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.

Day of the Dead inspired bird assemblages

I have discovered that kids love creating any type of assemblage art.

In the Birds of a Feather camp, I thought the kids would think it was fun to create a bird skeleton assemblage box inspired by creations I had shared with them of shadow boxes created for the Day of the Dead holiday in Mexico.

They were quite fascinated by them and quickly honed in on the bane of every art teacher and the highlight of every student......glitter.

So with some oven baked clay, each child created a skeleton sculpture. When it was harden, they used permanent black marker to create their skeleton. I had put out reference, but most children decided to just work from their imaginations.

To be truthful, we had lots of birds start out from their imaginations with this project.

Then they painted the inside of their boxes and the outside rim.

For those that wanted, and the majority did, I had glitter for them to add to the inside of the box.

Let me just say that for some reason it seemed each child had come to camp that day after being served at least two bowls of sugary breakfast cereal and for some insane reason I felt adding glitter to the mix was a good idea. I'll just leave the aftermath to your imagination....

By the time they had finished painting their boxes and adding glitter the camp day came to an end.

Which was perfect as it gave the boxes time to dry and me the day to clean up the glitter extravaganza left behind on the tables, the floors, and every other crevice in the studio. The floor is still sparkling like a disco ball two weeks later in just the right light if I'm truthful.

But what's important is the kids had fun and if you can't use glitter at an art studio, where can you use it?

When the kids arrived the next day, there were rhinestones, feathers and whatever else I could find on the tables for them to finish up the boxes.

They were all so pleased with their finished creations. Aren't they fun?

I especially love this little girl who highlighted her family's cat that ran away. When explaining the holiday to the kids, I had told them this wasn't a sad or scary day but a day where their loved ones were celebrated and that by remembering them, the relatives continued to live on. She took this to heart and wanted to create her shadow box to remember their cat so it would continue to live on in their lives, even if it was not physically present.

Pretty sweet.

Once again the kids proved that creating assemblage boxes is a popular project. They truly enjoyed themselves and were so excited with each and every decision they made during the process.

They could not wait to share them with their parents and I think of all the projects they took home that Friday, this is the one the kids will be most excited to give a place of honor in their homes.