The work of self-knowledge and understanding is never done. It guides and informs everything.
This quote, from an academic paper on self, identity and the danger of narrative*, spoke to me – and with a recent painting that is called Interference, (acrylic on raw canvas, 60 x 80cm).
Other sources of insight currently include:
*Camila Orca, K., (2018) Opaque Selves: A Ricœurian Response to Galen Strawson’s Anti- Narrative Arguments, Études Ricœuriennes / Ricœur Studies, Vol 9, No 1 (2018,) pp. 70-89 . DOI 10.5195/errs.2018.387
I have been a HUGE fan of Crayola’s # 2 pencils since I first came across them at Dollar Tree several years ago. They last longer than the former best pencil out there (which has really become one of my least favorite pencils because of the quality & price!). I looked at ordering more after running out at the end of last year, but did not see them. After looking at several places, I decided to write Crayola and see what was going on. They said they actually discontinued them fall of 2023! AHHH!!!!!! Heart broken!
This question lies at the core of the work of John Berger, according to Nikos Papastergiadis in an essay Forest (A Jar of Wild Flowers: Essays in celebration of John Berger, 2023, p.83.)
Such a profound question ~
It’s a question that helps me think about my painting in general – how I want to share something of my experience in the world as an older woman – and about how I can develop it through the particular and specific.
Currently I’m working on a series of abstract paintings that arise from walking the canal path in Oxford on my way to my new studio. Houses and gardens back on to the canal, some humble and some grand. Each meeting of garden and canal is different. What people do with their 3 or 4 metre stretch of bank is fascinating to me. Each has some way of holding up the small bank, while often including a step down to the water. There are old trees in random positions along the canal that have been built around. Some board their canal edge and place chairs there. Some keep canoes. Some incorporate it into the garden. Some keep it very trim; others let it grow wild. Many have little sheds there, some turned into offices. And from my vantage point across the water, I see what’s happening at canal level – broken steps, weeds, shadows, and ducks.
On sunny mornings, the low English sun strims through buildings and branches on to the green water. Sometimes the brightness lies beyond the dark bank, pulling the eye up into the garden. Sometimes patches of sky lie on the water.
My paintings take from the experience of walking and looking. They take the random patches of light and shade, the horizontals and verticals of planks and steps and sheds, the secret tangles below the bank and the overhanging tangles of branches and brambles.
In choosing colour and combining forms, I am speaking of how I belong to this world –committed still to the practice of attention and noticing, starting over in a new studio, priced out of houses backing on to water, privileged to walk on this path, while slightly wary as a woman alone.
Half a world away in New Zealand, I transform this particular, specific belonging into little studies on paper, in preparation for big paintings on canvas.
This is a fun winter art project that allows students to use their creativity to make matching mittens, exploring symmetry and balance! I have been doing this art project for years and years and I keep returning to it every year because I think it’s great for fine motor skills and spatial awareness. It also strengthens their attention to detail as they work to make both mittens match perfectly.
I’m not sure where I originally learned about this art project, but it had to have been about 15-20 years ago. So many of these ideas floating around social media and the internet have been around forever! This is a good one and maybe you haven’t seen it yet. I like to do this with Kindergarten, but I think Pre-K could do a simpler version and older kids could make more detailed mittens.
Why do a Matching Mittens art project?
Objectives:
● Students will develop observational skills by carefully replicating patterns and lines in reverse.
● Students will explore symmetry and balance in art by creating matching mittens.
● Students will practice fine motor skills through tracing, drawing, and pattern-making.
● Students will explore creativity by making unique patterns and designs.
In this art project, students will make a pair of mittens that match. First, the students will design one mitten with patterns and lines. Then, they will copy that design onto the second mitten, but in reverse—like a mirror.
“If you draw a heart on the left side of one mitten, you will need to draw the same heart on the opposite side of the other mitten.”
“If you put a wavy line in the top of one mitten, the wavy line needs to go in the same spot on the other mitten.”
