Camp Creek Press

My friend Jo asked me if I had anything to contribute to this delightful post at the Cookie Nesting blog on kids' art displays. I didn't manage to send her anything because I've been a little swamped.

(Also, when anyone asks me for something, instead of rifling through my photos and immediately sending something in, I tend to think "oh, that won't do .. I need to take new photos" and "I'll wait until the light is brighter" and etc. and etc.)

So, up above is my favorite way we displayed children's art at the T.P.S. — in a hanging room divider of plexiglass frames. These are two pieces of plexi sandwiched together with two pieces of art in the middle — so you can see something different on each side. We drilled holes in the corners and used circle clips to attach them together and make a huge display, but you could easily have the plexi cut smaller (they will cut it for you at the hardware store) and hang them singly or maybe three in a row vertically. A smaller version would look beautiful hanging in a window.

And here are some of my favorite kid art displays from my peeps:

Estea's houses on the windowsill, rickrack art line, and wire book/art display shelf.

Geninne's son Daniel's window art

Kajsa's beautiful kid art line in the kitchen

Eren's drying rack gallery display

And, technically this isn't kids' art, but what a great display idea:

Hannah's little brother's stop sign as magnet board (awesome!) (totally stealing this for the boys' rooms!)

Let me know if you have something cool to share!

Seriously, people. You must admire the cheapness. Sure, sure, you can order wire from Dick Blick. Or you can sit on the floor with a pair of wire cutters and transform a giant pile of dusty used cable into free art supplies.

The dedication!

And all for my free-absolutely-free art class. Just putting love out into the universe, people.

And since I want to share the love with you, my long-distance classmates, and also because I'm inspired by Meg's giveaway (and desperately staying away from it — because I do not need more books — that's the last thing I need) (and, by the way, could this sentence get any longer?), I am going to send out a lovely packet of this magical wire to three people who comment below, whose names I will draw randomly Sunday night — and that is as long as I could drag this sentence out to be — ta da!

I hope you'll think it was worth the wait when I tell you it is going to be a FREE download (yay!) with an occasional (hopefully inexpensive) (always optional) mail-order.

I'm a person who likes to have a lot on my plate at all times — somehow, it helps me focus on getting things done. The more I do, the more I do, if you know what I mean. (And, correspondingly, the less I do .. well, that just ends in me sitting around like a stump. See below.)

On the other hand, even I have to throw my hands up sometimes and wonder if I can ever get it all done. Sometimes I just have to pick one thing to concentrate on and finally finish, or one thing (or, to be honest, more than one thing) to just ignore for awhile. That's what the back burner is for, right?

This one has been on the back burner for a little while, but I'm moving it up to the front and giving it a good stir. Thank you for waiting so patiently!

Figure 1. Lori in her inert stage.

I've been e-mailing with some friends and talking in the comments about our common struggles with our bright, perfectionist children.

Then I remembered that I wrote about this before.

So, I just wanted to say something about how it's not all about the art — it's also about the things we can learn as we do authentic art (as opposed to a craft with a defined goal).

Having ideas. Making plans. Making mistakes. Dealing with setbacks. Solving problems. Incorporating new information. Dealing with our issues, whether they be a lack of confidence or a tendency toward perfectionism. All of the so-called habits of mind.

See also:

The perfectionist

Perfectionism and praise

It's always interesting starting off a class with a large group of kids of various ages (5 to 12) and various previous art experience. They all come to the class with different expectations, different ideas, different biases, and different approaches.

Observational drawing is a great leveler. It gets us all looking at more or less the same thing and talking about the same thing — paying attention, drawing what we see.

Last week we did some blind contour drawing and we talked a lot about lines and outlines. We tried to follow things very carefully with our eyes and not look at our hands or the paper at all. The results were very interesting.

This week we started off with another blind contour drawing and we talked more about lines.

We talked about points, lines, planes, and cubes — when is something two-dimensional and when is it three dimensional? (Some good talk about 3D movies and things here — I remember cutting 3D glasses from the back of a cereal box, but then I'm about a hundred years old.)

While we talked, we drew. And after we finished our blind contour drawings and talked about them, we did an observational drawing. All in all, we completed our drawings in under 15 minutes.

