Katherine Soucie inspired textile sculptures

This summer I had the pleasure of running summer art camps for Seymour Art Gallery. All the art projects were inspired by the exhibition on display called Regeneratus containing the textile artworks of Katherine Soucie and Michelle Sirois-Silver.

(photo Katherine Soucie)

The sculpture project was inspired by artist Katherine Soucie and the young artist worked on it throughout the week.

(photo Katherine Soucie)

Both artist were looking at how to use waste materials in an innovative way. The works all incorporated discarded materials from the manufacturing process of Soucie's clothing line and her marvelous wrapped sewing machines, Raisons D'etres, were created using waste hosiery the artist hand dyed.

photo Katherine Soucie

The children and I spent some time looking at the wrapped machines and the kids had some very interesting ideas and observations regarding why the artist created the sculptures and what happened once the discarded machines were covered in the materials and became a sculptural shape.

Using the same philosophy the artist used to create the exhibition, the campers set out on a challenge to create a sculpture out of materials defined as garbage. Starting with plastic shopping bags, each young artist created a shape for their sculptural animal. 

They were then lucky enough to be able to wrap their plastic bag creation using hosiery waste Soucie had provided the campers. Each camper started wrapping with the waste hosiery in it's original state (white).

Once they had covered the plastic bag shapes and had spent some time refining their shapes with the white hosiery, the artists began to add some of the hand dyed waste hosiery the Soucie had so generously supplied.

There was no doubt that all the children felt it was very special to be able to use the same material both artists used in the exhibition to create their artwork and were so very excited that Soucie had shared her hand dyed hosiery waste with them. It was lovely to see how this small kind act really validated the importance of each child's creative exploration.

Usually I have tested projects prior to sharing with students but in this case due to the limited amount of supply, I had to rely on my concept based on a similar project I had done in the past. I did feel that it would of been far too complicated for children to create facial features for their animals out of the fabric wrapping and so I introduced paper-mache clay.

This dried very light so I knew it would not make the sculptures top heavy. I also figured it would be easy to get a needle and thread through so that they could be sewn onto the sculpture bases like mask.

Once the clay was dry, children used watercolors and black permanent markers to add detail.

It was so interesting to see the variety of ways each child used to resolve the prompt given at the beginning of the week. For me it was rewarding to see children get lost in a task that was very time consuming, challenging at times even as the navigate through a world now based on instant gratification.

Each and every child was so proud of their final creations when finished and the project was appropriate for all ages- from 6 to high school. The finished works looked amazing when on display during the art show the gallery puts on during the last day of camp for the families.

I was quite proud of each and every child's final artwork inspired by the beautiful work of the artist in this exhibition.

children's art camp exhibit

The last day of camp at Seymour Art Gallery was a bit of a whirlwind.

There were two projects I just didn't get a chance to record.

First, the "haiku animal"project. Along with the scratch board animals, children also had the opportunity to try sumi-e ink animals. We went over Haiku poems and how to count out syllables by clapping our hands together. The younger kids who were not aware of Haiku poems or syllables really enjoyed this part and caught on quite quickly. I then told them to try to create an animal line drawing with a brush and ink using either 5 or 7 strokes. Those that completed this quickly then had the chance to create a Haiku poem to go with the painting and then add it to the piece using a fountain pen.

They turned out quite cute. I especially loved the poem, "cluck cluck cluck cluck".......

The second project I am missing is the mixed media works of art.

I knew they would want the opportunity to do an acrylic painting and although that was not necessarily something they saw in Ben's exhibit, found a way to create a project that was still inspired by his work.

Some of the pieces from his days as a graphic designer showed his love of collaging paper so using newspaper, music sheets, and magazines, the kids created animals by cutting shapes out of the pages.

 They then adhered them to an acrylic painted background and added more paint as needed to complete the piece.

Yes it was messy, but a broom made quick work of the scraps of paper. The kids came up with some really great solutions using the magazines and newsprint to get the colors they wanted for their animals. And it was a great exercise in breaking animals down to shape, much like Ben Lim had done throughout the exhibition with his animal pieces.

I was so disappointed to realize I had forgotten to take pictures of the finished pieces. All I have is a picture of them on display during the Friday art show, which brings me to my favorite part of the camp at Seymour Art Gallery- the energy they put into creating a special exhibition of all the work created during the week for family and friends.

Seymour Art Gallery made the children feel so special by displaying all their work on the walls, just like they had observed all week walking through Ben's exhibit. Each piece had their name next to it and it was an amazing validation for them to see adults putting great importance on the time, energy, and imagination they had put into each project during the week. They were so proud and extremely excited to show off their art to the visitors.