Teacher Prep for the Matching Mittens Art Project
● Print the mitten template onto card stock (thicker paper). (Amazon Affiliate links have been used for art supply links at no extra cost to you. The small commission earned goes towards maintaining this website.) You can use this as the drawing surface, or you can make them into reusable templates for your students to trace. I have one set of templates and reuse them every year. To do this, trace your mitten on to thicker poster board (I use “railroad board.”). Trace as many templates as you will need and cut them out. Students will then use these to trace on to their larger paper. They will trace it once, flip over the template and trace the other mitten. I do this step, because it is a good skill for practicing fine motor skills. But if you want to save time, you can just have the copies printed out.
Step One:
● Trace the mitten on to construction paper (I like Tru-Ray Construction Paper– 12” x18” paper). Flip the mitten over and trace the other mitten.
Step Two:
● Draw designs on one mitten, using markers or crayons. Emphasize coloring neatly and carefully.
Step Three:
● Then, copy the designs and patterns on to the other mitten, but in reverse, like a mirror. Some students may want to do one shape at a time, going back and forth between each mitten, which is totally fine! Others might like to finish one whole mitten first.
● Some kids might get stuck on the fact that it is very difficult to make an exact mirror image. Explain that they should try the best they can, but it’s okay if it’s not perfect! We are aiming for doing our best and it’s still going to look beautiful even if it’s not perfect.
To download the mitten templates, they are right here.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment! Also, does anyone have any good book suggestions (besides the book The Mitten) that can go along with this project?
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Need ideas for winter bulletin boards?!?! Here are several I’ve done over the years that might get some ideas cookin’ for you! I don’t do holidays because that is limiting for students and the length you allow something to stay up! A winter board can be up till the end of February.
(I’m currently working on this year’s with my students!).
This is a great time to do a school wide collaborative project! Every year I have my students create a different component for a large collaborative mural. If I have any left over parts…I usually hang up smaller displays in other parts of the school. The students are always so excited to try to find the part they created! The project range from watercolor, collage, marker, colored pencil, crayon…and everything in between!! You can make this work based on the supplies and space you have available to you at your school!
I’m finding this interview in the artist’s studio inspiring in several ways. I love their description of what is on the wall and why.
“One wall of Bastos’ studio is lined with a huge piece of mass-produced wallpaper, featuring large-scale roses in an almost dreamy but restrained colour palette of soft pinks and greys, and overlaid with a smaller painting that pops with lurid green and blue scrawl. This is the process wall, where works are made and composited and amalgamated. It’s the wall of experimentation, Bastos tells us. The wall opposite is the space for pseudo-finished work, where many works go into a space for contemplation, and from there sometimes they go back to the other wall. It’s currently dotted with belts that hang and curl sculpturally. On this wall, Bastos comes to perceptively understand and link the evolving visual gestures in their work. They liken the process of placing the materials on the wall to tarot card reading, a process of divination that works by confirming what intuition and the right side of the brain already know. “I’m obsessed with salon hangs. I love it, because with a practice like mine, form really navigates. You find the commonality in the gesture, in the materials, but it’s not necessarily like everything is gonna look very similar. And when you do a salon hang… it’s easier to pinpoint the thread.””
— Berlin Art Link, Dec 12 2023, Studio Visit with Cibelle Cavalli Bastos
It’s no secret that Dollar Tree is one of my favorite places!! Recently I found these Christmas gnomes that I thought were super cute. However, I saw the potential in using them at school with a little transformation. The image is printed on(except the gloves and boots are extra wood pieces added on top of the image. The snow flake and present were on the beard of the gnomes, and I knew I could easily paint over that area, and change things up a bit. I have them flanking a board in the hall where I hang students work they make me outside of class. They have become the art gnome guardians.
