfect for contour drawing. So we set out on a visual journey, observing the delicate contours of this enormous vegetable.

Contour drawings show the outline of an object. Blind contour drawings are those created by looking only at the subject, not the paper, while drawing and to make matters more complicated, without lifting the pencil. One continuous line, this is the goal in a perfect world. This practice helps develop eye-hand coordination, helps to train the brain to listen to the eyes and to send the proper message to the pencil whose job it is to put marks on paper. Changes in form and space are tough to detect, this exercise allows the artist to get the eye, the brain, and the muscles to be on the same page.

My dear friend, painter and art mentor extraordinaire, Sandra, has been teaching me the value of contour drawing for many years, “Listen with your eyes,” that's what she says. At least that's where she begins. Here is where that little opener leads:

Putting the effort, (even if it is a little uncomfortable!), into the the practice of contour drawing is important for a few reasons.

• Primarily, it works to strengthen observation skills, (drawing what one actually sees, as opposed to what the brain “knows”).
• Blind contour assists in becoming “shape sensitive”... instead of drawing a nose... follow the contour curving left, then sharp turn right...
• Lastly, It's fun, (if you embrace it)!!!

Whenever I struggle with a sketch... I'm not getting the correct gesture or tilt of the head or shape if the eye and shadow shape...

I switch my brain over to contour mode and rely on my eyes to tell my hand what to do. Right and left brain work together: Right brain follows the contours of shape, left brain analyzes where the shape relates to other shapes.

You can clearly see that she practices what she preaches. This is one of her contours.

This is where her rhythm of routine leads:


Since we live miles and miles apart, she mentors me via iPhone. My youngest son, Søren has been drawing all summer. When I sent Sandra his recent contour, he was tickled to read her encouragement:

“Soren's contour from last night is really good! Those undulations can be challenging, the tendency is to let the brain say, ‘...ya, ya, I know... up and down, up and down...blah blah blah...’. It looked like he was
really letting his eyes inform him! Keep it up!”

Sandra will be pleased to know that after 25+ years, I am beginning to recognize the value of this foundational skill. In fact, Søren and I have committed to a year of as close to daily contour drawing as possible. We will see where this goal lands us. My larger plan is to incorporate contour drawing into science workshops at my co-op this fall—15 minutes of observational drawing. I am sure Leonardo would nod approvingly, but his eyes would not stray from the subject at hand!

Click here for a really creative lesson from Lori over at the inspiring Camp Creek Blog, on how to begin blind contour drawing with younger children.

– Kim

Da Vinci Summer II: Sidewalk Masterpiece

Van Gogh chimes in, celebrating Da Vinci Summer II:
"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."

Can't make it to the art museum this summer? Well, create your own museum at home!

This is a perfect impromptu activity for the patio or driveway. All you need is space, inexpensive sidewalk chalk, a box of chalk pastels in a lovely range of colors...and a bunch of friends.

What's great about this project is that you get to own an original installation of art until you decide to have the artists close the exhibition with a few squirts of the hose!

Step 1
Prepare the surface using inexpensive sidewalk chalk. We used white because Van Gogh's sunflowers are bright.

Step 2
Draw what you see. This is a terrific opportunity to practice observation skills.

Step 3
Color in the negative space (the background). Begin with colors slightly darker than the painting you are copying. This will add depth to the finished work.


Step 4
Begin to fill in the details. As you do, be sure to experiment with colors. Don't use a single color. Use a range of analogous colors (colors that are neighbors on a color wheel) to simulate the rich layering that a painter such as Van Gogh might use.

Step 5
Layer and layer until your composition is complete.

Step 6
Make some lemonade and invite the neighborhood to your very own street painting festival.

Most of all... enjoy the process!

Da Vinci Summer II: Book of 100 Heads

Last week Søren decided to copy a Van Gogh drawing. He pulled out a sketchbook, sharpened some pencils and spent an hour studying line and texture, shape and value.

The result is stunning.

This reminded me of the wonderful creative journey my friend Sandra set her son, Joshua, on a challenge to “Draw 100 Faces.”

And so, the challenge is on. Only for Søren, the challenge verbiage has been transformed, “Make a book. Not just any book. Make a book of 100 heads.”

Some of the heads will be studies of famous artist’s drawings. He started with Van Gogh. He moved on to Paul Klee. Tomorrow he might try Da Vinci.

Some of the heads will be drawings from life. Today Søren drew himself.

But some of the heads will be straight from Søren’s imagination. These are the drawings I am especially looking forward to.

The goal is a drawing a day for 100 days.

And the reward?

Why, the book of course.

