paint cut paste

you may remember that we made some lovely little pinch pots out of air dry red clay a couple weeks ago. well, i just wanted to give a little update on how we decided to embellish them.

i’m a huge fan of acrylic inks. i have a few colors from dick blick, so i decided to get them out and introduce them to N. she has seen me use them with a very fine brush, but she’s never used the inks and the script liner brush herself – until now.

she said she wanted to make “teeny little marks” on her pot, and set out to paint it in great detail.

we had such a great and quiet little art making session… it’s almost like the intricacy of the marks we made brought out a really mellow mood in us both.

as an art therapist, i often choose materials for clients that are a metaphor for what they are experiencing or that are like a holistic artistic prescription for what emotions they’re needing to work through. i often present materials to my daughter based on her energy level and feeling state, or to provide balance for what she might be needing in that moment. this art activity reminded me how materials can elicit a response – when N works in a small scale, she tends to get quiet, and when working with large, broad strokes, her energy tends to match.

what have you noticed about how materials affect your little artist(s)?

i wanted to share this quick and meaningful activity that my daughter and husband did the other morning. it was N’s idea to “be the art teacher” and she asked my husband to copy her picture step by step, mark by mark. and he did. (click image below to enlarge.)

N's on left, dad's on right

obviously, N went on the color the sky, etc. once daddy was finished being the art student.

i just love this impromptu exercise as an example of making art alongside your child and in your child’s “handwriting” as a way of validation. this sort of mirroring is a key component of a healthy relationship, and is one healing aspect of the art therapy work i do with clients. it communicates the ideas “i see you” and “what you say/make/do are important.” i love how my husband is so attuned to my daughter that this arose naturally between them.

try it out with your child and let me know how it goes.

one of my dearest, oldest longest(!), and most talented friends, kelley schoger, is gracious enough to share her wisdom and skills with us today in the realm of puppetry arts with children. grab your cuppa joe and enjoy this inspirational interview with kelley!

kelley with kids performing a puppet show

jen: can you tell us a bit about your background and about the work you’ve done with children and puppetry?

Kelley: I am an actor and teacher. Just after I received my BA in Theatre Arts, I moved to New York City where I lived and worked for nine years. One day, I bumped into an old friend and she told me I needed to contact her puppet-building friend, thus my foray into the world of puppetry. I became a lead puppeteer for four years in the Off Off Broadway production of the jazz children’s puppet show The Adventures of Maya the Bee. As I continued to perform with puppets and witnessed puppet builders conceiving, building, and performing their own shows, I gained such a reverence for this most ancient and creative art form. I then moved to the British Virgin Islands where I was a teaching artist in K-12 schools facilitating hand puppet workshops to children in grades 1-5. Most recently, I designed and taught an Introduction to Puppetry Arts course for BFA theatre students at Virginia Commonwealth University, where I am now a graduate student working on my MFA in theatre pedagogy.

jen: how do you think puppetry helps children to express themselves?

Kelley: Puppetry is a wonderful art form for children because it is interdisciplinary. The skills gained from making and using puppets are many. This is because to engage in puppetry is to engage in the visual AND the performing arts. Puppetry provides an arts experience that affirms the creative potential of each student, augments technical knowledge and ability, inspires imagination, and stimulates the expression of personal vision. Puppetry helps to improve fine motor skills and encourages imaginative role-play and listening. Creating a voice for the puppet aids in speech development and the enrichment of language. There is something about performing through an object that feels safe. Even the shyest child can express him or herself through this character “mask” Puppets were actually the first masks and date back to prehistoric times. Even though the mask/character is physically separate from the child, the puppet is a reflection of its maker, which instills a sense of confidence and accomplishment. Self-expression is found not only in performing with the puppet, but also in each paint color chosen and button glued on to create one’s  completely unique and special character.

jen: can you share your favorite types of puppets that would be appropriate to create with children ages 3-7?

Kelley: I have worked with hand, rod, hand and rod, Japanese Bunraku (manipulated by three puppeteers), marionette and shadow puppets. I have also worked with non-traditional and found object puppets. I find that building and performing with hand puppets is the easiest and most effective for children ages 3-7. With a hand puppet the child uses the arm, wrist, hand and fingers to manipulate the puppet from the inside, like a glove. This gives them the most control. Rod and even hand and rod (like the Muppets) are harder to control due to the rods that are held with the opposite hand outside the body.

