Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

6 years old

Reinventing and making art between Mexico and Korea

2024, 5 years old, 6 years old, Korea, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

In this last project, the kids were inspired by the art of our friends from Korea. They observed and talked about what they thought they drew, why they added that detail, where is their name, what story they wanted to tell. They realized that they have different styles to draw, that was very interesting for them, like the eyes, the clothes, and the fantastic creatures they drew.

Natural masterpieces

2023, 5 years old, 6 years old, KoreaArlene TuckerComment

아이들은 우리 주변의일반적인 자연 재료들을 이전에는 무시하던 것을 창조적인 작품을 만드는 필요한 구성 요소로서 발견하고접근하기 시작했습니다. Using the geographical features of Jeju Island, lessons held on the beach allowed children to gather pebbles, sand, washed-up seaweed, seawater, and even small discarded glass fragments from the sea.

Owls' Pieces of Me

2023, 4 years old, 5 years old, 6 years old, Czech Republic, Dear You Art Workshops, KoreaArlene TuckerComment

The pathfinder was started by asking children to think of ways to share who they are with their new friends in Jeju Island. They thought of sending them postcards with drawings so we then introduced the concept of a collage. We showed some examples of different collages and provided them with several magazines, scrap paper with patterns, colors and old newspapers.

The Owls train their ears and warm up their listening skills

4 years old, 5 years old, 6 years old, Czech Republic, Dear You Art Workshops, IcelandArlene TuckerComment

The Owls here in Little Mole preschool were thrilled to hear we had some messages from our Icelandic friends. They were eager to listen to all the messages but when they learned that the messages were in an unknown language we decided to train our ears and warm up our listening skills first. We opened our ears to listen and try to identify all the sounds around, we also listened to different types of music in different languages.

Interpreting Where Shall We Go with Reika and friends

2020, 10 years old, 11 years old, 13 year olds, 8 years olds, 9 years old, 7 years old, 6 years old, 5 years old, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Make Together, Mixed age group, Together 2020, Together We MakeArlene TuckerComment

Taideleirin aikana teimme teoksia Dear You:n Where Shall We Go -projektista. Kaikki unelmoivat, visualisoivat ja keksivät erilaisia tapoja ilmaista ideoitaan ja paikkoja minne haluaisivat mennä.

During the art camp we made artworks from Dear You's Where Shall We Go project. Everybody dreamt, visualized and came up with different ways of expressing their ideas and places of where they would like to go.

Do you have Jellyfish in Ireland?

2019, 3 years old, 4 years old, 5 years old, 6 years old, 7 years old, 8 years olds, 9 years old, 10 years old, 11 years old, AustraliaArlene TuckerComment
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After life had taken a hold of us all here in Australia with the colder weather upon us, two of the families finally managed to meet for our second session.

All were super excited to open the parcel from Ireland and see what our friends had sent. They were very impressed with the drawings but also with the information that they conveyed. They all started asking so many questions, which was great because that was exactly what today’s session was about!

After introducing different types of graphics and typography the group got to work on the question/s they wanted to ask. They all naturally began by drawing what their interests were and the question they wanted to ask their Irish friends came later in text form.

Due to the age range from 3 to 11 the questions varied from ‘Do you have Jellyfish in Ireland’, ‘Do you like swimming?’, ‘Do you like rain?’ and ‘Do you like monsters?’

Looking forward to the next session seeing what our friends have to say.

Amal Laala

The home schoolers in Geelong, Australia are making and sharing with the homeschoolers in Derreen, Ireland.

Kanelit and the Monkeys make art at MIF!

2018, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandArlene TuckerComment
Kanelit (Cinnamons) and The Monkeys got together at Museum of Impossible Forms in Kontula, Helsinki to make art!

Kanelit (Cinnamons) and The Monkeys got together at Museum of Impossible Forms in Kontula, Helsinki to make art!

It is amazing that the Monkeys from Your School in Olari, Espoo and Kanelit from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Kontula, Helsinki got to meet in person after months of making and sharing art from a distance!!  What an exciting morning we had at Museum of Impossible Forms!

We first got into small groups of mixed artists from the two schools to listen to the sound art we had made for the previous art project.  This way they could meet and get to know each other by physically making art with each other!  Everybody was so open and kind with each other. 

The first part of this session's artistic process was listening to each other describe what they saw in the environment.  This brought immediate smiles to their faces as they heard their own voices and their friends' on the loud speakers.  The Cinnamon group made these recordings and The Monkeys made these.  As they listened to the recordings they could draw what they heard.  They could be more abstract or more literal with their drawings.  For example, some chose to draw the soundwaves of children laughing in the background and some drew snow and sun as they were mentioned in the recordings.  The artists were free to go in any direction they wish, but the awareness of connecting sound to thought to visual output was discussed. 

After some time of collective drawing, the possibility to collage and build with maps was introduced. Maps were chosen for their symbolic purpose as our artists live in different locations, but have come together to meet and create.  Simple 2D maps turned into 3D bridges, people, and tunnels.  I was so impressed with everybody's creativity!  Masterminds at work!

