Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

Pop Up Tigers and Pop Up Season's Greetings!

2014, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

Once The Tigers mastered the art of making a pop up box everything became possible! Nachu was experimenting with writing her name in cursive. Jonatan made a pop up reindeer. Sreya said she wanted to give the sun to her friends in Vietnam.  That's so thoughtful considering Finland could really use some right about now :).  Ida went beyond the twofold card and made a pop up book! 

The Tigers will mail these warm wishes to the Mice in Vietnam.  Hyvää Joulua and Happy New Year!

It's Art When You Call It Art

8th Grade, 2014, Dear You Art Workshops, Denmark, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

The last session in Meilahti started off a bit differently than the others before it. I had a special guest: Arlene, the founder of Dear You workshops was there with me to tell about her latest installation piece. So we plunged to the world of installations and scratched the surface of performance art with a seasoned guide.

The outcome of the workshop was creative as always! We got a taste of Du Champ -style piece called Pen on the Floor, a miniature Pollock, Magic tricks of expectations, surprise performative art and framings and of course the Illuminati had it's hands on this workshop too.

We discovered that art is dialogue, a process where we interpret each other. Sometimes we get the gist of things and sometimes we get lost in translation but that's okay. No matter the distance we can always try to reach out to understand and find our horizons being broadened in the process. It's art when you call and treat is as such!

Using some of the words that the Dear You Artist in Meilahti mentioned, all in all we had a fun, new and magical ride on our Dear You journey!

- Nooralotta Ikonen
http://laiskia.blogspot.fi

All That Talent for Christmas!

2014, 5th Grade, Czech Republic, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

Do you know how to play the guitar, do the baby freeze or do you just know really much about ice hockey? I surely don't but the talented fifth graders in Helsinki English School know!

This time at The English School we looked at our gifts. We pondered about how can we give them as presents to our friends. The word present has two meanings: one is something you give away and the other one is something you receive right at every moment, at the present. So a gift in it's most heartfelt way is you being present to the people around you. That means everyone of us can give a special gifts this Christmas by just being present and using the talents we have.

Some of us had a hard time seeing our own talent. But we needn't worry too much! Help was always near when friends cheered on at how good someone was at so many things. Sometimes we can't see our own talents because to us they're just everyday things while to others they might be a wonder. If you know how to do something really well, you might just need a reminder now and again from your friends on how good you actually are! We drew our talents in the stars that we sent to Prague and hope that they'll bring at least as much cheer there as we experienced when making them.

This gift giving doesn't have to stop at Christmas. We can all use our gifts and talents, no matter how small we think they are, every day and bring cheer and ease to others around us.

Let's have a gift filled Christmas and a talented new year!

- Nooralotta Ikonen
http://laiskia.blogspot.fi

Love from Snowleopards and Anne-Marie

2014, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Pre-School, AustriaArlene TuckerComment

Hello,

We have Christmas Holidays now and have been busy organizing happenings, presents and so on here in Vantaa, Finland. Thank you Simone and kids for your lovely posts.  The kids got all those drawings you made!! They were so grateful and happy about that! This  week we made a little surprise for your Christmas ... hope you will get it soon!

And there are also pics from our Party Room.  We had a Winter theme where everyone could use their 5 senses.

Beautiful holidays to you all and Merry Christmas.

Love from Snowleopards and Anne-Marie

The Monkeys send warm greetings to Nuuk!

2014, Pre-School, Greenland, Finland, Dear You Art WorkshopsArlene TuckerComment

The Monkeys in Espoo, Finland were so happy to receive artwork in the mail from their friends in Nuuk, Greenland! We read each other's letters and messages.

Learning more about our friends gave us great ideas on how to make our Pop Up Holiday Cards.  Since Leon's friend liked football, he decided to draw him a spotted football greeting card.  Ella wanted to ask her friend questions about the painting she received.  Ella wondered, "what animal did Misu draw?  I think Minea's friend will surely like the surprise cat she made! hint: meow :)

December Peacefulness in Prague

2014, 4th Grade, Czech Republic, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, HolidaysArlene TuckerComment

Dear You,

Last workshop of this year was also my last contribution to this project. As you could sense all around the Panda Learning Center, Christmas are everywhere and I wanted to set up the workshop in this mood. I wanted to create a calm and peaceful atmosphere and to have time to chat with the students. This time we used just markers, scissors and blank white A4 paper. During the workshop we talked about Christmas time and what we would like to give to the students from Finland, which was really fun and I hope that you are going to see it soon. The biggest  source for us was  the licorice world, which we all remember from one of the the previous workshop in which we received pictures of licorice candies from Finland.

In the end, I especially wanted to thank my students for their intense attitude and high quality outcomes, also thanks to stuff of Panda Learning Center for providing me warm words and lunch, students from Finland for their funny letters and last but not least to Arlene Tucker coordinator of this project for patience and trust to give me space and time within Dear You project.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Prague
Veselé Vánoce a šťastný nový rok z Prahy

- Rudolf Samohejl

Painting has no boundaries

5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

First we were all surprised, interested, curious and sometimes even scared of the paintings we saw: M. C. Escher, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and other surrealist painters, which made us think a little bit and also realize that painting has no boundaries. 

Then, we started painting to Jun Miyake's "Lillies of the Valley". The storm, No teacher, Windy day, The tree, Flowers, Birds of Vietnam or the galaxy are some of the paintings we created. Take a look and you will find much more. 

