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Archive for the ‘Collage’ Category
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
Last weekend, I ventured with fellow art educator, Sarah to sunny Louisiana, where spring is in full bloom! The 47th Annual Tom Peyton Memorial Arts Festival at The First United Methodist Church in Alexandria, invited The Carle to lead a series of art workshops as part of their Children’s Day celebration. It was our first trip to the central part of the state, and our hosts showed us what true southern hospitality is all about!
The weekend of art events kicked off on Friday night with the opening receptions for the adult and student juried art exhibitions at the church. The event was very well attended and the show exhibited an array of 2D and 3D art pieces, all created by local artists and students. Each year, with money from the Tom Peyton Memorial Fund, the church purchases one piece from the adult juried exhibition to display as part of the church’s permanent collection, and they’ve collected quite a beautiful gallery of work over the years.
The following day, Saturday, was Children’s Day and Sarah and I taught 6 workshops for children ages 4-13 in side-by-side rooms at the church’s school. Thanks to the Tom Peyton Memorial Arts Fund, the art programs were free to the public and open to any children in the Alexandria community.
Throughout the day, Eric Carle’s newest DVD, Eric Carle, Picture Writer: The Art of the Picture Book played in the church’s auditorium, a great resource about Eric’s artistic process and his deep connection to art making throughout his life. You can purchase the DVD from The Carle’s Bookshop.
 
Here are some fun shots from Sarah’s busy morning “I Am an Artist” sessions, for ages 4-7.
Talking about Eric Carle’s artistic process of painting tissue papers and cutting them into collages.
Stamping some colorful art papers of their own.
Cutting the papers into beautiful collages.
Below are some photos from the “Bookmaking Basics” workshops for children ages 6-8 later in the day.
Cutting unique shapes for their rainbow books.
Adding details to the popup accordion books.
Sarah and I ate lunch with our new friends by the church’s beautiful courtyard and fountain. I could not stop gushing over the perfect weather we had during our quick weekend trip south. It’s hard to believe, but it snowed in Amherst on the same day we were basking in the Louisiana sunshine!
After lunch, I taught two “Possibilities in Print” workshops for children ages 9-13. There were a couple extra spots in the last workshop of the day so some of the festival organizers joined in on the fun too.
Two participants showing off their finished monotype prints.
Making marks in the paint creates interesting details.
The table of beautiful finished prints.
This creative mom’s message “Laugh, Live, Love” is apropos for this fabulous day of art making with the community.
Thank you especially to Aubrey Flynn who took such good care of us! Here I am with Aubrey and Sarah, celebrating the success of Children’s Day.
Also, a big thank you to everyone involved in organizing the Tom Peyton Memorial Arts Festival at The First United Methodist Church in Alexandria, and all of the children, parents and grandparents who participated in Children’s Day. Sarah and I feel so fortunate to be a part of your celebration this year!
To find out more about the annual Tom Peyton Memorial Arts Festival click here.
For more information about bringing The Carle to your next event email us at artstudio@carlemuseum.org
Tags: 47th Annual Tom Peyton Memorial Arts Festival, Alexandria, art activities, art event, art show, Eric Carle, Eric Carle Picture Writer DVD, family activities, Louisiana, outreach, The First United Methodist Church
Posted in Bookmaking, Collage, Elementary School, Middle School, On the Road, Printmaking | No Comments »
Saturday, March 23rd, 2013
Therese Brady Donohue, Director of Picture Book Theater and founder of The Amherst Ballet is leading an exciting workshop called Paint, Shape, Create! for ages 9 through adult here in the Studio on April 20th from 1-4.
Inspired by works in our last exhibition Beyond Books: The Independent Art of Eric Carle, participants in this upcoming workshop will channel Eric Carle and their own inner artists as they paint on aluminum foil and then experiment with shaping it in strips and composing the strips on a painted canvas.
Therese, well known for costume and mask design and construction as founder of Amherst Ballet, told me “For eight years I have worked with reproducing Eric Carle’s picture book images, adapting them into puppets and costumes. I am always interested in taking a technique and creatively using it in different ways. When I saw what Eric had done as an independent artist taking his signature textures and applying them to foil and creating dimension, it spoke to me as a fun technique to introduce to artists of all ages. It is not complicated and does not require in-depth talent to experiment with this technique. This is also a good technique for educators to use in the classroom up through high school.”
With that in mind, Therese and I thought that this creative process would be a great opportunity for an intergenerational class experience in which young artists, parents, grandparents, artists, and educators could work side by side and learn from each other.
The Carle has offered parent/child and family programs before, but with this workshop the elementary-aged artists can participate with or without their parent present. By age 9 some young artists are clear in their creative passions and are ready for an opportunity like this.