– Kim

Salon des Artistes

The most inspiring and fun-filled day of the whole school year is our annual Salon des Artistes. Reveling in all that been created throughout the year we celebrating and affirm the work of each young poet, filmmaker, artist, and writer. AMAZING!!

 

Running to Somewhere

A great story has something for everyone.

As a kid, I was jealous of Claudia. I mean what girl wouldn't want to stowaway in an art museum? And not just any art museum, we're talking the Met! 

“Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her pack. She didn't like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere.”

This is the precise passage that captured my imagination as a young reader, and if I am being honest, it still intrigues me. In fact, I spend my days encouraging my students to grab hold of this concept of “running to somewhere.”

When we mentor with books, great characters, like Claudia, give young readers a reason to press into their imagination.

“Some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up and touch everything. If you never let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you.”  — E.L. Konigsburg   

This past year, I explored The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler again with my 5th grade reading circle—five boys. It was fun to watch them connect with different aspects of the story. While they unanimously disliked Claudia (she's a girl after all), they identified with Jamie. My youngest son Søren had this to say, “I liked the mysterious statue. Remember when Claudia and Jaime snuck a peak of the angel? I liked that part mom.”

I could not help but smile when my budding artist decided to sculpt an angel in the style of Michelangelo for his culminating project. Søren's imagination was not sparked in the same way that mine was as a child and this is a good thing, is precisely what I love about great stories. 

So Søren dove into what inspired him, found a Michelangelo(ish) image on his own to fashion his sculpture after. I did not have the heart to tell him that it is not a Michaelangelo in the midst of his creative process. I am glad that he discovered this on his own when he decided to do some research on the angel like Claudia and Jamie who went before him.

Now I know there is bias here, but in the end, I believe Soren's original work of art made of aluminum foil and paper towels surpasses the work being studied!

Søren's buddies thought his angel a masterful work of art. They even checked the base of his statue, just to make sure it was not a Michelangelo!

– Kim

Folds

“There are several words that sang above the rest in my high school science classes.

From botany, photosynthesis is the one.

From marine biology, Echinodermata and Coelenterata.

From chemistry, stoichiometry.

And, from cellular biology, mitochondria captured my imagination.”

So begins the lesson.

"Mitochondria located in the cytoplasm are little energy factories within the cell. These amazing organelles enable respiration, which allows the cell to move, to divide, and to thrust their unique purpose. Mitochondria can have different shapes depending on the cell type. Because they contain their own DNA, ribosomes and can produce their own protein, mitochondria are only partially dependant upon the host cell."

What I set out to explore with my students is the fact that mitochondria possess a double membrane, an outer, which is smooth, and an inner, which possesses many folds called cristae which exponentially increase membrane surface area.

“All living cells have mitochondria. But it is amazing to consider that typical animal cells have up to 2000 mitochondria… in each cell!”

I wanted to take their imagination on a journey between these folds.

“Folds give mitochondria their unique potential; enable the organelle to be highly productive. Cristae take batches of sugar and oxygen and produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate)—cell food.”

At the beginning of the year, science began by exploring the idea that science and art are uniquely connected.

Leonardo himself reminds us, “All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.”

My hope was to connect the exploration of mitochondria to the unit we had just completed on the human nervous system. We explored the potential of individuality as we explored the brain—human potential, genius. And here another potential to bridge the gap between learning information and sparking individuality presented itself, this time on a cellular level.

“So today, to continue our exploration of mitochondria, we are going to watch a film about origami.”

Yes, origami.

The students gathered round the TV. I popped in the DVD and set out to accomplish some administrative goals.

Not far into the film I overheard the little group letting out amazement. I was not surprised. But soon I witnessed something that caught me off guard. One-by-one individual students from the group ranging from the 5^th through the 11^th grader, got up to grab a stack of paper.

They were folding.

The film did not provide a directive to viewers. This was not a "fold-along" film. These students were engaging in the task spontaneously.

Being inspired is magnificent.

During the next biology workshop I provided instructions and large pre-cut squares of paper for the students to fold a hyperbolic parabola. This, to reinforce the film’s message that even paper has hidden potential.

“Folding paper is work. But your work is not in vain. Your work utilizes a fraction of potential. And the paper will never be the same.”

Dare I say, neither will they?

I think mitochondria is one of those words that will stick.

 

Lost Wax: Connecting the Dots

Evelyn is a high school graduate. I closed the book on her transcript over a year ago. Recently she taught me how to connect the dots:

Ever since my mom introduced me to pysanky egg making many years ago, I have been hooked. When Easter rolls around I have my friends over to create these brilliantly dyed eggs. Every year I get better and better and learn more helpful techniques. This year I was so obsessed with making eggs I would stay up ‘till midnight painstakingly scratching on eggs with a wooden kiska.

