Joseph Cornell inspired boxes

What can I say, the kids LOVED this project.

They were excited about working on this project all week, from the minute they saw the empty boxes that I happened to find on clearance at the local craft store!

I have been studying Joseph Cornell and his works for quite some time. I knew the minute I saw them that the kids would love the idea of creating something inspired by his work. And since I'm a natural collector, or hoarder as my family would say, I have a bounty of "treasures" for kids to comb through to create their own shadow box.

The kids began by going through my hoard or using things they brought in from home. After gathering their initial collection of things they were fascinated by, I asked them to edit and begin to create a story from the items. Then using papers and whatever else they needed to enhance or complete the story their collection of things was trying to tell the viewer., they brought their boxes to life.

And finally if they wanted too, they could decorate the outside of the box.

9 year old

The kids so enjoyed gathering and placing items in their boxes. This kept them busy for over two hours as they placed things inside, took them out, tried other things and then started all over again. How awesome is this "Explorer" box created by a nine year old boy? I love how he used the music sheet that says, "Affection" to convey his love of exploring the outside. The grass photo was a scrap leftover from one of his friends' gatherings from home and the other is an old hiking map of a mountain trail in British Columbia. 

Here's a close up of the section I was particularly impressed with by him. I love the way he added the tacks and string and the old frame he used to create Earth is simply brilliant. He was so proud of this box when finished and excited to show everyone what he created.

10 year old

I provided cardboard strips I had cut for the kids to use as shelves in their boxes. These came from used up art paper pads. I have a pile of them that I save as each pad is emptied and have found they serves a multitude of purposes in the studio from using them as painting tools, work surfaces when building with clay to help keep the tables clean, and in this case becoming shelves to divide up boxes for display.

Or a barn stall for the above box. How great is the picture frame used to contain the pig sty?

11 year old

Several kids had no interest in decorating the outside of the box and just left it blank so you were completely surprised by what you would find inside. This eleven year old boy created a really thoughtful display of items that when put together make perfect sense.

8 year old

The kids had the opportunity to go through all the bits and pieces of things I had collected at the end of class the day before we started the project, so this child was able to print off some grass and water photos at home to bring in for his box. I love the "land and sea" composition he created from found objects.

7 year old

8 year old

I'm not going to lie, I might have the ages mixed up on the above two pieces. These were my sole girls in the class and came to camp together, so no surprise they worked together sharing a collection of objects they both were drawn too. This camp was running the week leading up to Easter and you can definitely see they were not only excited about the holiday but also had spring on their mind when creating their boxes! 

How wonderful is the bunny framed?! And the ladybugs crawling along the wall and then in the picture frame on the lower shelf? The buttons you see glued down on the middle shelf were very thought out and placed quite deliberately by the artist.

7 year old

The sparse nature of this box belies the amount of work that went into it. It was amazing to watch the constant self-editing that went on while he worked out what items he wanted in his box. I have a feeling this box probably leads to many different stories from those who view it. I am so impressed with this child's ability to not throw everything and the kitchen sink into his work and even continue that feeling of "alone" by leaving the picture frame empty.

10 year old

And who wants to spend some time at the museum? I do! Doesn't this one look interesting! Can't say I blame the visitor for stopping to spend time in this beautiful exhibit. Love the paper this ten year old boy chose for the floor and I'm quite impressed with how successfully he conveyed a visit to the art gallery.

The kids were fascinated by Joseph Cornell's work and equally excited about creating their own boxes inspired by his work. They had a great time working on these and it was thrilling for me to watch them so enjoy the process of building their wonderful boxes. After watching a room full of excited kids pull together random things to tell a story, I can see why Joseph Cornell was so driven to create his interesting and beautiful works of art.

air dry clay lions

The second week of Spring Break, I ran two camps out of the studio. In the morning, Studying Under the Masters and in the afternoon, Creatures Big and Small.

The Creatures Big and Small camp was on the whole a very young class, which was so much fun to work with on projects! The first project I introduced to the kids was a clay sculpture. As a group they decided to create lions since we were focusing on African animals that day.

9 year old

I allowed them to create these lions as big as they wanted, but had them start by creating the basic shape out of aluminum foil so it would dry by the end of the week. I went over all the basics with them, how to add a piece of clay by scoring and slipping, how to add texture, how they could use their fingers as tools to create indents where needed, and a few other things.

4 year old

They all truly enjoyed working with the clay. The little ones were thrilled that they were covering the "top secret" core of the sculpture (the foil) with clay so that no one but us would know about it. And if there hands got "too dirty" for them to handle, I had a bucket so they could rinse them off and then keep going.

10 year old

They spent a long time creating these works, even the very young children. Who doesn't like clay?

7 year old

Some of the artists decided to create lions while others created a lioness. I had reference out for both..

5 year old

Once they were finished, they wrote their names on the bottom with a toothpick and put them aside to dry. That was the hardest part of the project, waiting for them to dry. Each day they would come into the studio and make a beeline straight to the clay to check their progress. They loved admiring their works of art and each day asked the same question, "Can we paint them today?"

But by Wednesday an additional panicked remark began to be heard, "Mine's cracking!" Yes. The downside to air dry clay, cracking. It seems no matter what I do to slow down the drying process, there are the dreaded cracks. Thankfully after working with this stuff for many years, I have found some ways to hide the cracks.

When they are completely dry, I add a glue adhesive over the cracks made for clay. Once that is dry, I add a gesso made for clay that I got at the art supply store. It is one of the greatest discoveries I have ever made! You just spray it on and it dries almost instantly. I do two coats and one small can seems to last forever, so worth the small investment to have in the studio while I save up money for a kiln. Once these two things are done, there is virtually no evidence of the cracks.

6 year old

Finally the day to paint arrived on the last day of camp. The kids could not of been happier to see their sculptures on the tables when they arrived for camp with paintbrushes lying next to them. Some of the artist took their time, mixed the perfect shade of brown to add to their works while others just got lost in the process of adding color and watching what happened. No matter how they decided to paint, they each enjoyed working on their sculpture.

5 year old

One of the five year olds is in the weekly Kindergarten class I run on Tuesday afternoons during the school year. I asked him what he liked best about the camp and without hesitation he replied, "the clay".

I'm going to guess some of the others would agree.