Homeschooler Savvy

Cheap art materials - Can constructions, Texas - (it's always bigger in Texas).

There is an annual international compteiton held for art constructed out of cans.  It is called Canstruction, and it has the noble aim of raising the public's awareness that hunger is here and everyone needs to help.  The finals are held in Austin, Texas (it's always bigger in Texas).

Want to see what can be done?  Here are the 2007 National Winners.  And here are some publicly available photos of many sorts of can art.

Here are some other construction projects from cans.

Just think: I can!

Aussie Kim

Cheap art materials - Styrofoam coffee cups - Styrogami

According to Ripleys believe it or not, P.J. Roths, of Maurice, Louisiana, carves elaborate scenes of helicopters, ships and animals out of styrofoam coffee cups.  Well, he IS from Louisianna........ Yes, another post about a material that you had NEVER even concieved of as an art material - come on now, it's the truth isn't it!

Here is a link to a piece of art by J. Jules Vitali called "Styrogami"  The last post indicated he was producing a 6 foot chandalier for the "Watts Up?" exhibit in Richmond, Virginia.  Actually, quite beautiful isn't it!

This led me to the Styrofoam company website, which has a craft section....of course. 

In 2001 some far sighted art collector paid $29,900 for Tom Friedman's "Styrofoam cup with dead ladybug".  I bet that's at least doubled in price by now...

I don't know if you should let your little ones play with knives and a styrofoam cup, but it's an awful lot of fun to give a kid a bunch of toothpicks and let them spear them into the foam cup, who knows, if you get the right bidder...................

Remember: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  Styrofoam cups, which are actually made from moulded, expanded polystyrene, are non degradable (that is more than 500 years to breakdown).  Perhaps it might be better to use a paper cup for your art creation nextime.

Happy Creating!

Aussie Kim

Cheap art materials - insect parts

If your are interested in entomology (the study of insects) and even if you are not, this post is to let you know about a great set of videos on insects as well as to let you know about another gloriously cheap art material - fallen insects.

Insectia is the name of the video.  It is narrated by this Crocodille Hunter style entomologist called Georges Brossard.  He has a wonderful French accent (of Canadian origin) which makes his insect adventures seem even more like an expedition into the unknown.  The documentary is 4 DVDs long and covers 13 different topics.  One of the topics was about Living Art, that is art about, and with insects. They showed insects that were encased in resin and hung on chains, they showed beetles coated in layers of varnish (estapol) and connected to chains to be worn as jewellery.  Head dresses from South America which consisted of insect parts, and massive statues of beetles cast in bronze.

After watching this we decided to pick up the dead June bugs (called Christmas beetles in the Southern Hemisphere because they come in December NOT June) and use their elytra (hard exoskeleton ontop of the wings) as described in the movie. Some jewellery was shown on the video using complete bugs. Another great resource is butterfly wings (once you get to looking it is amazing how many dead insects you can find around).  The irridescence on the wings of June bugs/Christmas beetles lasts for ages!

This sculpture on the left is a Long-horned Beetle, created from copper and vitreous enamel, it is 7 inches by 5 inches and will set you back $500.  (But wouldn't it look great on the coffee table!).  It was created by Diane Buettner and Sharron Kree, and there website is beetlesculpture.com.

If you are able to learn how to pin bugs, then of course you can look at them and create sculptures from what you see, (I suggest sculpey clay) OR you can paint them.  Here are some exquisite paintings of bugs by Project inSect.  If you don't think there's good money in becoming an insect portrait artist, go checkout this website for Line Art Illustrations of insects.  Want to read a blog written by a bug photographer?  Bugdreams.com will fill the bill.

Happy Dreaming of Summer!

Aussie Kim

Cheap art materials - driftwood

Just when you thought your creative powers had to be limited to traditional art materials... now you can turn that long summer walk (read: "wish I was in the Southern Hemisphere right now") along your favorite creek, the Mighty Mississippi or on the beach into a creative art opportunity.  Use the driftwood to make art!  Heather Jansch is able to see more than just driftwood as she walks along the beach in England.  How about these sculptures from cheap material! She has a website Heather Jansch where there are many more photos of her work.  Also if you go here you can see how she makes her sculptures.  She is now starting to cast some of her driftwood figures in bronze (expanding the market!), go here to see how this was done.

Other options for driftwood are to paint onto it, carve it into a sculpture, make it into furniture, leave it around for kids to feel, or to use it in flower arrangements. 

I have a friend who placed a small piece of driftwood in a large fruit bowl, along with sand, some shells and smooth stones from the beach.  This makes for a VERY inviting tactile sensation, and a lovely coffee table centerpiece.  Of course she always has to vacuum after kids have played with it.

John Dalsen has taken the driftwood he collects and made flat compositions of it (assemblages) for hanging on the wall - which actually look lovely because of the beauty of the wood itself.

How about some awesome looking driftwood furniture from Florida?  You are going to need to sand and then varnish the driftwood first to get it looking this good.

