Rock it

Here's an idea that is super easy and fun and evokes wonderment. Collect some rocks and paint them with colorful, bright and fun faces then place them around public places for people to find. We could have an afterschool creative ART Attack session and paint away. Everyone could then take one of the painted rocks and place them somewhere that people could admire/see them. It's kind of like an Easter egg hunt, except you don't collect and pick up the found 'eggs' - you leave them for others to find. (Reminds me of geocaching - have you tried that? Fun!)

Read about the painted rock idea here.

By the way, Exit Through the Gift Shop, is a very interesting mockumentary! (It's on Netflix)

Printmaking with styrofoam

from: artteacheradventures.blogspot.com

Yesterday I made a post about Art-In-Tents Artapalooza. I left a comment on the Adventures of an Art Teacher blog and Katie, the art teacher blogger, was kind enough to reply.

My comment was a question asking how the prints (shown in the photo from her site) were done. Continue reading for her how-to. I think this would make a great make and take or ART Attack project!
She replied:
"I'm not sure if the high school Art teachers ordered Styrofoam or exactly where they got it. I remember doing the project when I was in 5th grade- my teacher got some styrofoam trays (the kind used for meat) from the grocery store. We drew designs into them with pencil. The pencil makes enough of an impression that the line will show when it's printed. They told the students to just make designs with lines and shapes since they had very limited time and those were the more successful prints. Of course, it could be done with any sort of image as long as the artist keeps in mind that it will print in reverse. After the design was done, they just inked the plate using a brayer and made three prints so they could pick the best one."

ARTAPALOOZA - What art teachers did!

I just happened across this blog post about a 2-day art event that art teachers put together. It sounds like a lot of fun and something that we can work towards.

Any thoughts on this? Any event coordinators and/or wannabe party planners out there in our LJM community who might be able to volunteer to help put something like this together for next year? It would be amazing and would definitely bring some much needed publicity to the importance of art in our schools.

Leave a comment!

Read more about it on Adventures of an Art Teacher blog.

Draw and Foldover - interactive group drawing

Do you remember being a kid and taking a blank piece of paper, folding it into thirds (or fourths) and then taking turns with your friends drawing on the different sections - one person draws the head, then passes it on to the next person who draws the body, then to the next person who draws the legs and so on? No one gets to see what the previous person has drawn and when everyone has had their turn, you open up the paper and do the reveal...

Quick Draw: Poses

I found this idea on the Campaign for Drawing site. Neat idea that we can also do, maybe in one of the Art Workshops?

Poses
20-second poses, pupils using black paper and chalk. After each drawing, children moved three places and drew again on someone else’s drawing in a different coloured chalk. Gallery time prompted discussion about the experience and the drawings. Pupils returned to their original drawing and had to change it into something else. What could they see coming from the drawing? Drawings were held aloft so that pupils could share.

Art Workshops - Greenlight!

A green light has been given to do ART Workshops! The details are very sketchy right now (pardon the pun) because it's still in the brainstorming stage...so if you are interested in being a part of this, contact us and we'll be so happy to have you on board!

Feel free to leave a comment with your ideas below. (Just click on the word 'comments' for the form.)

Send us your ideas on what kind of workshops you'd like to see, how you might be able to help, etc. Thanks!

Linking Literature and Art

I have always been a fan of children's books because as an artist, I love to look at the pictures and be inspired by the illustrations. I recently found out that a local used bookstore, Murrieta Bookshop, is having a "Linking Literature & Art" event where they've invited kids 4-8 years old to their shop to listen to a story and then do a "make and take" art project inspired by the story. What a great idea!

Got pricelist for cows

I posted yesterday about an idea to do a public art campaign to bring awareness to the importance of art in schools. I heard back from the company I contacted who have the fiberglass cows and other animals.

Art Attacks: Chalk Draw

I don't know if any of you have been to the annual Temecula Street Painting Festival in Old Town each summer; it's very cool if you like to see people drawing and creating art! I've taken my kids there a couple of times so far and

we love to see what people of all ages draw on the streets with pastels. Want to see more like the spiderman 3D sidewalk painting? There are some amazing images here.
Read my ideas on how to implement something similar here at LJM...

Art Cows @ LJM and public campaign for art literacy

Wouldn't it be neat if our school campus also had some public art? I can picture awe-inspiring sculptures in our quad, an art cow here and there...