Therese and I are both excited about the creative expression and layered learning that will happen this workshop. If you or someone you know in our area might be interested in this workshop learn about how to register (carlemuseum.org/register ) today! We’ll need to have at least 5 participants registered by April 12, and space is limited, so don’t wait!
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Don’t forget to enter The Carle’s Call for Caterpillars Contest for the chance to win an original doodle by Eric Carle! Visit www.carlemusuem.org/call_for_caterpillars for contest details.
Tags: aluminum, April 2013, class, color, Eric Carle-Inspired, foil, paint, Picture Book Theater, relief sculpture, Therese Brady Donohue, visual texture
Posted in At The Carle, Classes, Collage, High School, In the Studio, Middle School, Mixed Media, Painting, Professional Development, Special Guests and Artist Visits, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, March 15th, 2013
It feels good to be back at The Carle! I’ve been scarce for a while because a very young person has come to live with my family and I took some time off to get to know her. In the past two months I’ve learned that life as a working mom of 2 kids under 2 years old is super busy but full of learning. I’m grateful that I get to spend time at home and time at The Carle learning about how toddlers explore materials and use them to make discoveries about the world.
While I’ve been out for most of our last Friday morning Materials Play for Toddlers series in the Studio, I wanted to share some pictures that were captured in a few of the sessions:
Pictured above: marbles, tempera paint, liquid watercolor paint, & black construction paper placed in the bottom of a plastic paper tray. Below, paper circles, cookie tins, tempera and liquid water color paint. Shake rattle and roll!
***Safety Note: if marbles are a choking hazard in your setting try golf balls or ping pong balls.***
Below: plexi mirrors, washable markers, water-soluble oil pastels, wide cups of water and brushes.
Truck Printing! Tempera squeezed into trays, toy cars and rolling stampers, black paper taped to the floor in the shape of a road. Secondary colors (violet, green and orange) chosen so that the mixture of the 3 would resemble mud.)
A buffet of beautiful ingredients: (colorful paper dot confetti, raffia snipped to smithereens, reflective plastic Easter grass, plastic newspaper bag shreds, white feathers, yarn scraps, clementines box mesh, (in other words, all the bits we had laying around) . . .
. . . pressed and sprinkled onto contact paper (paper frame attached first). This is my own sun catcher experiment. My guest’s compositions were less ordered, more spontaneous.
I hope this inspired some experimentation and creative fun with your toddlers! Happy mess-making!
Don’t forget to enter The Carle’s Call for Caterpillars Contest for the chance to win an original doodle by Eric Carle! Visit www.carlemusuem.org/call_for_caterpillars for contest details.
Tags: Beautiful Stuff, contact paper, February 2013, Friday mornings, January 2013, marble painting, markers, materials play, mirrors, paint, painting with children, reflection, sun catchers, toy trucks, water play, window art
Posted in Collage, Found Materials, Infants & Toddlers, Mixed Media, Nurturing Creativity at Home, Painting, Preschool, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
It’s February vacation week and we’ve been busy making maps of all sorts in The Studio. Meet our fleet of future cartographers!
Adding some land and sea…
The brown shape is Florida. He said he colored it in a warm color because it’s hot there.
These are pictures of the creatures that live on the land and in the ocean on her map.
“Treasure Land”
A railroad in the “old fashion map style from 1998″
This treasure map is read from right to left. The treasure is protected by a dinosaur, a giant octopus/squid and a crane (the treasure is sitting under the paper crane on the bottom left).
“Rainbow Island”
This is another treasure map with a squid, a skeleton and a family of dinosaurs protecting the treasure.
“Our happy vacation to the creek”
This is the Bermuda Triangle protected by a giant dragon in the middle of the ocean.
Thanks to all the Museum guests who shared their artwork with me! The current Public Art Project, Mapping Makeover is running now through March 5th.
Don’t forget to enter The Carle’s Call for Caterpillars Contest for the chance to win an original doodle by Eric Carle! Visit www.carlemuseum.org/call_for_caterillars for contest details.
Tags: map making, mapmaking, Mapping Makeover, Maps
Posted in Bookmaking, Collage, Drawing, Mixed Media, Nature, Public Art Program | No Comments »
Friday, December 21st, 2012
There are a few new additions to The Studio recently! We have an over-sized print from the last page of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar hanging on our back wall.
As you can see, it makes a fabulous photo-op for kids or adults! (As Studio staff members Megan and Sabrina demonstrate above)
In honor of the newest exhibition Some Book! Some Art!: Selected Drawing by Garth Williams for Charlotte’s Web Sabrina and Megan wove a Charlotte-like web on our front wall.
