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.
Syksyllä alkanut Dear You -projekti jatkui toisella työpajalla. Projekti koostuu neljästä työpajakerrasta, joiden teemana on minä ja ympäristö. Projektin lähtökohtana on ajatus taiteesta prosessina ja dialogina ihmisten välillä. Työpajoissa syntyneet teokset lähetetään ulkomaille ystävyyskouluihin. Me saimme pariksi koulun Kiinasta, jonne ensimmäisen työpajan teokset ovat jo matkalla. Jäämme odottelemaan taideteoksia kiinalaisilta nuorilta.
Tällä kertaa pohdimme yhdessä oppilaiden ja taitelijavierailijamme Arlene Tuckerin kanssa kysymyksiä ja kysymistä. Jotta tietäisimme mitä toiset ajattelevat, on meidän kysyttävä, kerrottava ja kuunneltava. Äänemme on vahva työkalu. Käytetään sitä!
Tutustuimme graafiseen myös suunnitteluun. Mietimme tekstityylejä, kirjainten kokoa, sommittelua ja väriä viestinnän työkaluina. Taideteostemme tekniikkana käytimme erilaisia piirtimiä.
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.
Hey Tigers,
Questions are colorful. Stories are colorful. Friendship is colorful. Enclosed you will find our questions on collaborative prints. We wrapped them in our new favorite punctuation... can you guess what it is? This project has turned us into inquisitive printers. Let’s print! Let’s assemble questions!
Did you know a printer has four little houses inside it? These houses are called toner cartridges and color lives in them. Each color lives beside another color. There is a red house, a blue house, a yellow house and even a house filled with black, like night. When we have an idea, say a dream, a question, or a story to share, these colors come out and mix together. They can be any color we want them to be depending on quantity. So we mix.
To recreate the inner working of a printer we turned ice cube tray wells into toner cartridges and dipped brushed into them to invite the colors onto our acrylic plexiglass screens (our landscape). There was a place space for, red, then yellow and then blue. We added black the next day when we attached our fonts. We created fonts by writing out our vowels, consonants and questions marks onto letter grids. We then cut them out into respective squares and shared them with one another. We also cut our A4 rectangle paper into squares by taking a way a few inches at the bottom. We reattached them at the end with tape as a way of including a space for thought and questions and also as a silly way mix up our questions and pictures.
We also made a large mural painting of question marks and color mixing exploration. Other friends in our school helped. We are the oldest kids in our school. We like to collaborate.
Questions are colorful and we think letters are the bones of words.
What is your favorite color? What is your favorite letter? Have you ever seen a cat? What is the weather like?
Cheers,
MoonTigers (a.k.a. Full Moons) & Johnny
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.
We had a lot of fun with our latest project thinking up questions to ask our new friends from Finland. None of us has ever been to Finland - it seems a long way away right up there at the top of the world!
Before we started our project we talked a lot about the kinds of things we would like to know about boys and girls of our age from a different country. We looked at various examples of typography and graphic design. We also practiced writing our names on the computer in Word using different fonts, sizes, colours and features.
We tried to make the art works containing our questions look interesting by using different writing styles and trying our hand with special designs and graphics. We can’t wait to find out the answers to our questions. We’re also really excited to read your questions for us!
Looking forward to our next big envelope!
All the best,
Everyone in K/1HT
The K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia are making and sharing art with the Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland. Both groups are 5-6 year old artists.
It was a pretty magical day with the artists at Helsingin yhteislyseo! We first started the session by warming up our minds and bodies. This is something I like to do before I start making art and I was happy that everybody was willing to try and participate. We all stood up and took turns doing different movements to activate ourselves. Shake it out to let it out!
Everybody was very excited to hear that we have friends in China that we will be exchanging art with! As when making new friends, we slowly start by sharing bits and pieces about ourselves. We saw this as a chance to also learn something new about ourselves. First we got into small groups to do some investigation. Our partners would be our mirrors and tell us what they see about us- factual things like how the light flickers against our hair, the color of our eyes, details about our hands, etc. Sometimes taking a close look at something else can also help with how we approach looking at ourselves.
