paint cut paste

this rainbow carnation experiment is one i remember from my own childhood. not only is it a visually appealing activity, it’s also a great way for kids to learn the science behind water is absorbed by plants and how it travels through the different part of a flower.

the inspiration for this post was an old spice rack i had sitting in the garage. what wonderful little vials these are for this experiment! we grabbed some food coloring and white carnations (we had some in the bouquet we bought for our butterfly habitat – all of this happened a few weeks ago, i’m just late bringing it to the blogging world.)

N had fun dropping food coloring into the water, and creating her favorite color, since it was not in the cheapo food coloring pack we had – purple!

she placed a white carnation into each tiny vase, and we put them out of the way of our flower-chomping cat…

and waited. i asked N, “what do you think will happen next?” she said that maybe the flowers would grow, and that they might drink the colored water. let’s see if her hypothesis is correct…

even within a day and a half, we saw the petals taking on the colors of the water they were drinking.

ten days later, the colors were distributed throughout the different parts of the flower. we noticed that the purple color was not as saturated in the carnation as the other colors, and the darker colored waters in general seemed to be more full in the end.

there are some explanations of this experiment online that we checked out, like this one from ehow. i didn’t find any scientific reason the darker waters would not be absorbed as much. in fact, most of the write-ups i saw recommend using darker colors for more dramatic results. all in all, we had a rainbowy flowery good time with this one!

have you tried making rainbow carnations? if so, what did you notice?

“Did you hear that winter’s over?
The basil and the carnations cannot control their laughter.”

-Rumi

hooray for spring!

as we all witness within ourselves each day, emotions are fluid, flexible, and multi-layered. if you stay with any one feeling long enough, you will surely see it shift and move and change. that’s how we are built. when we look at our children, we often see emotions shifting (and totally mood-swinging) seemingly by the second.

and with good reason! if we could peek inside of the brain of a growing child and see the chemical chaos happening inside as cells are exponentially reproducing and learning is happening, we would have more appreciation (and compassion) for the fact that our child is even capable of putting one foot in front of the other to walk. i mean, it really is a wonder humans can manage all of this! there are ways of helping children to visualize something as seemingly ambiguous as their emotions — you guessed it: ART!

my husband and i are buddh-ish, and practice mindfulness meditation ourselves, so we take my daughter to a monthly meditation group for children, which she absolutely LOVES! the most recent session involved helping children to identify the quality of emotions through the metaphor of a wave. the speaker read a book to the children called my life with the wave, and talked a bit with the kids about how waves can be tiny ripples or steady crashes or huge tsunamis, and the parallel to how we sometimes feel inside.

the children were invited over to some art tables to create images of what their own personal “feeling wave” would look like in that moment, on that day.

after each child completed the art, s/he was to place it along a longer sheet of paper on the floor to add to the “ocean” of feelings in the room… made up of everyone’s individual wave.

we walked through the ocean gallery in the end to witness each person’s artful and isomorphic wave.

the parents and children gathered together on the cushions for the kids to talk about what they noticed. it was a lovely morning of being present to our feelings and expressing them through art… and, of course, the art therapist in me got all excited about that!

our kids organically live in the present moment – they are experts at it, and great teachers to us in helping us to do the same. (sometimes the shock of reeeally slowing down to BE HERE NOW is the hardest adjustment for brand new parents.) while kids’ lives exist only in the present (not in ruminating about the past or in planning for the future or multitasking,) giving children a language for their innate mindfulness provides a wonderful tool with which to understand themselves and express themselves. here are some books we’ve enjoyed with N ever since she was a wee thing:

• peaceful piggy meditation
• tibetan tales for little buddhas
• the sun in my belly
• starbright: meditations for children (moonbeam is a good one in this series, too)
• there are a couple thich nhat hahn books i’d like to get, too, like planting seeds: practicing mindfulness with children and mindful movements: exercises for well-being

do your children practice mindfulness? what sorts of tools have you found helpful with this?

for N’s fifth birthday, we gave her a small aquarium, and she was able to pick out two goldfish and a snail as new pets. well, sadly her sweet snail, marigold, didn’t last more than a month. (something about nitrates in the water, for which we have since gotten new water purification drops.) with this gift, we realized that the difficult lessons of mortality would soon be upon us, and here they are, sooner than we expected.

r.i.p. marigold

in its inherent transcendent nature, art is able to make the invisible visible, to make the unseen seen. according to carl jung, the processes involved in art making are most similar to spiritual processes than any activity – both provide comfort, order, and beauty. when the art image is the embodiment of a feeling, such as the grief of a loss (yes, even that of a pet snail,) the art object can becomes empowered as a talisman of sorts, providing containment and solidity for an otherwise nebulous emotion. the art we all made as offerings in the snail’s funeral helped to elevate the ceremony to that of a ritual, modeling for N healthy ways of saying goodbye and processing feelings that can be difficult.

artful altar for marigold

once we broke the news to N that marigold had passed on, we decided we would hold a ceremony the following day in our backyard to celebrate his life and return his body to the earth. i explained to N that we might each want to have an offering for marigold on an altar space at the ceremony. she said she wanted to make a backdrop for the altar, a small sign, and a golden candle.

N creating the altar "backdrop." details on this technique coming soon on the blog. stay tuned!

N rolled a golden candle from beeswax for the altar, and made a little image of herself and marigold.

my husband offered flowers, and he cut heart shapes out of petals for the altar. i chose to offer a yellow snail candle holder that i quickly crafted with sculpey when N was asleep the evening prior to the funeral. (i don’t like to bake sculpey near her because of the fumes, so i did it at night with the windows and backdoor open while she was asleep in her room with her door closed.)

dried berries & branches for antennae

we gathered together around the altar in the backyard last weekend. my husband and i both said kind words and memories about marigold. N said she was “too shy” to say anything, but stood quietly and chin-quivery in front of the altar.

we buried marigold’s body in our flowerbed, where so many snails swarm in the spring. marigold’s spirit will be in good company in the coming months. N added a rock for his gravestone, and she decorated the grave site with her daddy’s heart petal offerings.

here lies marigold. as far as snails go, he was fast and sweet.

after a mindful, heartful goodbye to her snail, N was ready to move on to the reception food (popsicles) and making fairy houses in the backyard.

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!