Art Meets Music for our last day in Belfast!

We decided to go out with a bang... live music, paint, easels... families were welcome to join in the fun.

This explosion of creativity was a great finale to our afterschool program!

Last Day of All You Can Art, at Walker Elem.

hi  my  name  is  cossondra. And  its  the  last  day  of  Art  Class.  We get  to  paint.We  are  all  very  sad  because  we  all  

 want  more  art  classes. But  at  least  we  got  to  do  all  kinds  of  cool  stuff.

hi my name is mason  and  I  love art its like the best thing ever but its the last day  of art and   everybody  is sad.

hi my name is lily. I have written on the blog before. Today we did painting even though it is the last day we were all very happy. Everyone please say THANK YOU BRIGET!!!!!!!!!!!

Making Paper

The artists really had their hands full up until the last minute this week, with no time to blog - so I'll fill you in!
This week we made beautiful, unique sheets of paper by recycling old scraps of paper, breaking them down in a blender with lots of water, pouring the pulp into a plastic bin, and using a mold and deckle to lift a rectangular blob of pulp out of the water. Then we used screens, sponges, "couch sheets," and an iron to get all of the water out. Artists got creative not only with combinations of paper for multicolored/textured papers, but also with "negative space" - some kids were inspired by the "holes" they kept encountering in their sheets, and actually made designs with the pulp - including a handprint and a smiley face!
My favorite part of this week was seeing the artists really feel confident experimenting and problem solving - papermaking can be tricky, and in the end I basically stepped away from the process and said "use what you have their to get the water out of the paper without ruining the paper. If it does get messed up, just start over!" And they DID! They shared their solutions with each other and with me. I also saw many artists dump their pulp back into the bin to start over, without groans or aggravation, while others brought their fragile, holey, or fragmented papers to me, with cheerful smiles, excited to "try again".
To me, that's exactly what success looks like. A room of kids feeling empowered, capable, flexible, proud, comfortable acting as unique individuals (with ideas different from their friends'), and happy.

Next week is our last week of the afterschool program. We're ready to celebrate!

can you see the dog face?

Today with Clay

We played with clay and made lots of stuff like snowmans, animals, mice and pots. And we had so much fun. We can't wait for next week. By Tori and Sierra.

This group was fascinated by Japanese Mud Balls, or Dorodango. 

I told them about the mud/clay rolling fad kids in parts of Japan are into and we looked it up online. Check it out! Amazing!

http://relache.hubpages.com/hub/hikaru-dorodango

My clay cup

Today we worked with clay. I made a clay cup like they made pottery from long ago. Others made other things like dragons dogs pinch pots etc.  I had fun.
your blogger,  Elias  

Suminagashi

Hi my name is Finn and today at art class we did Suminagashi. In the end we made a huge one for Waterfall arts. My favorite thing today was making a huge Sumingashi all together.

An hour-long Zen moment!

Suminagashi! Japanese Paper Marbling

Hi my name is Kyle. Me and my buddy Elias used Suminagashi (Japanese paper marbling). We had lots of fun. Oh, and by the way we used sumi ink. 

We dipped the one tip top hair into a tray of water then we put another brush into it to make circles. 

We even used a hair and breath to move it around.

Then we put a piece of paper onto the water...

lifted it up... done!

 We had fun,

Kyle and Elias

Sculpture at Walker Elementary

Hi my name is Lily, and today i made a  mobile. Hanging from it is  a envilope with a springy thing ,a curly que, and what would you call the last thing?

                              

                                                                                                  thank you for reading, Lily 

                        P.S. the middle one is the one i want i want you to look at.

paper project

My name is Tori.  We did paper project. I did animals. I used scissors, and glue and paper. Then I put it on a wheel for it to be a mobile. My favorite part about today was to make art.

The only suggestion was to create something that wasn't flat.
The artists experimented and came up with these great techniques! Curling!? 

Stacking!

Interlocking - no glue!

This one became a hanging mobile!

Weaving! Great idea!

 

Lots of artists in this group chose to make amazing mobiles out of their abstract sculptures.

today we did...

Hi my name is Elias I am 9. Today we did sculptures and mobiles. 

I had a lot of fun! I made a balancing sculpture.

Elias' sculpture features folded, curved pieces, elegantly supporting
a top piece without any glue or connecting pieces.

A New Artventure Begins!

Just two months after relocating to Maine from Boston, I found myself neck deep in the amazing arts community thriving in the small town of Belfast, Maine... with a job! Many thanks to Martha Piscuskas,  Alan Crichton, Megan Cullen, and the participating schools for making this program happen, with only a month to plan! The two classes we planned to do filled up within days of putting out the word, so we added another day! Maybe you saw the flyer around town?