Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project
The Tigers really know how to create a welcoming and artistic environment! They had so many questions and things to share even before we got started with The art of asking questions project! This sort of excitement is the inspiration every artist looks for!
We started the session by first looking at the artworks we received from the Full Moons. WOW!! We talked about what their pictures were communicating and was wondering about all sorts of things about our new friends. The questions started pouring out so we made a long list and then founds ways to put image to the text.
Some wonderful questions and explanations of the Tigers' pictures:
Vanessa asked, "What countries have you been to?" She drew a picture of the world.
Olivia drew a house because she asked, "Where do you live?"
Rishitha asked, "When is your birthday?" In the picture, "there are fireworks and my birthday."
Mikelis asked, "Where do you live?" He said, "I drew the house. I drew a mother house with a wheel on the top of another house."
Nea asked, "What is your favorite food?" She drew a picture of pasta.
Cride asked, "Do you like to go swimming?" and drew a swimming pool.
Achu asked, "Who is your friend?" "I drew a friend who is having a birthday."
Oskari asked, "What is your favorite shirt?" "I drew my favorite shirt!"
Erik asked, "What do you like to play?" "My favorite toy is a castle. It's at home."
Aapo asked, "Do you like shark tornadoes?"
Arn asked, "What is your favorite shirt?"
Renu asked, "What does your room look like?" "It's a picture of my room."
Joann asked, "What is your favorite color?" "Rainbow!"
Anton asked, "What do you like to play?" "What do you do when you are outside?"
We also came up with MORE questions!
What do you watch? What house were you in when you were small? Do you have a tv?
We hope you like our artwork! We like yours a lot!!
Our best,
The Tigers, Arlene, Iveta, and Atefeh
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.
The thing about questions is that once you get started you can't stop! That's how it was with The Explorers when I was with them making The Art of Asking Questions project. When I arrived to ISH we had such a lovely time looking at the artworks received from the artists in China. That's actually when our inquisitive minds started going! We made personal connections to the self-portraits and then wanted to naturally know more about WHO these amazing artists are!
As a class, we came up with a loooong list of questions. We then thought about different ways of depicting these questions and got to the making art bit as soon as possible!
We had a great conversation about why we chose to draw that picture for our question:
What do you like? "It's Darth Vader and Lollipops. I liked making it."
What candy do you like? "This is me and my big brother. He eats candy, but I don't any more. It's not good for my teeth."
What story do you like? "It's the story of Finland. That's me :) The house is from ISH"
What movie do you like? "My favorite is the Lion King.
Is your school fun? "I have fun at ISH"
What do you celebrate? "I'm celebrating Happy Birthday for my baby brother.
We like your art!!
My best,
Arlene & The Explorers
The Explorers, 5-6 year olds, from International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing with the artists aged 6 years old at Shenzhen Primary School in Shenzhen, China.
We had such a great time coming up with questions for our friends in Australia! Before we got started we first looked at the self-portraits we received. They are so beautiful! They also helped us guide what kind of questions to ask our new friends.
Making pictures to compliment words was a really good challenge for us. And each picture has it's own history as well! For example, Pranav drew a picture of his family to compliment his question, "What color hair do you have?" Everybody in his picture has black hair because that's what is like in his family! I am guessing the purple figure is the artist.
Let's turn this into a game! Below is what the artists drew. Can you think of what was their question? (some answers are below)
Adripto, "vegetables and fruits."
Pranav, "my family all have black hair."
Miro, "here is a boy who is taller than the house."
Aleksi, "cheese and carrots and watermelon."
Mikael, "there is a tree game."
Raphael, "this is a monster from Espoo."
Miska, "there are people running a race."
Vika, "this is a picture of me."
Pauli, "this is a picture of the game."
Umer, "there are 2 boys playing with space rocks."
We chose to use markers and colored pencils to make our artworks. The colors and medium make such a difference!
We hope you like our questions and we look forward to hearing your response!
My best,
Arlene & The Monkeys
The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia. All artists are 5-6 years old.
Which country are you from?
Are you silly?
How long is your arm?
How do you choose your clothes?
What food do you like?
Which city are you from?
What do you look like?
How fast can you run?
What color are your eyes?
Do you like to play clash clans?
Are you crazy?
How healthy are you?
Are you sleepy?
How long is your hair?
How tall are you?
It has been a while since I have been sincerely thought provoked and moved by the many questions the artists in Kontula were asking. Blown away by the artistic and conceptual skills these artists have!
As part of the warm up we got into a good discussion about questions, poster art, and graphic design. Some artists were sharing what their favorite fonts were so we took a moment to imagine the font used in different contexts and how that would have an affect on the message. One way to see how our art is being perceived is to ask, tell and listen. Our voices are a powerful tool. We should use it!
We also looked at graphic design and artists who use graphics in their artworks such as Ed Ruscha. We considered text styles, letter size, composition, and color as communication tools.
Then the questions started pouring out! Some artists wanted to make art from their own questions and others chose to use questions from their classmates. In any case, the outcomes were amazing!
Thank you and we hope you have a moment to answer our questions!
With love,
Arlene, Saara, and the artists at 7C
The 13 year old artists at Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 13 year old artists from Shenzhen Middle School in Shenzhen, China.
In autumn 2017 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.
The children at Sneinton Church of England Primary School have once again had a fantastic time completing their next piece of artwork for the Dear You Art Project. It all started with great excitement by opening the envelope containing artwork from our partner school. The children were fascinated by the self portraits, as well as the questions they had sent in Chinese writing. All of the pupils commented on how beautiful this writing was, and how it was like an art form in itself, which led perfectly onto the next project, where the focus was font and text.
To simulate discussion about different fonts and text types, we used a powerpoint created by Heather to discuss the varying fonts we have in our classroom and how each of them made me feel. It was very interesting to hear the children's views on how one font may suggest somebody was scared, and another one may imply that somebody is very serious and possibly earns lots of money! They were fascinated by how a font can tell you so much about the artist and their message!
As a class, we then talked about how we use questions in everyday life to find out information about people's lives and interests. Each child came up with a question to ask their partner student, and then thought about how they were going to present it. We talked about using different sized letters, stencils, different textures, as well as a variety of fonts. We then created a piece of artwork by drawing the questions using lots of different fonts! The children were concentrating so well and they really enjoyed trying a new art form. We hope you enjoy our artwork!
Sincerely,
Alice Wilby
The artists in Class 4 (8-9 year olds) at Sneinton C of E St Stephens Primary School in Nottingham, England are making and sharing art with Grade 3 (9-10 year olds) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China.
