Our 2012 June Art Adventures Summer Camp was a huge success!
For all of our pictures, check out our Flickr Page under “Summer 2012”: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clairescreativeadventures/sets/
Here’s a look at what we did:
Week 1: 3D Organic Art and the Imagination
We began our week of imagination by creating Mandelas – focusing on patterns and repetition of lines, discussing the origins of organic forms as well as artists who make large scale earth art.
We sculpted model land art pieces inspired by Maya Lin and focused on repetition of forms, scale and use of texture into 3D landscapes. We even named our “miniature worlds”!
We built Under the Sea 3-D dioramas. The variety of materials and choices allowed students to use their imaginations to transform their own under water worlds into 3D dioramas with their self-designed water-resist backgrounds in florescent colors.
We visited Neverland by constructing fantasy tree houses equipped with swings and ladders. Following instructions and steps were very important to this project, as was making many, many choices from myriad materials to fulfill their fantasy worlds…
Week 2: Theatrics and Animation
- We began our exploration of theatrics with a look at set props and furniture made by Claes Oldenburg in the 60’s during his “happenings” by cutting, stuffing, and sewing our own soft sculptures. We used vellum to “color mix” as well!
- Then we moved on to mask making, inspired by animals and a discussion on what is abstract? We learned the Decoupage technique when covering the Italian-opera inspired masks with colorful papers, objects and decorating with metallic painted lines we have been studying each day during our abstract line games in our sketchbooks.
- We viewed videos of William Kentridge’s charcoal and torn-paper animations. We took his concept of torn paper characters, created our own and made our very own stop motion animations! We also collaborated on a drawing to “grow” a garden through animation.
- We made our Cindy Sherman-inspired self-portrait designs complete with costumes, props, backgrounds and a photo shoot. We based one of our projects on the multiple actions of the character in motion, in black and white on vellum, relating to our William Kentridge theme and an obscure piece by Cindy Sherman that Claire found at the MoMA exhibit this summer.
Week 3: Color! Line! Shape! Action!
- We began with looking at the monochromatic texture paintings and brushstrokes of Robert Ryman. Then we created our own paintings using egg-whites and flour to paint smooth and textured surfaces of one color of our choice on canvas board. It was the children’s job to decide how to contrast the two and where. Some even hid their name in the shiny texture of the egg white.
- We learned about positive and negative space by taking everyday objects and making molds of them to fill with plaster for our Rachel Whiteread-inspired project and shaping space with Eva Rothschild’s standing installations from Central Park!
- We further explored the line and shape families (a key code to drawing) which we had been studying each day during our abstract line games in our sketchbooks. We created compositions or “stories” of overlapping circles and squares in order of largest to smallest to paint, while looking at many works by Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, Ellsworth Kelly and Chuck Close.
- We explored shapes and patterns with bug mobiles! We constructed bugs using wood, fabrics and surprises, adding patterns and creating mobiles out of them which had to be balanced.
Everyday games and happenings…
We played line games in our journals daily using a key for line and shape families- as well as easel painted daily with many artists serving as painting inspiration.
In addition, there was always daily “Free Choice” time where children worked collaboratively at dry art murals, Line Games on Dry erase boards/Chalkboards, or made their own flowers in pots, Eva Rothschild negative space shaping and line/pattern studies, Brice Marden and Terry Winters curved-line yarn rubbings, Marc Chagall-inspired chalk stained glass line and color studies, shape puzzles, famous-artist inspired colorings, colored vellum collages and Rousseau-inspired hidden animal drawings.
Each Friday we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art!
On our FIRST TOUR of the Met, Art Adventures went to the Contemporary Galleries and saw work by El Anatsui, David Smith, Alexander Calder, and John Chamberlain and created accompanying projects right in the galleries.
On our SECOND TOUR, we explored the work of David Smith, Alexander Calder, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Claes Oldenburg.
On our THIRD TOUR, we explored “Color, Texture and Line: Why is that Art?” by looking at work by David Smith, Alexander Calder, Barnett Newman, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Ryman, and Chuck Close.
EACH WEEK: our tour ended with a lunch and a dodecahedron project on the rooftop to see the Tomás Saraceno installation, Cloud City. Unanimously, our favorite part was that we were encouraged to TOUCH!