Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project
Teacher Tian Tian and her young artists in China have been busy making art! They were experimenting with the carbon transfer technique and then used marker to add color to their self-portraits.
Their friends in Finland cannot wait to meet them!
The 6 year old artists at Shenzhen Primary School in Shenzhen, China are making and sharing with the Explorers, 5-6 year olds, from International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland.
It was so nice to see the two groups of Explorers have Morning Meeting in their own classrooms. Both Mrs. Nikurautio and Mr. Prebble have their own lovely way of being with their students. We then got all together to talk about the first Dear You project- Unique You! Everybody was so excited to hear that we have new friends in China who will be making and sharing art with us. We talked about when we first meet somebody new, what would we like to share with them? What would we like to know about our friends? This guided us in making our self-portrait.
We first used pencil to make the carbon transfer and then added charcoal. Once the mark making started to come through, their curiosity grew bigger and bigger. The artists could see how the charcoal was also adding elements of their fingerprints, which is a part of who they are!
Some reflections from the artists are:
Enzo said, "me playing with my dog. My dog is barking at his dog friend. I held my dog so he didn't run away."
Devansh said, "I'm in a boat going to India. There's a submarine and fish following us.
Deethya said, "She's at the hairdresser because she needs short hair. She's with her mum and there's a rainbow behind you since it's a beautiful day."
Aishiki said, "There are hearts in the sky. Because I like them. I feel like I am hearts in the sky."
One little artist said, "My picture makes me happy."
They all make me happy!!
Before closing the package we all sat down to write a letter for our friends. We have lots of questions!
Do you like frogs?
Do you like fish?
What do you do in China?
What are your names?
What language do you speak?
Where do you go in China?
We can't wait to see your artworks!
With love,
The Explorers, Arlene, Mrs. Nikurautio and Mr. Prebble
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.
Dear Tigers,
We hope you will enjoy our collective contributions. Enclosed are our portraits along with our handmade transfer (carbon) paper. Feel free to separate them from our portraits and reuse them in your transfer explorations. It was fun (and messy) creating transfer paper.
While we worked on our portraits we thought about shadows and became shadow catchers, trying to capture illusive shadows casted by flashlight and lamp. Shadows have no eyes and they do not speak. Sometimes they grow, other times they bend under doorways and hide in dark corners. Our transfer paper making inspired us to take two large collaborative pieces of art and make a huge transfer portrait/piece, representing our unique and collective selves. Like unique individuals, groups are often unique assemblages. We are excited to art pal with you. We are calling our unique collective: MoonTigers.
Paint, pencil, charcoal, graphite and pastel are the featured materials in this piece along with our imagination (an essential). We applied our paint with squirt bottles and casted shadows with brayers, tiny little rollers. They really helped us spread the darkness. This large piece was then placed onto (above) for transferring. Here are our portrait samples (below).
We look forward to making art with you!
Cheers,
Moonstone Full Moons + Johnny Buckley
Moonstone Full Moons, 4-5 year olds from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, PA, USA, are making and sharing art with the Tigers, 4-5 year olds from Your School in Espoo, Finland.
Unfortunately we had very poor weather with gray skies and rain for much of the time, so were unable to check out our shadows outside. As a result, we created our "shadow selves" by reflecting what we felt and liked on the inside, into a drawing for others to see. We gave our nod to the idea of shadows (e.g., being dark) by drawing with charcoal on the black background. The students really liked the opportunity to explore and draw the things that they liked and that represented them with charcoal. They were very eager and excited to explore both the medium and the topic!
To see the wonderful presentation Kaarina made of the artworks and creative process, please click here.
Kaarina Losey
Kaarina Losey is the 6th grade teacher at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Her group of artists are making and sharing art with the Päivi Huhtinen and her group of 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland.