When we started experimenting with the carbon transfer technique it seemed slow going at first because this method does take time to prepare, but once the marks started to come through, everybody got more motivated to make their self-portrait. Everybody had such a different approach and idea to making their self-portrait!
The class wrote a letter for Tian Tian and her artists:
We hope you like our artwork!
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.
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.
The Monkeys are very excited to have new friends from Australia! We looked on the map to see where Australia is in relation to Finland. It's a looong ways away. They already had a sense of that because one of their teachers is from Australia. They are looking forward to making more friends from there!
We started off by talking about what it means to make a self-portrait. We looked at one other and tried to be eachother's mirrors. As we were investigating ourselves, we were thinking about what part of us would we like to share and tell our new friends.
This was the first time using carbon transfers and they all did a great job! As they were understanding how the technique works, they were coming up with their own ways of drawing. At that time, the Monkeys were learning about space so a lot of the artists incorporated the moon and stars into their self-portrait.
Everybody got a chance to talk about their self-portrait. Rafael said, "I have shabby hair and eyes." Miro said, "I am playing a game on my tablet." Adripto included a pictures of himself and his sister. Alia said, "It's me and my little brother. We are looking at the shooting stars and there is the flag of Somalia." Do these sound familiar to you?
We are very curious about you all and where you live! The Monkeys would like to know, what do you see in Australia?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
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.
The Tigers are super welcoming with their big smiles and good creative energy! Today was extra special as I got to tell them that we have new friends from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia. Immediately the questions started buzzing and they tried to make connections. They started sharing stories of who they know in the USA and if they have ever visited the country.
This was the first time the Tigers had ever made carbon transfers. I am so proud that they all took their time to cover their paper with graphite. The magic started when they began to draw. That's when they got extra excited and thought it was magic at first! Some got frustrated when the marks didn't go through, but they persevered and got it to work for them!
When we were finished we all sat down together to look at each other's artwork. The pictures are so descriptive of who the artists of, where they live, and what they like. Erik said, "I am on a bus. I am riding the bus to my home. This is big me and little me." Mikelus said, "I am walking outside and stop in the forest for the postman." Vanessa decided to make a family portrait. Leevi said that this picture is of a happy person. I love the positive image Leevi has about himself! Reno said, "a tiny baby superman is playing basketball with me." Who wouldn't want to play with you?!
Can you find the portrait of the carpetman?
Which pictures are of a happy person?
Which picture has somebody walking through an apple orchard?
We are so happy to make a collective book with our Moonstone friends!
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.
(English below)
Pe 13.10. klo 9.30–11.30 työpaja esikoululaisille ja koululaisille
La 14.10. klo 12–16, avoin nonstop-työpaja
Su 15.10. klo 14–15 performanssi, avoin kaikille
Vapaa pääsy!
Kuvitellut tilat heräävät eloon Dear You –ryhmän A Live Act – työpajassa. Työpajassa tutkitaan ja toteutetaan unelmien maailmoita installaation ja performanssin keinoin.
Lauantaina perheille avoimissa työpajoissa tutkimme multimediatekniikoita sekä veistoksellisia muotoja ja teemme niistä osallistavan installaation.
Sunnuntaina on kaikille avoin tanssiperformanssi teatteritilassa, jonka osallistujat ovat itse luoneet.
Jakaa sinun unelmasi! Paina tässä lisää infoa.
Kenelle: Yli 3-vuotiaille, koululaisille ja perheille
Kielet: suomi, englanti, venäjä
Työpajojen ohjaajat: Arlene Tucker, Anastasia Artemeva
Sunnuntain performanssi: Arlene Tucker, Anastasia Artemeva sekä tanssitaitelija Vera Lapitskaya ja muusikko Mayim Alpert.
Kutsu yhteisen installaation tekemiseen löytyy Teatteri ILMI Ö:n kotisivuilta: https://www.teatteri-ilmio.fi/tapahtuma/ilmifestivaali/
Taiteiljat:
Anastasia Artemeva on Venäjällä syntynyt, Irlannissa kasvanut, nykyään Helsingissä toimiva visuaali- ja yhteistötaiteilija. Hänen teoksensa muototutuvat monivaiheisissa prosesseissa ammentaen inspiraatiota installaatiotaiteesta, taidekasvatuksesta ja ihmisoikeustutkimuksista. Temaattisia lähteitä ovat sosiaalisten normit ja hyväksytyt totuudet, yhteiskunnallisen läpinäkyvyyden ja eksklusiivisuuden kyseenalaistaminen sekä niihin vaikuttavat sosio-poliittiset, kulttuurilliset ja henkilökohtaiset rajoitteet sekä kommunikaatiokeinot.