All the best from Hanoi,
The Little Mice

The Little Mice are exchanging with the Tigers in Espoo, Finland.  Check out what The Tigers did for their Musical Paintings here!

Musical insight from the artists in Vienna, Austria

2014, 7 years old, Austria, Finland, Dear You Art WorkshopsArlene TuckerComment

Hello!

I'm sending you the first pictures of our music-project.

On the left side of the sheets you can see the impressions inspired by Edvard Grieg, Morning Mood. On the right side you can see what children did to the music from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Summer, Presto (The Thunderstorm). Some of them really fell into the music. :)

It was interesting to notice that nearly all children had the same feelings. Morning mood is smooth and clear. A lot of them started to paint with the colour green; they painted nature and "good" things like music, birds - happiness and peace.

Vivaldi's Thunderstorm is very rude and disturbing. They had the feeling of death and threat in different forms like a house is burning or someone is crying for help. Also, bad people are in the pictures.

THANKS A LOT for your candies! We had a lot of fun opening your present and tasting the candies! In Austria we don't eat liquorice, just a few people like it (like me). But the caramel candy and the chocolat were great! They loved it!*

Its always a great moment for the children to get a parcel from far away. We loved the stamps from Finland and the children did not allow me to destroy the paper around the parcel. ;)

Winter and Christmas is coming in Vienna...

Best wishes!!

Simone

*The artists in Vienna, Austria are exchanging with the artists in Vantaa, Finland.

Tunes and Tints at The English School in Helsinki

2014, 5th Grade, Finland, Czech Republic, Dear You Art WorkshopsArlene TuckerComment

"Look! The girls are dancing ballet!" a boy from The English School in Helsinki hollers. We're listening to music and some of us are feeling courageous enough to take a step or sway to the beat and melody. The song changes from an old school video game theme to more classical tunes. "A trip to Paris!" a girl says. "An afternoon playing games with my friends." "All of us as video game characters are inside the game!" another artist sees in her mind's eye.

The music stops and it's on to painting! The images inspired by the songs and our dance start appearing on paper in wonderful colors. The paintings tell of dreams, travels and time with friends.

Music is like a key. And different kinds of music equals to lots of different keys to lots and lots of unique worlds! I wonder what sort of doors will our Dear You friends open for us in Praque?

- Nooralotta Ikonen
http://laiskia.blogspot.fi

ps. If you would like to hear what we made our paintings to please click here and here.

The Musical Dears from Vantaa!

2014, Finland, Austria, Pre-SchoolArlene TuckerComment

Hello Dears!

We have had so much fun and a nice time with our Dear You Art project and music paintings/drawings this week! Our kids listened in their own "small groups" different kind of music from Finnish classical to folk (specially our own national instrument Kantele) and world music (pop) between. And surely they were enjoying a lot also listening in peace while making "pictures".

Finally, they finished their work to an end.  We discussed different kinds of feelings we had. Children mostly told about feeling happiness, joy, pleasure, good and positive emotions and their being safe! Some had exciting feels and also little bit scary too or at least mystic:... "like some big ship by the sea without knowing what is coming next..."  All of them said they could do this again, it was so fun!

Hopefully you have received our big candy present for your kids in Vienna?

Best greetings,
Snowleopards and Anne-Marie

Symbols of Good Times in Meilahti

8th Grade, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, DenmarkArlene TuckerComment

Mail! We received our earth art pictures from Denmark with the Danish artists' twist on our photos. It's fun how the pieces evolved with their visit in Denmark. We see that the artists there really took the time to sense our world. Thank you!

To keep the communication going we took on the art from Denmark as our inspiration for November's Dear You assignment here in Meilahti, Helsinki. We thought about what symbols could communicate our thoughts of their artwork and our thoughts about the Dear You project in general. The symbols that popped into our minds were ones of mysticism, hope and celebration. We made stencils out of these images and started painting.

After our creative efforts our vast canvas had filled up with shooting stars, meatballs, bottles and variations of the symbols of social media and internet phenomena. This is who we are, this is what we see. Will you catch what we meant? Maybe you will, maybe you won't. The main point is that you try and in doing so, we'll meet each other half way.

- Nooralotta Ikonen
http://laiskia.blogspot.fi

Artist Trading Cards (ATC) are a win!

2nd Grade, 2014, United Kingdom, USAArlene TuckerComment

Kathleen Finan, the art teacher at Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas has been making Artist Trading Cards (ATC) with her artists.  They have just sent these to their Dear You friends in Nottingham, UK!  

Kathleen wrote, "The students wrote holiday greetings on the back of these ATC scratchboards.  I bought these glitter scratchboards for the holidays, sometimes I make them with the kids.  The candy bags had 3 ATCs in them telling their favorite holidays when candy is given."

What a treat!  Not only did the artists make Candy Bags for the October project, but also ATCs!

Go ahead and try this out with your artists :)

Being in the moment with sounds in Prague

2014, 4th Grade, Czech Republic, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

This time at Central Point International Elementary School in Prague we made a visualization of the music project. 

I prepared for the students a long sheet of paper and than while we altogether were listening to music, we tried to express what we heard. The aim was not to create separate individual results of our observations, but we wanted to get closer to the idea of listening together and also creating together. That is why we used this kind of paper. All the students at some point disturbed each other's drawing and had to deal with each other's drawing space, which brought new element into our working method. Hopefully our friend school in Helsinki will recognize the energy locked into the piece.

We listened to:
Flight of the Bumblebee
Amelia from Montmartre
Japanese relaxation music
433 John Cage

- Rudolf Samohejl