I love them so much I had recently purchased one to give my daughter for her 19th birthday.
A panda, her favorite animal since she was in preschool.
(obviously not the panda artwork) Ben Lim
During the tour with the children, they discussed his subtle use of paper color to suggest the background along with other nuances they observed in the work- including using the clay to cut shapes out and layer to create the animals.....almost like paper.
These artworks are truly magnificent and were one of the first projects I conceptualized for the camp. The process seemed like such a natural draw for children.
Each child started off with a rectangular piece of wood that I picked up for under a dollar at the local craft store.
8 year old
Using matte medium, (Modge Podge or a glue/water mixture would work well too), the kids cut and began to layer tissue paper onto the wood surface to create a background. The only thing I really needed to stress during this part of the project was keeping the tissue paper contained within the board, easy to do since wrinkles were a great addition to the texture of the artworks and tissue is so light it is very easy for kids to manipulate with the glue.
9 year old
They quickly realized layering the same color added value and really seemed to understand and were inspired by the processes Ben had used in the pieces they observed during the tour.
8 year old
They really loved and got lost in cutting the papers, adhering them to the wood, watching how each layer added to the nuance of their background, and throughly enjoyed "painting with paper".
9 year old
It was a pure joy to see them enjoying this project as much as they did! I gave each child a small amount of oven baked clay in white. They rolled out the clay and began to cut shapes out to create their animals. They took time to add textures and seemed to really catch on and enjoy the abstract nature of Ben Lim's animals in the artwork they had spent time enjoying during the tour.
6 year old
Once it was baked and hardened, they kids lightly painted the clay with acrylic paint and we used some strong glue to place them on the wood boards with their tissue pictures.
7 year old
The kids were quite excited to see the artworks finally come together and were quite pleased with the final outcome.
8 year old
The curator, myself, the artist working with me and the gallery assistant were all quite excited about them too after camp finished when we looked at them as a group.
8 year old
This was a great project for a wide range of ages, very engaging and a great way to build their artistic confidence. There was not one child in this group of 12 who did not fall in love with this process.
12 year old
Each and every one of the kids were fully engaged in each step of this project and it is one I have already decided to do again this fall with a lunchbox program I am running at a local school. I felt it was that successful from beginning to end.
12 year old
But the part the kids were most excited about? Putting on those chops! They could not wait until everything was complete and it was time to stamp their artworks with their signatures.
The perfect end to a perfect project.
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