Using references from E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web and Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider they pinned pieces of yarn in place on the board and completed it with the special message in the middle 
Stop by The Carle this week to see the beautiful Charlotte’s Web exhibit in the Central Gallery and then pop in the Studio to weave your own 2D or 3D web using colorful strips of paper, glue, tape and staplers. You remember the clever catchphrase SOME PIG! Charlotte wove into the web above Wilbur’s pen? Well this project is called Some Weaving! and just like a spider web it won’t last forever, so hurry over and weave webs with us!
Tags: paper strips, Some Weaving, stapler
Posted in Activities, Collage, In the Studio, Public Art Program | No Comments »
Friday, December 14th, 2012
Four Easy Pieces © 2011 by Eric Carle
Hello educators! I’m really eager to tell you about a new Professional Development workshop I’m developing as a companion to the Museum’s exciting exhibition: Beyond Books: The Independent Art of Eric Carle.* 
Eric Carle is primarily known for The Very Hungry Caterpillar and over 70 picture books done in his colorful collage technique.
This exhibition, dedicated to what Eric himself calls his “ArtArt:” paintings, sculptures, and personal sketches that he has been making privately for more than 60 years, offers a view into another side of Eric’s life and work.
© 2000 by Eric Carle
Having heard from Eric about the motivation and process behind his “ArtArt,” I began to think more and more about the relationship between work and play and where the two merge with children and materials. This relationship is one we try to cultivate through much of what we do here, so this exhibition provides a great opportunity to share our ideas and experiences!
© 2011 by Motoko Inoue
In the workshop on January 26th 2013, we’ll get our hands messy painting a variety of surfaces such as paper, vinyl, and cardboard. Then we’ll view the exhibition and a video of Eric reflecting on his independent art together. After, we’ll sculpt our painted surfaces into window hangings, mobiles, and more as we discuss Eric’s inspirations as an artist. Participants will leave with ideas for the classroom and an understanding of how his creative process might inspire students to think “off the page.”
Educators will receive 4 PDPs, but you don’t have to be an educator to participate. All participants receive a 10% discount in our Shop on the day of the program.
Here is the essential info again:
Beyond Books: Art Inspired by Eric Carle (4 PDPs)
January 26, 2013. 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
$50 (Members $45) Registration is required. Please click here for more information.
I hope you can join us! If not, check out our other upcoming professional development offerings here or learn how this or other programs can come to you, here.
Learn more about Beyond Books: The Independent Art of Eric Carle, in the West Gallery through February 24, 3013, here. Support for this exhibition has been generously provided by Peter and Helen Bing.
Tags: ArtArt, Beyond Books, Eric Carle, exhibition, tissue paper
Posted in Collage, Drawing, Elementary School, High School, In the Studio, Middle School, Mixed Media, Painting, Preschool, Professional Development | No Comments »
Saturday, December 8th, 2012
I promised some ideas for making greeting/holiday cards with kids. Here is one which will require a little prep and assistance from an adult since it calls for a specialty material and the use of an iron.
First, see what you have for fabric. Scrapish pieces will do. The bottom half of the tee shirt that ripped and a piece of the skirt with the stain on it will do. You might like to start with 3 different fabrics/colors, each somewhere around 12″x12″ but smaller will work too.
You’ll also need some double-sided fusible web from the fabric store. Pellon is one brand that makes some, but other brands work too. Ask for help at the store if you don’t’ know what you’re looking for. 1/3 yard will be enough to make a bunch of cards.
Then, iron the wrong side of the fabric to the fusible web according to the directions it came with. Here’s a tip from someone who learned the hard way: DO NOT touch your hot iron directly to the exposed web or you will get icky stuff on it. You’ll be fine if you trim your fusible web to be just smaller than the piece of fabric you are attaching to it. Since you’re likely using multiple fabrics/colors, you’ll be cutting it anyway.
When the fabric you fave fused to the web is cool, you and your young person are ready to cut it into shapes. If you don’t know what shapes to cut out, just take your scissors for a walk across the fabric and see what you get. The negative or left-behind shapes are usable too!
Next, peel the fusible web backing from your shapes and arrange them on a piece of folded cardstock. You could also arrange the shapes on a differnt piece of heavy paper that you glue to a card later.
Turn the iron back on and carefully iron your shapes to the paper with medium heat, no steam. You can use a thin cotton cloth over the shapes and card as you press if you want to be certain your iron stays safe from icky stuff.
Alternatively, instead of using double-sided fusible web, you could iron your fabric to single or double-sided fusible stabilizer and glue the shapes rather than iron them to your card. The stabilizer adds some dimension to the shapes but if its too thick, you can’t iron your shapes to the paper because the heat won’t pass through it enough to activate the sticky part.