Two dimensional shadow puppets are also easy and fun to experiment with. You cut out a shape in profile and fasten movable parts together. Hold them up to a sheet and shine a light from the back and you have a shadow puppet.  The shadow puppets in these photos are simply made with folders from Target and fastened with brads and scotch tape.

jen: how would you suggest making a puppet with a young child?

Kelley: The answer to this is limitless, as anything can be a puppet! I’ll outline two types of puppets that are really great to make with kids: sock puppets & hand puppets.

Sock puppets : great for younger children because they’re soft & easy to make

Materials:

• one long sock
• one thick rubber band
• art supplies to create the character (wiggly eyes, puff balls, sequins, buttons, paint or fabric markers etc.)
• glue (preferably a fabric glue)

When putting the sock over the hand – hold the hand with the fingers on top and the thumb on the bottom. The thumb will serve as the jaw. Put the rubber band over the sock between the thumb and top fingers and then stretch over the top around the knuckles. This will create definition for the “mouth”.

The key to manipulating this kind of puppet is use of the wrist. Working with your puppets in front of a mirror is the best way to work on performing with puppets. If you don’t have a puppet stage for performances, use a table as your stage. You can turn it over on its side or you can leave it upright and drape a sheet or blanket over it to hide the puppeteer.

Hand puppets : perfect for grades 1-5

Materials:

• 1 Styrofoam ball (3 inch) – for head
• 1 Styrofoam block (3×3 or larger) – used as a base for puppet drying
• popsicle sticks for puppet drying (stick in styro base) and for sculpting
• Celluclay paper mache (natural and safe for kids) to cover Styrofoam ball and to sculpt features like ears, mouth, eyeballs, eyebrows etc.)
• Tempra paint in colors of your choice
• Paint brushes (at least two—one fine tip for detail and one larger for overall coverage)
• Fabric (for body pattern—your choice of color/pattern; must be somewhat thick to maintain shape)
• Felt (for hands and anything else you want—colors of your choice)
• Yarn (for hair or anything else you want—color of your choice)
• Ribbon, buttons and any other decorative items for puppet “costume”
• Fabric glue
• Scissors

sculpting hand puppets

In creating this kind of hand puppet and then performing a show with them, children learn about sculpture, painting, design, writing and acting. In terms of building, attach all parts with fabric glue so there is no sewing involved. A paper pattern should be used for body and hands. For younger children, you will need to help with pre-sculpting the styrofoam balls (eye sockets, nose and hole in bottom of head where fingers will go-the best way to make this hole is with a broom end!) and cutting the fabric. Also, when gluing fabric, glue edges inside out and when dry, turn right side out and it will look like the fabric was sewn.

jen: what can parents do to encourage puppet play at home?

Kelley: The best way to introduce your child to the idea of puppetry is to encourage puppet play with puppets you can purchase or by animating stuffed animals. Also, in any city there are usually puppet performances at children’s museums or other venues. The best way to expose children to puppet performance is by attending a live performance. One of the rules of puppet performance is the puppet must interact, or at least address, its audience. Thus puppet theatre is very interactive and engaging for children. In my experience performing children’s puppet shows, we always let the audience come backstage to “meet the puppets”. It is amazing to see the child approach the puppet, tentative and awestruck, as if it were real despite the fact that I was standing right beside it, in full view, making it walk and talk. Magic is intrinsic to puppetry. I love that.

waiting to come to life

jen: is there anything else you’d like to add?

Kelley: For small children, puppet performance is very much about creating a character and playing that role. This involves creating, naming and even performing the voice of the character. Encourage your child to come up with a specific puppet voice for their puppet. For older children, encourage them to find different ways to manipulate the puppet. This involves close observation of movement. If your child has created a lion puppet, encourage them to observe lion behavior and characteristics on the internet and then have them try to recreate it, including movement and sound. Most importantly, “breathing the puppet”, or giving the puppet breath, is the golden rule of puppet manipulation!  The puppeteer exaggerates their breathing so the puppet will move up and down with that breath, giving the illusion of breathing. Lastly, puppet theatre is highly collaborative. When performing a puppet show, the puppeteer/puppet must really take time to listen to other puppet in the scene and then react. Performing puppet theatre is a way to really encourage your children to pause and listen.

