Alethea and Sigi have been working on these pieces inspired by the ‘collaging’ in the last project as well as their experiences over the recent lockdowns. They have experimented with making sounds with what was available to them, banging together pebbles, using hairbrushes to play the ukekele, using their voices as instruments and playing each other their favourite piano pieces.
Finland
Ella & Anna-Sofia put it all together using text, image and sound
2020, 8 years old, 10 years old, 7 years old, Finland, United KingdomCommentStaying healthy and weaving
2020, 8 years old, 7 years oldCommentThe girls thoroughly enjoyed their weaving task, they had spent previous weeks collecting materials and snippets of colours that appealed to them from magazines. They worked with a number of magazines from food related to health and lifestyle and the London Review of books! They found images in the health magazine particularly amusing and worked some images of noses and people sneezing into their collages which prompted discussion about Corona virus and the current restrictions.
Weaving recycled materials in Finland
2020, 10 years old, 8 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, United KingdomCommentHello from middle of the cardboard boxes and packing :).
It was fun for the girls to get the scissors out for a change and use their hands and creativeness in a new way in this weaving project. Both girls carefully chose the recycled materials that they wanted to use. Out of all materials Ella and Anna-Sofia were most fond of the pages from a Tate Modern membership magazine.
Intrigue, Identity and Illuminating words
2020, Finland, United KingdomCommentArt as a form of communication
10 years old, 8 years old, Mixed age group, Finland, United KingdomCommentOn being unique- from molecules to ancestry
2020, Finland, Mixed age group, United KingdomCommentInterpreting 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 MakeCommentTaideleirin 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.
What is uniqueness?
2020, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, United Kingdom, FinlandCommentYle interviews participating Dear You teachers and young artists in Finland and in Australia
Press, Australia, FinlandComment
We are so happy to announce that Dear You was highlighted on Yle, Finland's national public broadcasting company!
During the fall of 2019 the 2nd graders from Mäntykankaan koulun in Kokkola were making and sharing art with the 1st and 2nd graders from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia.
Yle heard about this artistic exchange and interviewed Auli Palosaari and her students along with Jeremy Gudze and his students. They met online for the first time to talk about how this experience has been meaningful for them. Oh my, the insight the students had melted my heart! The kids said that they not only learnt different art techniques, but learnt English too.
I’ve realized that even though we’re different people that we’re also the same in a different way.
Olen huomannut, että vaikka olemme erilaisia, olemme myös samanlaisia.
-Harvey
I’ve learnt that there’s more to art than meets the eye.
Opin, että taiteessa on enemmän kuin ensinäkemältä vaikuttaa.
-Albi
Thank you Kaje Komulainen, Yle producer, for sharing our story of how art can be a way to open dialogue and self reflect.
Sincerely,
Arlene
Bringing the light from Australia to Finland
2019, 2nd Grade, Australia, FinlandComment
Projektin toisen osan toteutus viipyi meillä Kokkolassa opettajan työtapaturman ja sitä seuranneen sairausloman takia. Huomasimme, miten henkilösidonnaisia tällaiset projektit ovat. Ulkopuolinen sijainen ei pysty sisäistämään ja teettämään tehtävää niillä neuvoilla, joita opettaja kotoa käsin voi puhelimella tai sähköpostilla antaa. Tämä toisaalta todistaa sitä, että kuvataide on luonteeltaan sitoutumista ja innostumista vaativa pitkä ajatteluaprosessi. Ei mikään irrallinen ja helppo jäljennystehtävä, niin kun usein luullaan. Kuvataide on omien ajatusten näkyväksi tekemistä ja opettajan osa on johdattaa oppilaat tähän ajatteluun.
Luokkani oppilaat saivat arvotussa järjestyksessä valita Jeremyn luokan oppilaiden kuvista itselleen kirjekaverin, jonka muotokuvan he jäljensivät kuultopaperille. Ensimmäisenä tarkastelimme kuvien lapsia ja yritimme arvailla, millaisia he ovat. Tutkimme asentoja, ilmeitä, eleitä ja ulkonäköä. Joitain vastauksia saatiin, kun opettaja suomensi, mitä oppilaat olivat kertoneet itsestään. Muiden muassa Jeremyn luokan kaksoset herättivät kiinnostusta, kun huomattiin, että kuvissa on kaksi täysin samannäköistä tyttöä. Koska Bullin koulun oppilaita oli enemmän, kuin meitä, muutama oppilas halusi tehdä kahdesta oppilaasta kuvan.