We closed the day by taking a long caterpillar walk to look at the artworks and made a circle where the artists could reflect on the morning and their experience.  It seemed that everybody really enjoyed meeting their friends and making collages together.  In the closing circle, they realized that they had more in common than their love for making art!  The topic of languages came up and they discovered that their friends from the other school could speak Somali, Russian, Albanian, Finnish, and English!  What an amazing bunch of young artists and teachers that encourage their creativity and help grow their confidence!

The Monkeys stayed at MIF to eat their lunch before hopping on the metro to head back to Espoo.  Marianne Niemelä, one of the artistic directors of MIF, came up with the great idea to make wristbands!  Naturally, these were a huge hit with the kids and now they all want to come back to make more!  Thank you, Marianne!

Thank YOU and Dear You wishes you all and happy happy summer! Hyvää kesää!

With love,
Arlene

The 6 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Kaneleiden ryhmä kävi nauhoittamassa äänitallenteita!

2018, 6 years old, FinlandArlene TuckerComment
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(English below)

Kaneleiden ryhmä kävi nauhoittamassa äänitallenteita päiväkodin pihalla ja lähiympäristössä. Kohteina päiväkodin pihalla olivat kiipeilyteline, ulkokatos ja leikki siellä, päiväkodin lähimetsä, jossa oli puiden oksista tehty maja ja grillipaikka pöytineen ja penkkeineen. Lisäksi kohteena oli ympäristötaidepatsaat, jossa oli eri eläinten ylä- ja alaosia yhdisteltynä yhdeksi kokonaisuudeksi. Eskarit tykkäsivät osallistua omien kertomustensa äänittämiseen; he kertoivat vapaasti kohteistaan tai sitten heille annettiin avustavia kysymyslauseita kuten mikä tämä on? mitä sillä voi tehdä? jne.

Kanelit

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The Cinnamon group was making audio recordings of what they found around the daycare's yard and nearby surroundings. Around the grounds of the daycare were a climbing frame and an outdoor cabin to play. Nearby was the daycare's forest where there was a log house and a barbecue area with tables and benches. In addition, the point of our search was to find environmental art statues in which we could find the upper and lower parts of animals, which in the end, make a whole. The pre-schoolers liked to share their own stories and record them. They freely told about their discoveries or then they were given some questions to help guide their explorations. Some questions were "What is this?" "What can this do?"

The Cinnamons 

The 6 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Kontula #Piparit #Helsinki

Kontula #Helsinki #Piparit

Kontula #Piparit #Helsinki

Kontula #Piparit #DearYou

Kontula #Piparit #Helsinki

Piparit #Kontula #Helsinki

Piparit #Helsinki #Kontula #DearYou

The 6 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

The Monkeys translate their environment for their friends!

2018, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandArlene TuckerComment
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Words have an amazing way of painting pictures in our minds!  The Monkeys have created sound pieces that will hopefully tell their friends in Kontula about where they are in Olari.  We started by exploring the environment and then as we were recording tried to catch as many details as we could to communicate them to our friends.

Kanelit, you can draw a picture based on our recordings!  Also, do you hear what is happening in the background?  The more you listen the more your visions grow.

Thank you for making art with us!

Sincerely,
Arlene, Sanna, Ben, and The Monkeys

The 6 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland.

DearYou #YourSchool #Espoo #Finland #Monkeys

Monkeys #translation #environment #YourSchool

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Piirtään ja väritään!

2018, 6 years old, Finland, Pre-SchoolArlene TuckerComment
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(English below)

Kaneleiden eskarit tekivät innolla ja keskittyneesti ensimmäistä tehtävää, jossa piti The Monkeysin lähettämät kuvat jäljentää ja värittää omaksi taideteokseksi. Jäljentämisen ja värittämisen apuna käytimme leivinpaperia, jonka laitoimme kuvan päälle. Kuvan ja leivinpaperin laitoimme ikkunaa vasten, jotta näki ääriviivat, joita piirtää ja värittää. Lisäksi meillä oli piirtämiseen lyijykynät ja värittämiseen puuvärit. Saimme yhden aamupäivän aikana tehtyä kaikki taideteokset. Tässä kuvia prosessista. Kaikki Kanelit lähettävät paljon terveisiä The Monkeys –ryhmän lapsille ja aikuisille. Jäämme mielenkiinnolla odottamaan seuraavia taideteoksia.

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The Cinnamon preschoolers excitedly and with great concentration made their first project from which The Monkeys sent their woks. From those artworks we traced and colored in the picture to make our own artworks. We used baking paper to trace by putting the baking paper on top of the picture. We put the picture and the baking paper against the window so that we could see the outlines we would draw and color. We used colored pencils and crayons. We did everything in one morning. Here are the pictures of the process. All the Cinnamons send many warm hellos to the Monkey kids and adults. We look forward to the next artworks. 

The 6 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.