A Room for Art: Summer Art Camp 2018

Despite the daily forecast of rain, thunder and lightning art camp was blessed with dry mornings! We were able to spend most of our creating/playing time outside and I was once again reminded that my little Arlington backyard is a flourishing ecosystem. Fungus, beetles, millipedes, worms, centipede, pillbugs, flies of many sorts, rodents of many sorts and of course a friendly neighborhood cat! Due to my limited gardening skills there are also a good number of indigenous plants. It takes a group of children to open adult eyes to the possibilities inherent in a physical space.
As I debrief with myself about the summer two major themes come to mind. First, the pleasure of having more young, energetic assistants- Kendall, Evelyn, Norah, Elyse, Miriam, (and Tess who helped with pre-camp cleanup)Youth is a beautiful thing! These girls organized materials, moved furniture, helped younger children with obstacles to their art, played, swept, washed and ran in the park. They were flexible and willing! Thank you!
The second theme is children's ability to create with very simple materials. What I would like to praise is a child's habit of creating props for their own imaginative play- the story they are presently spinning. They make things that they need! They use the aptitude for seeing potential use in physical objects, an aptitude that adult artist's need for their invention. I like to do this too and during art camp I get to frame a project, make a set of constraints that children work within. For example, I give them contact paper on a mat board frame and colored acetate and they make beautiful collages. In this case I have decided what the process is and then they have room to make choices within those parameters. This is a useful exercise, I enjoy it and most of my students do too.
However teacher led art projects are not enough space for children's creativity. There is a different kind of making that happens when adults are less involved. It is more like making something from nothing because it comes from a child's own purpose rather than a teacher's. The products are often ragged or hard to recognize but the actual creative act that brought them to exist is bigger. With this making the child has set his own parameters, framed his own project and carried it out.
This summer week 2 campers made a 'kitty house' in honor of the visiting cat. The circle of trees near the compost bin were decorated in yarn, fabric and signage. There were a number of fishermen who made rods with the same yarn and found sticks. We had many entomologists over the weeks capturing and releasing critters, viewing them under a magiscope and looking closely at their structures. Of course we did our share of bubble making, trying to harness the magic soap films.
Of course there was lots of play that produced no permanent products- fairy houses from leaves and sticks, sand forms, block structures and shelters from saplings.
The conversation about children's creativity is huge! to be continued!

Playing in the Back Yard

Thanks to all who participated in art camp! I look forward to seeing you in the Fall. Classes soon to be posted.
Below is a synopsis/photos of each week's theme during camp

Week One
Theme: Children's Picture Books
Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater- dream house tempera paintings
Stuck by Oliver Jeffers- mixed media- paint, collage, pastel
What do You do With a Tail Like This? by Steven Jenkins- creature marker drawings, paintings and collage-accordion books for creature drawings, collage, watercolor
Swimmy by Leo Lionni- tempera paint mono prints

Week Two
Theme: Earth
-cross section under the earth drawings inspired by Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by
-papier mache rocks
-Nature journals
-Big Clay- storytelling with grey potter's clay
-watercolor/oil pastel resist insects
-sculpey clay salamanders with tempera painting background

Week Three
Theme: Water
-water paintings inspired by David Hockney
-underwater collage mixed media on apple trays from Wilson Farms
-watercolor fish
-fish prints
-floating sculptures