Jatkoimme myös valokuvaamisesta ja valokuvista kuvataiteen keinona puhumista ja yritimme etsiä kuvista mahdollisimman paljon sävyjä ja värejä valkoisesta mustaan. Tutkimme kuvien valoja ja varjoja. Ensimmäiseksi oppilaat värittivät vaaleat eli valon kohdat kuvista. Sitä mukaa kun muotokuvat valmistuivat, ne kiinnitettiin luokan ikkunaan, josta tähän aikaan vuodesta tulee muutaman tunnin ajan valoa ulkoa. Päivä Suomessa on nyt todella lyhyt!
Oppilast kirjoittivat ystävilleen australiaan myös pienet kirjeen. Tehtävänä oli keksiä vähintään kolme kysymystä ja kertoa vähintään kolme asiaa itsestään. Tämä oli hyvä harjoitus myös kielen kannalta, koska olemme opetelleet virkkeen rakennetta : iso alkukirjain, verbi ja päättömerkki. Käänsimme kirjeet googlekääntäjän avulla englanniksi. Tulostetun kirjeen sai koristella mielensä mukaan. Valitettavasti Suomessa alkaa huomenna postilakko, joten kirjeet ja kuvat eivät nyt lähde mihinkään. Lähetämme huomenna niistä kuitenkin kuvat sähköpostilla, joten oppilaat näkevät, mitä posti tuo heille ennemmin tai myöhemmin.
Tehtävä oli mielestämme kaikin puolin mielenkiintoinen. Oli ihanaa ajatella, että maailman toisella puolella on samanikäisiä lapsia, jotka odottavat piirroksiamme ja kirjeitämme. Olemme aidosti kiinnostuneita tutustumaan Jeremyn luokkaan ja Australiaan ja elämään siellä. Oppilaat totesivatkin, että oppilaat näyttävät siellä ihan samanlaisilta kuin meillä kesällä. Täällä Kokkolassa onkin nyt marraskuun 10. päivänä ennätysaikaisin hiihtokeli ja paljon lunta. Välituntileikit taitavat nyt olla melko tavalla erilaisia!
Parhain terveisin Auli ja 2a Mäntykankaan koulu, Kokkola
The second Dear You project was delayed in Kokkola due to the accident at the teacher and the subsequent sick leave. We noticed how student-centered such projects are. The substitute teacher was unable to fulfill the assignment without the advice of the teacher. This, on the other hand, proves that Fine Art is a long process of thinking that requires commitment and enthusiasm. Not a loose and easy imitation task, as you often think. Visual art is about making one's own thoughts visible, and it is part of the teacher to guide students in that thinking.
Students in my class were given the chance to choose from a picture of Jeremy's classmates, in a prized order, a letter-buddy, whose portrait they copied on tracing paper. First we looked at the children in the pictures and tried to guess what they were like. We studied their postures, expressions, gestures and appearance. Some answers came when the teacher translated what the students had said about themselves. Among others, Jeremy's class twins aroused interest when it was discovered that there were two girls who looked exactly the same. Because there are more Bulli School students than us, few students wanted to take a picture of the two students.
We also continued to talk about photography. Photography as a means of fine art and tried to find as many shades and colors as possible from white to black. We examined the lights and shadows of the pictures. First, the students colored the light, or light spots, in the pictures. As the portraits were completed, they were attached to the classroom window, which at this time of the year will be exposed to light for several hours. The day in Finland is now really short!
Students also wrote short letters to their friends in Australia. The task was to come up with at least three questions and tell at least three things about themselves. This was also a good exercise for the language as we learned the structure of the sentence: capitalization, verb and ending. We used google translator to translate the letters into English. You could decorate the printed letter as you wish. Unfortunately, Finland will start a postal strike tomorrow, so now letters and pictures will not go anywhere. However, we will email them tomorrow, so students will see what the mail brings them sooner or later.
We thought the task was interesting in every way. It was wonderful to think that there were children of the same age on the other side of the world waiting for our drawings and letters. We are genuinely interested in getting to know Jeremy's class and Australia and living there. The students said that the students there look exactly like us in the summer. Here in Kokkola, on November 10th, there is a record-breaking ski run and plenty of snow. The break play now seems to be quite different!