Arlene Tucker on taiwanilais-amerikkalainen taiteilja ja kasvattaja, jonka alaa ovat interaktiiviset installaatiot ja arjen värittäminen leikillä taiteen keinoin. Inspiroituneena kielitieteistä, eläimistä ja luonnosta hän löytää tapoja yhdistellä ja etsiä merkityksiä jaetuista ympäristöistämme. Usein hänen teoksensa rakentavat tiloja dialogin avaamiselle ja julkistamiselle, kannustaen näin tulkintoja ja yllätyksiä kukoistamaan. Arlene loi Dear Youn vuonna 2013, jotta koululaiset, koulut ja taiteilijat ympäri maailman voisivat kerääntyä yhteen taidekirjeenvaihdon kautta. Hän on esittänyt töitään taiteilijana ja taidekasvattajana Euroopassa, Pohjois-Amerikassa ja Aasiassa.
Vera Lapitskaya on Helsingissä toimiva tanssitaitelija ja kasvattaja. Vuodesta 2009 alkaen hän on sekä työskennellyt itsenäisenä sooloartistina että tehnyt yhteistyötä muiden taiteiljoiden kanssa, niin Suomessa kuin kansainvälisestikin. Hän lähestyy taidetta monialaisesta näkökulmasta, joka suo tanssille tilaa kohdata musiikin, maalaustaiteen, runouden ja kaikki muut taiteenmuodot. Opetuksessaan hän suhtautuu ihmiskehoon inspiraation lähteenä ja rohkaisee oppilaitaan, ikään katsomatta, ilmaisemaan itseään liikkeellä sekä löytämään oman kehonkielensä.
Mayim Alpert on muusikko, säveltäjä, soitinrakentaja ja äänisuunnittelija, varttunut Arkansasissa ja kotiutunut Helsinkiin. Vuosia hän on rakentanut kitaroita jms., soittanut bändeissä, ja tehnyt musiikkia teattereille ja kaikenlaisiin tapahtumiin.
+++++
Friday, 13.10. 9.30–11.30 workshop with school children
Saturday, 14.10. 12–16, open non-stop workshop
Sunday, 15.10. 14–15 performance, open to the public
Free entrance!
Imagined spaces come creatively alive in Dear You’s A Live Act for Ilmi Festival. We will explore and realize our dream worlds through installation and performance. In the workshop open for families we will explore multimedia techniques and sculptural forms to build the set for the participatory installation. On Sunday, there will be a dance performance in the theatre space created by you!
Share your dream! Click here for more info.
For: children over 3 years old, school children and families
Language: Finnish, English, Russian
Workshop facilitators: Arlene Tucker, Anastasia Artemeva
Sunday performance: Arlene Tucker, Anastasia Artemeva with dance artist Vera Lapitskaya and musician Mayim Alpert
For more information about the festival: https://www.teatteri-ilmio.fi/tapahtuma/ilmifestivaali/
Artists:
Anastasia Artemeva is a visual and relational artist, born in Russia, raised in Ireland, and currently based in Helsinki, Finland. Her work is developed through a process-oriented artistic practice, drawn from installation art, art education, and research in human rights. Conceptually, it draws from the codes of social norms and accepted truths, questioning transparency and exclusivity affected by socio–political, cultural and personal restrictions and means of communication.
Arlene Tucker, is a Taiwanese and American interactive installation artist and educator interested in adding play elements to daily life through her art. Inspired by translation studies, animals and nature, she finds ways to connect and make meaning in our shared environments. Often her artworks create spaces for dialogue to be opened and to be divulged, making way for interpretations and surprises to flourish. Arlene created Dear You in 2013 as a means for school children, schools, and artists from all over the world to come together through mail art exchange. Over her career she has presented her work as an artist and art educator in Europe, North America, and Asia.
