Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Making Props ll


Monday was making props day here. I know, I know, the glamour never ends.

Soap box moment here: Children NEED art as a mainstay in their curriculum, not as an add-on afterthought. I believe so firmly in this that I have designed art enrichment cross discipline programs and projects for years at one of our country's top girls prep schools. What? I took studio art process into classrooms and juiced up their arsenal of responses to any given topic. Give me a topic, an age group, and some tools and materials....and bam! Prepare to be amazed.

This project is for two year olds. !!! They are not challenged. I am. Well, I hadn't realized their propensity for eating the art materials, paint, snack...whatever...and as future art directors in the making, they have their own ideas about where the paint should actually go. On their arms was popular. I understand Pixar has the same issues.

But we are making personal identity icons. A favorite core activity of mine.

And the eventual Keith Haring inspired collages will be auctioned at the upcoming Gala Fundraiser for their school.

But first we must have templates for them to hopefully roll paint over: Pretzels, Goldfish and Cheerios. Huge in the daily life of a two year old. I expect a melee and creative disputes...yeah...but we also get juice boxes and beep beeps to play with on the playground...what kind of perks are you getting?

2 comments:

Merisi said...

Two year olds? Does that mean that you had to make giant Goldfish templates? ;-)
My girls once painted the trunks of our magnolia trees on a bright spring day, instead of using the easle I had shlepped outside. And one of them, a little older already, maybe three, wrote lines and lines of a long poem on the basement door, as far up as she could reach and all the way to the bottom. With a number one pencil or such, like an engraving, never to be erased. I never saw her do it. Lets not talk about the crayon graffitis on our walls. I hope she remembers me once she's famous. ;-)

Janice C. Cartier said...

Ahh, the spark starts early. It does.