Best regards,
Auli and 2a at Mäntykangas School, Kokkola
The 2nd graders from Mäntykankaan koulun in Kokkola, Finland are making and sharing art with the 1st and 2nd graders from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia.
Dear You as part of InSEA's ocean of food for thought!
2019Comment
The European InSEA 2018 congress proceedings publication has been published! Arlene Tucker presented on behalf of Dear You during the congress in Finland, in June 2018. The abstract from the presentation, Dear You: Shared Spheres in Creative Spaces was written by Anastasia Artemeva and Arlene Tucker. It can be read on pages 891-892 of Synnyt-Origins, InSEA Congress 2018: Scientific and Social Interventions in Art Education.
Mira Kallio-Tavin and Oleksandra Sushchenko (co-editors of the issue) have “divided the issue thematically according to the congress themes and between peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed submissions, and visual essays and full papers. The rest of the presentations are published as abstracts. All in all, the publication includes 325 submissions and it takes 1473 pages.”
The link to the issue: https://wiki.aalto.fi/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=148283892
Feeling very honored to have been a part of Synnyt-Origins where I could meet so many talented, creative, and encouraging art educators from around the world!
With love,
Dear You
Photographs from the other side of the world have arrived in China!
2018, Exhibition, ChinaComment
Photo by Ina, "Esbo, Finland"
More beautiful artworks have arrived from the other side of the world to partake in Shenzhen Senior High School art exhibition, "Sharing Nature". Here, we can see photographs from artists living in Finland and in Australia.
Susie say, "I live in Sydney where there is lots of parks and wildlife. There are lots of national parks. My family usually go to the Royal National Park. The Royal National Park has lots of different hikes and beautiful sights. My dad and I even saw a wild kangaroo with a joeg in it's pouch! This one of the reasons why I love Australia."
Wow! This world really is gorgeous! Let's keep it that way, by taking care of it.
To read more about the event, please click here.
Draw or write what you hear
2018, China, FinlandComment
During the third project students were asked to listen to audio recordings from their friends in China. They were instructed to draw or write anything they heard that sounded like a word that was familiar to them. They could use Swedish, Finnish, and English words for the listening exercise. As we listened students, wrote words that they heard or that came to mind and drew pictures to accompany the words. When the listening exercises was over the students used mixed methods of collage and coloring to complete their images. Using bits cut from maps they created lines connecting their images to one another. They really enjoyed listening to what their friends had to say. Thanks so much to our friends in China! We really enjoyed collaborating with you on this project!
Sincerely,
Rachel Kangas
The artists in Grade 2 (8-9 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists at Linguajoy (7-10 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.
The Tigers make sound art!
2018, 5 years old, FinlandComment
As the Tigers are telling what they see so many memories and feelings come up. Listen to their sound piece and you will be happily surprised!
They realized that there are so many different ways we can describe snow! How do we describe air and sound? This was challenging at first, but they did a great job trying to express their observations through words in Finnish and in English.
Sincerely,
Arlene, Floriin, Anna-Maria, and the Tigers
The 5 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5 year old artists from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland.
Piirtään ja väritään!
2018, 6 years old, Finland, Pre-SchoolComment
(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.
+++
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.
Festivities here and there!
2018, China, Finland, School visits, 13 year oldsCommentClass 7C in Kontula were all very excited that they received a package from our friends in China! We displayed their artwork and discussed them. Many of the artworks had very warm and welcoming thoughts on them such as, "Welcome to China!". Finally, we figured out what C & F stands for - China and Finland! I hope we are right!
On one of the artworks had some questions written on them.
These questions translates to: Firstly, it is very nice to meet you. Can we make an exchange using QQ? What kind of Chinese food do you like? Do you have some interesting festivals there?
We try to answer you the best we can:
It is very nice to meet you too! We do not know what QQ is. What is it?
Some of us had said that they like the fried pork, fried rice, white rice and the duck.
Finland has all kinds of festivals. We celebrate Juhannus, which is called Midsummer in English. This happens towards the end of June where it is usually the longest day of the year. We celebrate Pride, Vappu (May Day), Tikkurila Festivaali, Vegan Festivaali, and Ruis Rock, which is a big music festival.