When your shapes are ironed/glued down your card is ready for a message!
“Well, why not just glue fabric directly to the card and skip all the work,” you ask? You could, but sometimes the amount of glue required to glue fabric down warps the paper underneath. And, maybe you’ve noticed how the texture and color of fabric changes after its been soaked through with glue? With fusible web or stabilizer, the fabric still looks and feels like fabric when you’re done.
I wish I could take the credit for these great ideas, but I can’t. Diana first found the fusible web idea in this pretty book and she came up with the stabilizer variation for her Handmade Cards and Books workshop for teachers.
Handmade Hellos: Fresh Greeting Card Projects from First-Rate Crafters by Eunice Moyle and Sabrina Moyle.
However you make cards this season, have fun!
Tags: Christmas Cards, Double sided fusible web, greeting cards, Handmade Hellos
Posted in Activities, Bookmaking, Collage, Elementary School, Found Materials, High School, Middle School, Nurturing Creativity at Home | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 13th, 2012
Last week a local school group of first graders got a sneak peek of the new Public Art Project Face It, and made lots of creative portraits with a selection of colorful collage papers in warm and cool colors. Here are a few of some of the great faces the kids created.
This one has big green eyes…
This guy wears glasses and is sticking out his tongue…
and this one sported multicolored pigtails and a big blue smile!
The children’s special trip to The Carle also included a tour of the art galleries and a private showing of Picture Book Theatre’s adaptation production of Eric Carle’s The Very Quiet Cricket and The Very Lonely Firefly, featuring beautiful puppets and talented young dancers in the cast.
If you’re in the area one of the next few weekends stop in the Studio to make a face and catch the show too! Picture Book Theatre have shows on Saturday Nov 17th, Friday Nov 23rd, and Saturday Nov 24th at 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm. Tickets are $5 each and may be purchased in advance at the Museum Admissions Desk or by calling (413) 658-1126.
I’ll post more faces soon!
Tags: collage faces, color rainbow, cool colors, Face It, warm colors
Posted in Activities, Collage, Elementary School | No Comments »
Monday, October 1st, 2012
On Sunday, September 23rd, the Studio had a special guest for this month’s Special Sunday activity! Local artist, author and teacher Emily Neuburger stopped by for the afternoon to share a fabulous activity from her new book, Show Me A Story. Emily helped many enthusiastic guests make their own set of cards illustrating a favorite memory or imaginary story. In the photo above you can see several beautiful cards Emily brought along to inspire guests with this project.
We used vibrant origami, construction and magazine papers. Guests drew and cut out shapes, then glued them to the 3″ x 4″ chipboard rectangles. In her book, Emily encourages you to reuse what you already have, to try this activity at home cut the cards from old cereal or cracker boxes.
The Studio buzzed with activity all afternoon!
Young guests illustrated really great stories, real and imaginary.
Some people worked independently…
…and others worked together.
Here’s Emily’s daughter making a memory card with her grandmother
After all of the collage pieces were glued down, Emily showed guests how to brush a layer of acrylic medium over the top of the card to seal and protect the image. Emily recommends using Mod Podge, available at craft stores.
The final step was to leave the memory cards to dry for a little while.
Below is a small sample of some of the finished cards created by guests of all ages!
For more information about Emily Neuburger, follow her blog, Red Bird Crafts or check out her new book Show Me a Story, in The Carle Bookshop or wherever books are sold.
Thanks for visiting, Emily!
Tags: Emily Neuburger, memory cards, Show Me A Story, Special Sunday, stories
Posted in Activities, Bookmaking, Collage, Public Art Program, Special Guests and Artist Visits | No Comments »
Friday, August 31st, 2012
Hey! We just realized we’ve shared 100 posts since we started this blog last June. To celebrate, I’d like to share some a small percentage of the many beautiful things made in the Studio since then . These images represent ideas, problems solved and not-yet-solved, imagination, experimentation, conversations shared, and yet more work which wasn’t kept by the creator but was still worthy of creation nonetheless. For those of you who have started or are about to start a new school year next week, I hope these images help you begin the year on a happy note. Enjoy the weekend and here’s to the next 100 posts!
Tags: collage, color, Create a Cityscape, Eric Carle-Inspired, flowers, found materials caterpillars, Materials Play in the Morning, paper, printmaking with children, printmaking with kids, prints, Spagetti Prints
Posted in Collage, Drawing, Elementary School, Found Materials, In the Studio, Infants & Toddlers, Middle School, Mixed Media, Uncategorized | No Comments »
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