Ukrainian egg making teaches patience. It’s a quiet, slow, endeavor but all the hard work and patience pays off. My favorite part of the process is when, after hours of work, I finally get to melt off the black wax with a candle and reveal the masterpiece!

A few years ago we suffered a pysanky egg tragedy: Years worth of eggs had been left on the kitchen table while we were out to dinner one night. We returned to a floor covered in smashed eggshells. Our dog Jack had smelled the eggs and jumped onto a chair to get to the top of the table. He crushed them all.

My mom cried. She’s never gotten over the loss. I, on the other hand, just wanted to punt Jack down the staircase.

Slowly we have begun to build up our pysanky egg collection…

I remember being on a Patricia Polacco roll one spring. After reading Rechenka’s Eggs to our group I heard Sara say, “We can do that.” 

The next thing I know we are blowing the insides out of eggs and teaching our primary aged children the art of batik. I find it interesting that the Ukrainian word “pysanky” comes from the verb “pysaty” which means to write. So picture teaching a group of 12 or so under ten-year-olds to write with wax on eggshells! Did I mention that there is fire involved in this activity? Yes, that’s right, fire.

Here’s the deal: children are capable. Was this activity chaotic? You bet. But not once did it cross our minds that this group of children was too young to engage in a sophisticated craft. We rarely purchased construction paper! Looking back those young children proved that focus is not the issue. Children possess an incredible store of focus power, but we deny them opportunity to demonstrate their prowess when we hand them coloring books.

The art of pysanky teaches patience, true. When pure white shells, a tiny surface of potential, are painstakingly decorated individuality emerges. As a teacher who’s a poet, I see a metaphor emerging.  

– Kim

It Begins with Red, Yellow, and Blue

We teach our children that letters have sounds, that sounds combine to form words, that words combine to form sentences, that sentences grouped in just the right way form the stories we all know and love. We teach our children to read and write.

Last week it hit me as I was helping my students mix color wheels. I was teaching color literacy, an equally important academic (and life) skill.

Color is scientific. Color can be harmonious or not harmonious. People who understand this can use this knowledge to their advantage—artists, painters, designers, people just trying to get dressed in the morning.

We teach color because we see in color.

We teach color because human beings feel color.

Color affects us so profoundly.

Why wouldn't we teach our children about color?

– Sara

Spring Into Poetry

This time in the school year can be particularly difficult—a sort of doldrums. Everyone has been working hard for many months and summer still feels quite a ways off. You're starting to feel the pressure of all that you haven't accomplished...or wanted to. Standardized testing may be looming. The weather around Southern California becomes a confusing mix of sweater days and t-shirt days and at least for me, the urge to purge kicks in strong with garage sale season right around the corner.

With April being National Poetry Month, why not infuse your last weeks of school with a focus on the wonder of words. Poetry is at the same time economical and extravagant. It has the power to unlock a child's voice and encourage writing skills in ways that prose and essay writing simply cannot. My own daughter has a stunning gift for poetry that would never have been unearthed had we not delved into reading and writing poems at a young age. Don't be intimidated, jump in, be creative and have fun. Try to incorporate a little something into everyday.

• Revisit past four&twenty posts for some ideas. A personal favorite uses chocolate bars as inspiration for writing poems about place and taste!   

• Participate in Poem In Your Pocket Day on April 14. I love the idea of having a poem on hand to sponatneously share with family and friends throughout the day.

• Great Poems to Teach lists important poems, some with audio readings. Poetry 180 also has a compiled list of poems geared towards high school students—one for every day of the school year. Both are helpful for getting to know famous poets and various forms.

• Start a book club with friends using our poetry-focused, litertaure discovery guides. Younger students can explore animal poetry with our Douglas Florian guide while Love That Dog and Locomotion both tell profound stories through the use of verse.

• Use technology to share poetry with the world! Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, PowerPoint, Flickr, iMovie, digital cameras....the possibilities are endless.

• Here are some really creative ideas for word play from The Crafty Crow. Click through to Austin Kleon's inventive newspaper blackout poems. What a great exercise in eliminating words to find the poem that was hiding there all along.

• Embark on our Exploring Poetry unit. Read about it here from a blogger-mom who did!

• For a creative lesson idea, read The Poetry of Words recently written by Kim for Heart of the Matter.

• Plant a PoeTree.

Most of all, enjoy learning, exploring, discovering, and creating with words!

– Tracey