I wanted to share a few awesome art supplies for kids that I either recently discovered or just really love. I’m always on the lookout to spice things up in the art room. I know some budgets are tight, but you can always buy one set for a whole table and then the kids can share them. I used to think I needed many sets of everything, but honestly sharing, manners and taking turns are very good skills to practice. Similarly, you can have some of the special art supplies in a central location and kids can choose to try them out during the class period. In the next few sections, I will share the art supply and why I love it. And I will also give you an example of a project you can try with this media.
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I recently discovered these from a suggestion in a Facebook art teacher group. These beeswax crayons are like regular crayons, but are nice and smooth and give a solid coverage. They have vibrant colors.
One project you could do with these crayons is an abstract artwork and tie it in with the artist Kandinsky. He was a Russian artist who has many beautiful abstract works with brilliant colors, shapes and lines. Here is the artwork titled Composition IV.
And here is an example of an artwork using the Beeswax Crayons that your students could try to make. Using lines, shapes and colors inspired by the works of Kandinsky, create an abstract work with your own creative ideas.
I saw these on Instagram and couldn’t believe how bright the colors were- super bright, in fact. I had to try them out myself and they did not disappoint!
The name of this supply is Super Bright Flourescent Paint Daubers. They are just like any other paint dotters you may have tried, but they are definitely brighter.
Here was what I made playing around with these paint daubers. No filter on this picture!
I have several other blog posts about using paint daubers in art projects and you could easily substitute the regular paint daubers with the flourescent colors.
Speaking of flourescent colors, if you haven’t had neon paint to try out, it’s so fun! I try to incorporate neon paint in a few art projects a year. I like Sax Versa Temp for most of my tempera paint needs. Handy art is another brand I’ve tried. And I know some people like the flourescent tempera cakes.
One art project I like to do is have the students create their own alebrije. Alebrijes are colorful, fantastical creatures from Mexican folk art. They often mix different animals—real and imaginary—into one fantastical design. The idea came from artist Pedro Linares in the 1930’s after he had a fever dream filled with these wild creatures shouting “alebrijes!” He turned them into art using papier-mâché, and later, Oaxacan artists began carving them from wood.
Today, alebrijes are a big part of Mexican culture and are often linked to Día de los Muertos. They also became popular when they were featured in the Pixar movie Coco!
I saw an awesome exhibit of huge alebrijes when they were at an outdoor exhibit in the Chicago area. The size, creativity and patterns were amazing!
Speaking of Posca paint pens, kids just seem to love them. My older child really enjoys using them for drawings and kids will ask to use these special sets. I don’t recommend using them with younger kids as they tend to shake them too much and splatter paint out of them and they are expensive, so save these for your older students.
I’m a big fan of the Mungyo chalk pastels. I don’t know how I discovered them. I think I may have got them from an art resale swap or something, but I love the variety of colors and they are fairly inexpensive.
We use these Crayola Metallic markers a lot! Anything metallic is fun to add to your art supply stash.
I like to use these on the backgrounds of other artworks, especially on black paper. The silver and gold in this picture were definitely the Crayola metallic markers. Some of the other colors may have been the chalk markers or paint pens that I mentioned before. The project below was inspired by the artwork of Yayoi Kusama and her dotted pumpkin series.
These are some of my favorite fun art supplies to use with kids! Do you have any awesome art supplies I should try out? Share in the comments!
One way I respond to her statements about what holds back women is to feel how they apply to my own art practice/life, then turn them around, and affirm the reversal:
i stand up in front of the world, unique and sovereign.
I have found reversed statements like this both bracing and encouraging. They have given me courage on days when being an artist feels so hard, such a waste of effort and precious time.
i throw prudence to the wind and
try to emerge beyond the given world
I can even try:
i have this madness in talent called genius
and if that sounds too much, I can still ‘try on’ the statement or ‘hold it against me to see how it might fit’.
This OWN-TURN-OWN practice of working with de Beauvoir’s words has been very formative for me. It has given me energy to continue on bad days, and to place my work in a larger perspective. It moves beyond a reprimand into spine-strengthening encouragement.
Next time: Themes and metaphors in Chapter 14, all the words
