Folk Art
I love anything to do with Folk Art. Music, hand work, dialects… all of it. It’s the culture, old customs, stories told by warm fire while outside the snow is covering the world. It talks about people, their modest way of life, hopes, love, the weather, harvest.
It reminds me of my grand mother, old warm worn out hands, smell of clothes after laying on a brick oven, handmade socks, old soft white cotton sheets, patched blankets, warm bread, peeling of fresh peas, slippers with holes, cold beds with hot-water bottles. So yes, good old times.
Urban gardens
This project was connected to our school’s unit of inquiry on energy and sustainability.
We collected old plastic bottles and as many old plants as it was possible to get. Some were brought in new by kids.
Students designed the hanging gardens out of three to five bottles alone in groups. Some were really inventive coming up with whole ideas of self-watering.
Anyhow next time I’d prefer to make this outside. It would be easier to water them and our facility team would keep the hair. Sorry guys.
The Magic of Geodes
Students were learning about natural geological events. At about same time I came across this amazing project on Small hands big art, website, that must be helpful and inspiring to anyone working in our field.
Observing the geodes we studied their shape, structure, colour, crystals. At first we paid attention to the shape, we drew the crystals and the structures, then came painting and then the decoration of the middle gap using the weaving technique.
I think it went brilliant and kids really loved it.
Mixed media flowers
I love moments when I don’t prepare, being simply forced to improvise. I mean I do know when I can afford this and it’s not often.
And then it somehow almost always happens that the materials are just there. Things that were laying around forever are turning out to be more perfect than one could ever wish.
Same happened on this very day with old empty canvas roles of posters. These things were simply ready to be hanged, with metal sticks at top and bottom, with string to be placed on a nail… only there was nothing printed on them. Good for us! They were so nicely old, yellow and smelly. I think I found them on the street.
Anyway, cutting them apart they made perfect backing for our flowers. Traced with glue, dried and painted. Nice. “Trash” is my key attribute.
By the way this project came from internet but it’s been so long ago that I can’t remember where from. We thumb it up!
Connecting with John Cage
At music students made their own music pieces. They were doing them collaboratively so we kept the same groups at art. We talked about John Cage and his work in music and visual art.
Each student in a group got a piece of transparent tracing paper and worked on it in various media while listening to music they created.
At the end we joined the work of every child in a group by placing pieces on top of each other and observed the different visual expressions on light tables and windows.
Mini Theaters
Children were learning about simple machines in their main subjects. To strenghten the knowledge gained by connecting it in as many areas as possible we spoke about Rube Goldberg and possibilities in art. We’ve decided for pulleys and mini collaged theaters.
Curtains to be pulled apart by a string would be a great addition but although this project didn’t leave kids bored for a single minute, it took us probably two months to finish. So no curtains, sorry!
Warja Lavater and her Leporellos
This project is just brilliant. In takes a lot of explaining but when children understand what it is about it becomes very playful in some sweet arithmetical way. Yea I did say this!
A wolf eats seven little goats. Wolf is a black dot and little goats are orange triangles. So we put seven little orange triangles inside of a big fat black dot. Wolf gets seven big heavy cold stones in his belly. Stones are blue squares so we put seven blue squares inside the black dot. Maybe also three white lines for stitches ha! Little Red Riding Hood is represented with a red dot. Red dot ends in a blue half circle for a house inside of black triangle for a wolf next to a red square for a grandmother and all around the black triangle yellow dot for basket and little colourful dots for all of those wasted flowers.
It’s a solid proof! Warja Lavater had to have her imagination in her left hemisphere.
V is for vegetables V is for vitamins
Valiant pepper. Vibrant banana. Valuable broccoli. Virile aubergine. Vehement pomegranate. Venturesome onion. Vast sweet potato. Venust apple. Veteran carrot. Vigorous beetroot. Viable cucumber. Vigilant turnip. Vaulting fennel. Vulnerary ginger.
Very vital visitants on a venture of observational drawing with incorporation of text.
What a vigour, what a vim!
This is not a goodbye!
Dear friends,
Holidays have taken place, Christmas is here and New Year is not far. I would like to wish you all peaceful family times and a fabulous 2020 with as little stress as possible.
I would also like to share some news. I lately got a full time art teaching position which will take a lot of my time and I love it of course. On the other hand I unfortunately have to say goodbye to the regular classes at the studio. I will try to keep some workshop now and then so really, no goodbye for us.
I’m grateful for all your trust and loyalty you showed me through years and for making Artnuts a real little family.
Yours very, Mojca