March is Youth Art Month

March 19, 2012 at 11:14 am | Posted in Considering Ideas | Leave a comment
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Sponsored by the Council for Art Education, Youth Art Month is observed annually throughout the month of March. The goal is to spotlight and support quality art education for all children.

I’ll quote off their page which reflects my thoughts on the subject.

“…art education is often wrongly considered a “fringe” program.  In reality, it provides students skills they will need as adults.  Art education develops self-esteem and self expression, as well as appreciation for the work of others.  It also develops critical thinking skills that will be important as children continue their education and as they enter the working world.  Our fast-changing environment will require that future leaders – today’s children – be creative and imaginative in problem-solving.  These skills are learned best by students involved in art.”

Art builds brains and hearts. Encourage art making in your home, your schools, and community.

 

Local students created these fun entries of recycled art that are on display in the Community Room, at the Kern River Valley Branch of the Kern County Library, 7054 Lake Isabella Blvd., Lake Isabella, from March 17, 2012 through March 31, 2012. The exhibit will close at 4 p.m. on March 31, 2012. The exhibit is part of the Living Green in the Kern River Valley Festival.

Composition In Red: Art from Trash

February 28, 2012 at 8:07 pm | Posted in Art Studio, Considering Ideas | Leave a comment
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©2012, Joan Desmond, Composition in Red. Collage.

This art piece uses only two things: Styrofoam from a take-out container, and cut magazine paper. While the previously posted fish mobile is much about organic shapes, this one is about geometric ones, and numbers. Since these four works will be displayed at a school I kept in mind the various curriculum subjects. Art can be created in any class to enhance learning.

Fish-Go-‘Round: Art from Trash

February 27, 2012 at 8:51 pm | Posted in Art Studio, Considering Ideas | Leave a comment
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©2012, Joan Desmond, Fish-Go-‘Round. assemblage.

Fish are patterns, stripes, dots, chroma, shimmer, and flashing movement-darting singly, or en masse. Fish fascinate me and are recurring subject matter, so the idea of “fish mobile” came readily when thinking of something kinetic.

©2012, Joan Desmond, Fish-Go-‘Round-detail.

Although this piece doesn’t go ‘round & ‘round, the fish shapes bob and sway easily with a puff of breath or nearby vibration. Created from wood scraps, wood dowel, a kitchen appliance part, colored bubble wrap, button, cardboard, clothing catalogs, non toxic markers, and fishing line.

Birds anyone? Organic shapes like Alexander Calder used? Leaves perhaps, geometrics…what else may dangle free in a mobile?

Fuzzy Creature: art from trash

February 27, 2012 at 10:12 am | Posted in Art Studio, Considering Ideas | Leave a comment
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You can cut and/or tear cardboard boxes, foam cubes, plastic cups, etc., for use in flat art pieces. But think of the uses for sculpture! Three-dimensional trash holds endless possibilities for fascinating creatures, robots and humanoids, animals, architectural ideas…endless, once the brainstorming starts.

This little thing hasn’t been named, but I’m getting somewhat fond of it. Hope the kids are careful as its head already fell off once while working on it. Which brings up how to attach things. I admit to using a glue gun because it is fast and sure. The glue sticks are made from polymers (plastic), not so good for recycling, although my research shows vapors and skin contact are relatively harmless. Then there’s the burnt finger aspect, not desirable for kids. I also used Yes Paste, suitable for thick paperboard materials; it is non-toxic, acid free, and can be thinned with water as a final glaze. Non-toxic glue sticks are less expensive and easier for kids to manipulate, and are for light paper/collage applications. However, the bond does tend to break down over time. For many of the more sculptural pieces, PVA glue, such as Elmer’s will work well, since it’s art to be looked at, not handled. Tapes may also be used.

I was told this fuzzy creature looks like something from Star Wars. Its makeup is: yogurt container; plastic fruit cup; cap from a prescription vial; old drawer knob of plastic; plastic spice jar lid; plastic from a cable tie; sewing remnants of two buttons, a piece of cord, and half a metal fastener; toothbrush part; an old wig; leather purse handle parts; and left-over Halloween hair paint. What could you do with the plush covering from an old stuffed toy?

While playing around with Little Fuzzy I considered how it might live, it’s environment and habits. It’s easy to imagine a story there and how such a project could be used in the English curriculum.

Shiny, Shiny Night: art from trash

February 26, 2012 at 10:15 am | Posted in Art Studio, Considering Ideas | Leave a comment
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Shiny, Shiny Night, mixed media by Joan Desmond 2012

For the past week I’ve been imagining again what to do with discards, trash, and used-up items, how they may serve as art material. The prompt was a display to be set up at Woodrow Wallace School to drum up interest for the Youth Recycled Art Show in March, part of the Living Green Festival.

It’s an easy reach to use magazines and paper goods in collage, but what to do with yogurt containers, the numerous caps and lids, the plastics, so many plastics, the Styrofoam (polystyrene foam actually, made from petroleum, why is that still next to our food?), on and on. All I had to do was be particularly conscious of the man-made materials that passed through my hands each day. Much of it gets re-cycled, re-used, and re-purposed but it’s also an endless, free resource for upcycling into art (gottta love new words). The projects needed to be doable for kids.

Here’s the first one. Built on the paperboard/cardboard backing from an empty 9”x12” drawing pad, it uses: colored bubble wrap; foil insulated bubble wrap; foil wrap from a gift plant; foam scraps; take-out container Styrofoam; those trusty magazine cuttings, and glue. It was entirely too much fun to create.

Cardboard, cds, old mags, bubble wrap, fruit stickers, wood scraps, cereal boxes…

March 13, 2010 at 1:42 pm | Posted in Art Studio, Considering Ideas | 1 Comment
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Collage “Bird Mask” by J. Desmond- recycled mags & other papers

What discarded items are lurking around your house waiting to be transformed into art? By brainstorming, considering possibilities, anything can become a medium for creative expression.

There’s a freedom in it. Recycling and repurposing bypasses the need for purchasing specialized materials: canvas, paint, special paper, and such. Plus it alleviates the oft seen, beginner’s intimidation when confronted with an array of expensive art stuff.

You just plunge in—imagine, conceive, pile up, cut, tear, organize, design, glue, hammer, and lose yourself in the process. Sometimes it’s just about the process, about voicing your expression, and sometimes you will come up with a thing worth keeping.

Starting Wednesday evening, March 17through March 19, 2010, there’s an art exhibit featuring such recycled art at the Odd Fellows Hall,50 Tobias St, Kernville, California.It will highlight a display by local students answering the theme ofHow Do You Green at Home, Work, or School?

This is part of the 2010 Living Green Kern River Valley Festivalto be held March 17 thru 21, 2010 in California.

Arvin Green Arts Festival

May 16, 2009 at 9:47 am | Posted in Art Exhibitions, Art Studio | Leave a comment
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desmond-recycling

Recycling…considering the process

An 18″ x 20″ collage created from recycled paperboard which is part of the Arvin Green Arts Festival Juried Show in Arvin, California,  May 16-17, 2009.

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