Today we are working with wire, a great thing to start with after you've been talking so much about lines. With wire we can make linear two-dimensional works or three-dimensional sculptures. Each child was given several pieces of wire about 12 inches long.

I have a big cache of leftover wire cable that was used for running telephone and computer lines in our school. Most of it comes in cable form, and I use wire cutters to trim away the plastic from each section so I can pull the wires out.

You can buy this sort of wire at an art supply store like Dick Blick, however it is quite pricey (to me — but then, I am very cheap). You might want to ask around and see if a friend — or a friend of a friend — has access to some wire from a telephone, cable, or construction business. You don't need much.

This type of wire is easy to bend and form, soft and easy to cut with safety scissors, not likely to poke yourself (or a friend) with, and quite colorful.

We have also made great use of the type of wire that you can buy on plastic spools at the hardware store; it is very inexpensive. You can buy silver or copper wire of various thicknesses — as slender as a hair or so thick you can barely bend it. (The thicker the wire, the sharper the ends when you cut it and the more easily you can poke yourself and get hurt.)

This type of wire is easy to find, inexpensive, available in a variety of thicknesses, and comes in limited colors. I prefer it for doing more advanced work, because with color out of the equation they tend to focus more on form. The thicker wire has an entirely different look and feel, and it can hold its shape much more easily.

We are starting with telephone wire, and in this first lesson we will first review safety measures:

• Wire is sharp on the ends and can poke you or the person next to you — be careful!

• Don't whip your wire around in the air or throw it.

Keep the wire pieces 12 inches or shorter (no longer than, say, a pipe cleaner) to make it more difficult for a child to poke themselves in the eye. Still, this activity requires supervision! Some of us do like to crouch over our work.

Now we will enjoy some free exploration of the material. Everyone has their wire; they can do with it what they will. They will bend it, wrap it around things, see how well it holds its shape, twist pieces together, etc. We talk while we work and play — about what we are making and what the wire can do. I bring extra wire to anyone who needs it. If I can, I will sit and play with the wire beside them.

If someone does something interesting, I ask them to show it to the group.

Today, we simply play and explore. Next week, we'll extend our work and do a more involved project.

See also:

Working with wire

Adventures in wire continue

More fun with wire

Imagine two children who are asked to paint a picture of their house. The first child hasn't used these paints before, or for a long time. The second child was given them to play with yesterday.

The first child is a bundle of frustration. The paint colors are running together! My house is beige, not brown, and I can't make the color I want! I used the black paint and now I've ruined the yellow paint. And now it's all dripping on the floor! I quit!

The second child learned a lot yesterday just by playing with the paints and painting several pictures. She waits for one area to dry before painting next to it with another color. She mixes new colors on a clean sheet of paper. She cleans her brush carefully between color changes. She is working intently. When she finishes her first painting, she talks about it and then asks for another piece of paper. She's ready to try another.

The child who was given time to play and explore can now work purposefully.

If you paint two big wet spots next to each other, the paint will run together. Imagine how interesting and fun this can be when you are just playing and experimenting — watching the yellow paint swirl with the blue, and then the center is turning green.

Imagine how disappointing and discouraging this same effect is when you really wanted a yellow dress covered in blue flowers.

The lessons we learn during play, we apply when we are working to create something important to us.

To work with a purpose is to choose deliberately, with a definite goal in mind.

Imagine two children sitting down to draw a bird with a collection of pencils. One child hasn't used these pencils before; one has. Who will be more successful? Even pencils have different personalities — hard and soft leads make different kinds of lines, we can apply too much pressure so they break or make a hole in the paper, color can be dragged across with the edge of our hand and spoil our work.

To work purposefully is to reach for a material or a tool confidently, choosing it because we know what it will do.

We cannot work purposefully until we have become familiar with the materials and tools.

Free exploration means we have no goal in mind, we're just seeing what this material can do and what we can do with it.

We learn through play, and what we learn, we can use when to create work that is important to us.

(W)ith a sense of certainty, play is almost always mindful. People take risks and involve themselves in their play. Imagine making play feel routine; it would not be playful. In play, there is no reason not to take some risks. In fact, without risk, the pleasures of mastery would disappear. … We tend to be more adventurous at play because it feels safe. — Roger Kelly, Leisure

(Did you figure out this was a lesson for you and not for the children? :^D)