Vera Lapitskaya is a dance artists and educator based in Helsinki. Since 2009, she’s been working as an independent solo performer and in collaborations with other artists in Finland and internationally. In her artistic work she is looking for a multidisciplinary approach which gives space for dance to meet music, paintings, poetry and other art forms. In her teaching she approaches human body as a source of inspiration and encourages students, regardless age, to express themselves through physical movement and to find their own body language.
Mayim Alpert is a musician, composer, luthier and sound designer, raised in Arkansas and based in Helsinki. For many years he has been building guitars etc., playing in bands, and making music for theatre and many kinds of happenings.
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.
We followed the suggestions in the project outline (closing our eyes and feeling things, then crumpling and flattening out our paper). The idea that most students went with was the use of watered down tempera paints. We were hoping that the paints would be watered down enough to flow through the wrinkles or the "valleys" on the paper. Students could either use the paint brush, tilt their paper back and forth to move the watered down paint, or blow on the drops of watered down paint.
Most used a brush to drop paint onto their paper and tilted the page. We were doing the painting outside (finally some sunshine and warm weather!) and it was a very windy day, so the wind was also a factor in how some of the paint was moved around... :)
Much of the finished artworks look very abstract and like the paint was flung, but that was not quite what happened. Also, some of the students made comments like "this is New York City" or "this is a metropolis" for a paper very full of paint. Others made comments about it being more rural when there were areas with less paint, just as we would expect to see on a road map.
Overall, they had a really fun time with the activity! It is also more fun to paint outside than in the portable! :) To see a presentation of Feel the Flow project, please click here.
Thanks!
Kaarina
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.
We 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.
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.
The Monkeys were so playful and adventurous when creating our shadow portraits. We first started the workshop by searching the space to find shadows and to see how we can make shadows using natural light and flashlights. Some questions that came up were, "Hey, where did my shadow go? Why is my shadow chasing me? What's the name of my shadow?"
Then we talked about how we were going to make our shadow portraits using black paper and graphite pencils. While we were drawing we were testing to see the different affects graphite and light have on each other. So lovely to see how a "normal" everyday medium can be looked at in new light.
After our works were made we gathered around to see the what came out of our shadows!
V: I made a dinosaur and butterfly. They are friends.
N: I drew a dog with a lot of teeth so that he can eat.
I: I drew a sun, hearts, a dog, and a banana.
C: I drew a dinosaur.
J: I drew a chair and its shadow.
P: I drew the sun, speeder and a rock.
E: I drew a smiling dog.
O: I drew a monkey and hearts because I like monkeys.
K & N: W drew a hand with a heart in it.
L: I drew a dog.
A: I drew my hand and a hare bunny.
Some of the Monkeys got out their stuffed animals or toys to make shadows and then use as a still life. Very clever artists these bunch of Monkeys are!
With love,
The Monkeys, Arlene, Ben, and Atefeh
The 6 year old Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the 4-6 year olds in KG2D from Collegiate American School in Dubai, U.A.E.
How are shadows made? What are they? How can we play with them?
We first started this Dear You workshop by exploring different ways of creating shadows using natural light and flashlights. The light was shining so beautifully that day in Espoo that we didn't need to try so hard!
After we got the hang of shadows we then used it to create artwork! Some of us took a more realistic approach and others took a more imaginative and symbolic approach. During the artistic process a few Tigers wanted to turn their creations into shadow puppets!
At the end of the workshop, we all gathered around and shared thoughts about our own works and what we thought about our fellow artists' creations.
L: V's drawing made me real scared.
Ad: I saw that my shadow looked silvery.
Misk: The shadow of myself.
R: It's the shadow of my hand on the floor.
Ne: I draw what my body looks like with a heart. I like Miska's shadow.
P: My shadow portrait is a story of my family and the jungle. My daddy is 99 and my mommy is 36.
U: Neha's artwork is awesome. I drew the shadow of my hand. My hand controls everything.
V: How was it possible that the pencil shined when we used it on black cardboard? My shadow portrait is a long story about me and some animals.
So much amazing insight!
With love,
The Tigers, Arlene, Toti, and Zeynab
The 4-5 year old Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the 4-6 year olds in KG2E from Collegiate American School in Dubai, U.A.E.