Anyone can learn to build and perform with puppets. While I have a lot of experience performing in puppet theatre, I am not an advanced builder. I am definitely more of a performer than a visual artist, but I have managed to improve upon these skills over the years. If I can learn to sculpt, anyone can!

kids enjoying a puppet show

thank you to my amazing friend, kelley, for sharing all of this awesome puppet info with us! now i really want to make some shadow puppets with N!

after a white-chocolate-chip-and-raspberry-gluten-free-pancake breakfast a couple sundays ago, N was lured outside by the sight of her easel. still in her pjs, she requested paint (tempera) and a jacket (summer mornings are chilly in the bay area.) she got down to the business of being the artist she is.

the day before, i had the pleasure of a mom’s day out in san francisco, where three friends and i visited the SFMOMA gertrude stein exhibit and treated ourselves to lunch at cafe gratitude and crazy flavored ice creams at humphry slocombe. mmm… i digress (as ice cream makes me do.) while at the museum, i picked up a matisse post card to bring back to N since she couldn’t be with me that day. (i’ll be bringing her back to the exhibit this summer, for sure! she’d love all the matisse, picasso, cézanne, etc.)

postcard i got for N: henri matisse, femme au chapeau, 1905; oil on canvas. image from wikipedia

N said she was “so inspired by the postcard of the lady” so she wanted to paint portraits “with weird colors, like matisse did.” she asked me to be her first model. i had to sit still on a chair in our backyard while she painted me, with “weird colors.”

notice the matisse in the lower right corner

next, my pj-clad husband was asked to sit for his portrait. and he (and his coffee) happily obliged.

i love how focused she was when painting these pieces…

next, the artist asked to be the model – and she wanted me to paint her portrait. whenever i make art alongside my daughter, i do so in her “artistic handwriting,” so to speak, as a way of communicating that i am witnessing and supporting her. this also gently thwarts a child’s natural tendency to compare. (to read more on these ideas, visit a blog i wrote on how to talk to your children about art.)

after these, N made quick portraits of both of our cats, who were watching from inside the screen door. we hung these to dry on our clothesline art-drying line in the play shed, while N admired her work.

this master-in-the-making was quite proud of this exhibit!

the idea of the process arts is one that i can get behind wholeheartedly. simply, it means “the practice of various modalities of self-expression for the purpose of process rather than product.” a lot of us moms, teachers, or caregivers who make art with kids (and many artists) tout this process over product concept. as an art therapist, it has been a big part of my work with clients, as well as the way i approach my own art and making art with my daughter. so i thought we’d delve into a little process painting together…

according to process arts expert, stuart cubley, “process is the actual doing, the experience in the moment. it is the journey into the unknown without assumption. it is being open to a larger dimension than the limited agendas of the mind. It is being there fully – in presence…

…the essence of the process arts work is freedom. it is about climbing out from under the demanding attitudes that enslave us, where we believe we can only be happy in an imagined future with an imagined outcome.”

in this spirit, and over the course of several days, N and i applied color (acrylic paint) to canvas together. we listened to music – one of our favorites for painting is ann licater’s flute music (which N asks for quite often when making art.) we chatted happily. we painted quietly and listened to the brush strokes, which were often rhythmic with all of these little dots and things happening on the canvas. we painted outside and listened to the birds, the wind, the people passing by on the sidewalk. we watched the painting unfold.

we approached the canvas with the agreement that our marks would likely eventually come into relationship, touching and overlapping, and that over the course of a few days, things would get covered over with layers of paint. we agreed not to “try to make something” rather just to enjoy the experience of the paint. i was intentional in the way i painted freely, so that i could model for N how it might be to watch the images shift and move. i was hoping (hypothesizing) that it might not only be freeing for her to make art in this way, but that it’s quite organic for a child…

um, not necessarily so at age four, at least for my kiddo. she became quite attached to certain images, so watching them change or overlap later became emotional. (many of the images she became attached to were ones i had made on the canvas, and when i tweaked them over painted over them, she got upset.)

this was such a rich opportunity to discuss process, and while staying within the metaphor of the art in our conversation, a deeper meaning of the discomfort of uncertainty, the idea of change, and of things being temporary was able to be worked through together and held or contained in a safe way in the art. gosh, i love art therapy.