Each child enjoyed pointing out their pieces to loved ones, along with telling them the techniques they had learned to create them.

There was punch, fruit, and the most amazing handmade cookies for everyone to enjoy while they toured the exhibit.

It is such a special part of the week to see the kids excited to watch a large group of people admire their artwork. 

But one of the most touching moments was letting the kids know that Ben Lim's family wanted them to have a token of Ben's clay work to always remember the week they spent learning and creating work inspired by his exhibit.

Each child had the chance to pick a piece of clay that Ben had created that spoke to them. There was a reverence each child displayed while carefully choosing a piece of Ben's art to keep forever. I know it was extremely special and moving to them because suddenly children wanted to share this feeling with me by gifting me pieces of their artwork to remember them by too.

I was so humbled that as many of the children said goodbye, they also handed me one of their clay tablet prints to keep. They will always be special keepsakes to me and displayed in my private studio for others to enjoy too.

What an amazing end to a week focused on such an amazing man. In the end, the children took home not only many beautiful artworks inspired by Ben Lim but also his kind and generous spirit thanks to his family.

What a beautiful tribute to a long and lovely life.

scratch board animals

Another project the kids did during the art camp at Seymour Art Gallery, focused on the Ben Lim exhibit, was scratch board.

Working off of one of Ben Lim's beautiful sketches from his sketchbook the gallery had used for promotional materials, it seemed like a really good match to have the kids focus on creating an animal using line.

The idea for the project is actually a combination from two different exhibits at the gallery.

In the spring, the gallery has an art exhibit strictly for children. It's my favorite yearly show and the artist who participate sell their work only to children sixteen and under. One of the artist this year whose work really stood out to me was a Vancouver artist named Andrea Hooge. I had filed away in my head the idea of creating an art history project influenced by her scratchboard work because I knew it would resonate with the kids.

But while looking at the promotional material for Ben Lim's exhibit with the gallery curator, I was struck that the project idea I had been thinking about inspired by Andrea Hooge married quite well with Ben's sketches. We both agreed it would be a nice match.

The stars aligned when I saw that our local art store, Opus Art Supplies, was having a workshop put on by none other than Andrea Hooge where she was presenting her method for creating the scratchboards. It seemed to me the stars (or Ben) was trying to tell me something and that I should indeed make sure I included this project in the camp.

Andrea was most gracious with sharing with me her techniques and spent time answering questions on ways I could create a clay board knock off that would allow the kids to experience the method without breaking the piggy bank.

So using small wooden boards I bought at the craft store, I covered each with three layers of white gesso- sanding between each layer. Then I covered the gessoed board with india ink.

That's it.

A bit of time and elbow grease on my part, but I now had a clay board knock off that would allow the children to experience a new technique and medium.

Each child created a sketch on copy paper. Other than the shape of the animal and key points (eyes, mouth, nose, wings, legs, or paws) there was not a lot of detail. That would happen when they began to scratch into the boards.

They transferred their sketches onto the boards by rubbing a bit of white charcoal on the backside of the drawing and then laying it over the board and retracing their sketch.

Once they had a carbon copy on the board, I gave each of them a scratch pen for drawing. (If you can't access scratch pens, a thumbtack would work just as well.)

I suggested they not outline their tracing but just start adding fur, feathers, or scales to the piece. I have no doubt I sounded like a broken record as I kept repeating to pay attention to the different direction of lines on their reference material...the same way I do at home when I continue to repeat over and over and over for my kids to put their laundry away! Only difference is these artist listened.

They all caught on quickly and really enjoyed scraping into the board.

The works were quite arresting when finished. I was especially thrilled to see that the initial scrapes they made were a grey and that the kids needed to go over a scrapes more than once to get a true white- which created some nice tones on the piece I had not seen kids be able to achieve just using scratch paper.

Could I have better photographs? yes. 

However this was the project I had saved for Friday morning while the children's art show was being set up. There was just not a lot of time to get great photos before these were on display in the show and then carried home. But the project had been so successful, I figure the blogging world will forgive me for the opportunity to learn about a project the kids found exciting.

It was great to see such a wide age range of children enjoy this medium. And I am eternally grateful and forever humbled by the graciousness of artists who not only share their talents with me, in this case Andrea, but also create art that inspires me, (Ben), which helps me hopefully create projects that ultimately inspire kids. 

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an entire art community to inspire and raise a lover of the arts. A fact proven in spades with this lovely little project.

Thank you Andrea Hooge and Ben Lim.

clay and paper collage assemblage

When the curator and I were first walking through the Ben Lim exhibit a couple of weeks prior to the Seymour Art Gallery summer art camp, one of the artworks I gravitated to quickly were Lim's clay and paper pieces.

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.