Yesterday, in Helsinki there were two big celebrations. One is called Penkkarit and the other you will know very well, Chinese New Year! Senior high school students ride on the back of trucks in costumes to celebrate before they have to start their matriculation exams. There is lot of honking the horn and throwing candy at the crowd!! The Chinese New Year celebrations were so beautiful this year! There was dancing, Kung Fu, music, Dragon Dance, Lion Dance, and ice skating too to happily bring in the year of the dog!
We wish you all a happy new year!
The 13 year old artists at Shenzhen High School in Shenzhen, China are making and sharing with 7c, 13 year olds, from Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland.
Mantelit ja Pippurit tekevät taidetta!
2018, Helsinki, Finland1 Comment
(English below)
Viisivuotiaiden ryhmässä on lapsia kahdesta eri ryhmästä Manteleista ja Pippureista. Meistä on mukavaa, että voimme tehdä yhdessä tätä projektia. Ensimmäisellä kerralla lapsilta kysyttiin, mitä he haluavat kertoa itsestään tai mistä he tykkäävät: ”Kerro kolme itsellesi mieluisinta asiaa”. Sen jälkeen lapset saivat valita yhden heille mieluisan asian, josta otettiin valokuva.
Tässä lasten vastauksia:
Hamza: Jäätelö, karkit ja suklaa – myös paloautoilla leikkiminen on kivaa.
Laura: Piirtäminen & maalaaminen, keiton keittäminen, halit
Jasmin: Istuminen, äidin kanssa kaupassa käyminen, Danielin kanssa leikkiminen
Matvei: Elisein kanssa leikkiminen
Marva: leikkikaverit, lääkärileikki, poliisileikki, barbit
Adna: kaverit, palikat & palapelit, ponit
Amina: maalaaminen, piirtämineen, nukkekotileikki
Noor: kaverit, heppa-leikit, piilosta
Alniz: hevoset, kaverit, linnat
yt. Teija ja Satu
+++
The group of five-year-olds is a combination of two different groups; the Almonds and the Gingerbreads. We are delighted to be able to do this project together. During the first workshop, the children were asked to say something about themselves or what they like: "Tell three positive things about yourself". After that, the children were allowed to choose one of them, a nice character from from which they created a photographic self-portrait. The children took the pictures themselves!
Here are the children's responses:
Hamza: Ice cream, candy and chocolate - even playing with fire engines is fun.
Laura: Drawing & painting, making soup, hugs
Jasmin: Sitting, going with Mom to the shop, playing with Daniel
Matvei: Playing with Elise
Marva: playmates, playing doctor, police games, barbies
Adna: friends, bricks & puzzles, ponies
Amina: painting, drawing, playing with the doll house
Noor: friends, playing with horses, hiding games
Alniz: horses, friends, castles
Sincerely,
Teija and Satu
The 5 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5 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.
Listen to the Tigers tell 'Joulupukki goes to India' and 'The Ice Cream Story 1'!
2017, 4 years old, 5 years old, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, USAComment
Who wouldn't be in the creative mood with the smell and looks of these delicious handmade gingerbread cookies?!?! With these in the air of the Tiger's room, we got straight to making the art work for our Full Moon friends in Philadelphia!
We started by looking at all of the artworks they mailed us. This gave us inspiration for our stories. We got into two groups and worked together to come up with characters and an amazing story line. Have a listen!
These artists create and told the story of Joulupukki goes to India! ps. Joulupukki means Santa Claus in Finnish :).
Jumping with joy, the artists of The Ice Cream Story 1 say woo hoo!!
The Tigers are so grateful and happy they had this time to make and share art with you all! Thank you and we wish you a HAPPY HAPPY New Year!
With love,
Arlene & The Tigers
The Tigers from Your School Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the Full Moons from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA. Both groups are 4-5 years old.
Experimenting with marmor colours
2017, 6th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, CanadaCommentWe tried marmoring colours. Pupils did different experiments with other colours as well. They added for instance dishwashing liquids on colors and/or used wet papers & salt.
That really made a mess, but it was worth it and they helped with cleaning. The group enjoyed last lesson of this school year a lot.
I saved all mini paintings for the next year, when we can somehow continue the work and draw on them.
I feel very grateful for our collaboration. Thank You both!
Enjoy the summer!
Päivi Huhtinen
The 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6th graders at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, ON, Canada.