next time, we’ll each get our own canvases — then i’ll see what develops. my guess is that it’ll be a whole different ballgame, but i wonder what might happen. on his web site, stuart cubley writes: “the process arts are uniquely effective in facilitating the inner imperative because they are:

• non goal oriented: they do not depend on a stereotype or formula.
• non-rational: they rely on greater reality than logic
• unpredictable: they face us immediately with the unknown
• transformative: they remove us from habitual patterns of behavior
• insight producing: they stimulate a more comprehensive perception
• freeing: they expose the restricting ways of the inner critic”

documenting changes during the process with her own camera

go forth and trust the process.

let me know what unfolds…

as spring has just sprung, i’ve had nests on my mind. we’ve often done spring crafts involving nests and birds, but one of my favorite nesting projects is one that was done while N was still in utero, in the fall of 2006. a handful of my dearest friends created this nest with me and my husband at our blessingway ceremony. the nest still graces my daughter’s bedroom today.

as i’ve blogged about just a bit, a mother’s blessing ceremony or blessingway ceremony can be done in addition to or in lieu of a baby shower. the intention behind a blessing ceremony is to honor the mom-to-be (and/or the dad-to-be!) as they cross the threshold into parenthood.

three of my girlfriends from our art therapy graduate program and one of our closest guy friends held a two-day long ceremony such for us, during which we did several art and pampering rituals they planned — seven different rituals, to be exact. one of which was the blessing nest. we began by each meditating on the baby who was about to come into the world (N!) and the blessings we have for her life.

then we selected from a collection of beautiful ribbons and thin strips of lovely papers, and wrote our blessings on them with glittery pens.

we read the blessings aloud to each other, and to the little one listening from my belly.

my beautiful friend sharing one of her blessings

my friends had purchased a lovely twig nest, which she brought for us to weave our blessings through. (of course, you could create your own nest from local sticks, twigs, and twine.)

we had a wonderful time threading the ribbons and papers between the twigs, using a glue gun to secure their positions, while talking about this little person who was about to come into the world.

we added some green moss into the bed of the nest, to later hold the precious stones, rocks, and hand-painted (by N) eggs it now carries.

this beautiful nest is one of the most special keepsakes from my pregnancy, and it is infused with so much love for N from dear, sweet friends and from her mommy and daddy.

i recently chanced upon this inspirational photo of these lovely sticks by an artist named ginette lapalme.

ginette's sticks

we had some sticks and driftwood hanging around our backyard, just waiting to become art materials… and i’d been thinking on it for a few days. i’m also reading a book on the shamanic tradition of holding council, which involves a talking piece – usually a stick. i’ve been dreaming about finding and embellishing a talking stick for my family and also for my work with clients. then blamo! – this picture finds me. the internet is so cool like that – providing serendipitous encounters and answers. anyway, the fire was lit under me, so i showed N the photo to share the fire, and we gathered up our things: sticks, acrylics, brushes, palette, water jar, rag.

perhaps sticks we had won’t necessarily become future talking sticks, but i set out without that intention – just wanting to enjoy art for art’s sake and the fun of painting whimsical stripes and such on a natural canvas. while i worked on a big stick, N had so much fun with the smaller ones.

she talked all the while about how she’d never done this before, and how she loves all of the new art ideas i come up with for us to do — how sweet to hear! (incidentally, she told me i am the best artist in alaska… which was flattering and all, but we’ve never even been there. ) it was a playful art-making session.

N's "ocean sparkle" stick

when working with natural materials, i like to (and this may get too woo-woo for some of you, but bear with me) have a dialog with the stick, rock, shell, etc. about what it would like to become. i feel like nature’s form really can dictate the lines, shapes, and colors, if we mindfully engage with it, observe, listen, and trust our instincts about the artistic choice we are making. i did this as i worked on painting my sticks, and i introduced this concept to N as we painted. children are such absolute naturals when it comes to creating such a dialog, storyline, conversation – they are not self-conscious and are so genuinely connected to nature, so it comes easily. as adults, we have often lost that ability, and work to reclaim it.

the collection (sticks and stones)

besides having tons of fun together, the visual results were magical.

my "heart chakra" driftwood

the most magical aftermath of all…

our artist hands