Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project
Hello 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.
Through weaving, the artists in China have been exploring how chance can be an element in their artwork. By using recycled newspapers and colored papers, the weaving has helped give a hand in creating a story. The artists then wrote words on the artworks to enhance the meaning of the images made from the weaving process.
Everybody seemed to enjoy the art technique and made wonderful artworks!
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.
What a day it was with The Explorers! When I told them that the idea today was to come up with a unanimous title for our collective book and to weave using recycled materials, everybody was so open minded to try new art techniques and to work together! As always, I am deeply impressed with these young artists with how respectful and imaginative they are!
So how are ALL of us going to come up with one title when we ALL have such amazing ideas? The Explorers came up with excellent suggestions such as, 1. to mix the ideas together, 2. we can vote, 3. we can take turns. Being the kind and diplomatic group, The Explorers combined these methods and off we went with spouting out title ideas!
The top three titles were:
- Together my friend trading
- My friends are trading together
- Friends trading places
And the winner is, "My friends are trading together"! This title really encapsulates Dear You art project and the process of exchange. Amazing how these 5 year old artists understand so clearly the heart of friendship, sharing, and creativity!
This was the first time The Explorers tried weaving and they all did a fantastic job as they took their time, asked for help when needed, and persevered when faced with a challenge. Everybody could choose what they would like their base or loom to be. They then played with colors, patterns, and happy coincidences that arose when weaving images together.
We hope our friends in China like our artwork!
With love,
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.
With open minds and ears, 7C came to art class full of energy! In this session we made book covers for our joint project with our new friends in China. We decided to use recycled paper not only to be ecological and creative, but also, this way one can extrapolate so much information about the local environment in Finland just from the words and pictures found on the paper.
The first challenge was coming up with a unanimous title for the book! Everybody was so gracious and diplomatic that it went smoothly, but we did go through quite many processes to get there. First we got into small groups to brainstorm and come up with some ideas. Then every group wrote their favorite idea on the board. They were:
- The wisdom of art
- The book of art
- Dear You
- Art book / Taidekirja / 藝術書
- The story of difference and similarity
- FinChi Konchita
We all voted and 'The story of difference and similarity' won! All was settled, until somebody spoke their mind and asked if we could shorten it. Good thing this person opened up because they made a very good point about why it should be modified. So then we all revoted and that's how the title 'Differences and Similarities' was born!
The range of papers gave them so much to play with color, patterns, and storylines!
I think these woven pieces of art are beautiful and we hope you like them too!
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.
As usual, when I visit the Monkeys we start by reviewing what have made together so far to give context and understanding. This time, their memory continued to last year when we were making art with our friends in Mexico and United Arab Emirates! They recalled all the art projects we had made together. Amazed and heartfelt that they remembered all those details!
The November project, Weaving environments, is about putting the first two art projects received from our friends in Australia into a book. But what will the title of the book be? The first challenge of the day is to come up with a title together! So how will we do that? The Monkeys suggested we do rock paper scissors or listen to everybody. We did a combination and took a vote! They thought this could be a fair way to proceed.
SO many good ideas for the title to choose from! The possibilities were: 'Our Sweetheart', 'Our artwork', 'Our objects in the park', 'Our nice objects', 'Our nice Monkeys', 'Our nice friends in Australia', 'Our nice group', and 'Our nice toys'.
And the winner is...
Our nice Monkeys!!
Weaving was a new art technique for most of the Monkeys and they did a great job! They started to play with patterns and colors after they got the hang of the technique. Also, we talked about the symbolic aspect of weaving and the usage of recycled materials. I think our friends in Bulli can pick up a little on Finnish language from the papers we chose to weave.
Thank you and we hope you like our artwork!
My best,
Arlene and 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.
For our 4th meeting in Viertola School, in Vantaa I had prepared a slideshow of different modes of transportation. The images inspired us to think how these machines work, and we discussed ways to travel to places, for humans and fish, birds, and animals. Looking at inventions such as child seat on a bicycle or a sleeper train, we talked about journeys we take on our own and with a friend.
The artists talked about their own travel experiences. Some travel home to a different country almost every weekend!
Reflecting on the collective piece of art the artists created
Recycled materials worked well, I was very pleased to see students sharing materials with one another and creatively approach not only the design of the machine, but also of the environment around it. One artist even changed the “Air, Land, Water” to “Past, Present and Future”, to suit his time-travelling apparatus.
As the artists were finishing their work, we gathered around the table in a Dear You corner that Kirsti had created, displaying artworks and letters from our friends, and talked about the scratch art homes that had just arrived from Canada. We had some exciting discussions in small groups, trying to guess where each of our friends’ character lives. Thank you for sharing art with us, teacher Dance and your wonderful students!
Artworks from their friends at Ryerson PS in Ontario, Canada
Anastasia, Kirsti, and 4A class of Viertola School
The 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing with the 4th graders from Ryerson PS in Ontario, Canada.
The Monkeys explored travels in the deep sea all the up to space. We first discussed all the ways one could travel. And then we put a twist on it since anything is possible in our imagination! From then on we had space rockets that could also act as airplanes and we had boats that could change to a million different speeds!
Continuing with the goodness of recycling, we used old candy wrappers and other papers to make our artworks. The Monkeys thought, is there Fazer chocolate in Mexico? They really hope so!
Looking forward to receiving artworks from our friends in Mexico! Thanks!
Our best,
Arlene & The Monkeys
The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with Rocio Fernandez and her artists from Prepri B from Colegio San Patricio Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico. Both groups of artists are 5-6 years old.
Our world is big, connected, and full of creative ways of getting from here to there :).
I was so very impressed with how imaginative the Tigers were! Some even made a three-dimensional boat to travel to their friends in Mexico! Before getting started on the artworks we first had a good conversation about what vehicles were and how different vehicles travel. The Tigers then decided to try to make some that fly, float, and go underwater!
The Tigers collected ice cream wrappers and candy wrappers from a recent birthday party to use for the collage. Have you ever had Penguin ice cream?
Thank you!
With love,
Arlene & The Tigers
The Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with Nursery A from Colegio San Patricio Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico. Both groups of artists are 4 years old.
Our connected world!