For a view of some downright stunning creations from driftwood go visit driftwood artist Al Rollings website.   Below is the title picture on his site - and yes, this heron is painted on driftwood.

There also seems to be a complete industry centered around taking photos of driftwood.  If you get the piece of driftwood infront of a beautiful watery landscape the effects can be quite dramatic. I have a few pieces which are "artistically" placed around the bird feeders - as perches.

And just because they are so amazing, here is another couple of Heather Jansch's inspirational driftwood sculptures...

So...what are you waiting for (summer?) - go collect and create!

Aussie Kim

Cheap art materials - portraits using sugar, chocolate syrup, PB&J, etc etc

Have you ever seen a child dribble honey onto a piece of toast and NOT try to make a picture or pattern?  Perhaps after several years of "...honey, PL-ease don't play with your food..."  Well it is lucky that Vik Muniz's parents didn't cure him of it.

This photo is courtesy of Denver Arts website.            Yes, more gloriously cheap art material, which in this case nets this artist large chunks of money (how about $110,000 for your portrait - chocolate syrup on canvas).  Wouldn't want to wipe up that spill by mistake, would you!

So how can we turn this into a homeschool activity for kids?  Once again, the children may laugh at our folly of wanting to preserve whatever art we create with edible items.  However, I imagine if you "painted" with syrup onto a canvas you could fix the artwork with a varnish spray once it had dried.  I suggest laying the artwork flat - could get really ugly otherwise.  Those of you who live in houses with ants may have to go to Plan B...

Vik Muniz is a Sao Paulo born artist who now lives in New York, apparently he has created 2 art replicas of the Mona Lisa (WHAT IS IT WITH THIS PAINTING?) one with peanut butter and the other (waaaaiiitt for it..........) with Jelly.  One of his most famous series are the "Sugar Children" series - paintings of some Brazilian sugar plantation workers' children - done with sugar from the plantation.

His website is quite good, and you can check it out here.  Click over to the Gallery Link, and move the cursor down the the 1996 Sugar Children pictures - they are quite beautiful.  If you click on the detail link it will show you how he does the pictures.  For a grand overview of his work, click here on this google search result.

A fairly new book includes his work with thread and pictures, click here to see Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion, which has background information on him and examples of his work in optical illusions.

Valentine, The Fastest. From "The Sugar Children Series." 1996.
Gelatin-silver print. 20 x 16". Courtesy Wooster Gardens, New York.

Who ever would have thought it would look so incredibly good!  Now, go forth and create!

Aussie Kim

Cheap Art Materials - vegetables for mosaics

I have been overwhelmed by the response to the jelly beans post by those of you who could not imagine spraying varnish to fix the jelly beans permanently into a teasing mosaic masterpiece on the wall, toxic for consumption, but looking good enough to make our mouths water. OK, so it was my daughter and her daughter that noted (with mild teenage-like amusement ) than no homeschooled child in their right mind would make a mosaic out of jelly bellies and NOT eat it, I mean, HEL-LO....

So here is a plan B for mosaics....vegetables!  Well, of course you say, now there will be no cries for mercy from the children as I spray varnish on the brocolli and cauliflower to fix them into a masterpiece....

Here's the concept: 

1. Go cut up little squares of the following and keep separate in zip lock bags or on a plate ...carrots (orange), brocolli (green), green beans (a better mosaic shaped green), green peas (green!), cauliflower (white), corn (the perfect mosaic shaped yellow), capsicum (OK, bell peppers - red, yellow, green).  I'm sure there are many more mosaic perfect vegetables, but you get the idea!

2. Option A: Create, glue onto a board, or heavy card, then varnish heavily.  Possibly some time in the oven before varnishing would help dry out these materials, making the finished product last longer.

3. Option B: Create, take photo, then drop into boiling water and serve with dinner.

REMEMBER: NO WHINING ALLOWED - this is not going to be a regular activity, it is a very special bonding opportunity, and if dried, varnished and then hung on the wall, will produce no end of conversation starters for your dinner parties...

Now, if your children think vegetables are boring, go check this site out for some ideas on how to jazz them up!

Aussie Kim

Cheap Art Materials - Jelly Beans for mosaics

Following on from other delightfully cheap items to use for art, comes one material which might get costly if the child (or art guide mother) eats the material before gluing together for their creation...jelly beans.

Jelly beans are a good way to introduce your child to the concept of a mosaic without having to pay for all those little colored chips of tiles, beads or glass.  If you wanted to keep the jelly bean mosaic for a long time you would probably be advised to spray or paint it with a clear varnish when finished.

View the Ripleys believe it or not reference which was for the Commercial artist Peter Rocha of San Franscisco, California, who created a four foot by six foot masaic of the Statue of Liberty using fourteen thousand jelly beans!  (Imagine the cavities by the end of that project!) Other items by this artist (and many other artists) are housed in the Jelly Belly art gallery, which you can view online!

Go look (eat first) and get inspired!  My favourite (of course) was the one of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

Aussie Kim

Dryer lint as an art material

Just when you thought it couldn't get cheaper than using toast for art, another gem as reported by my Ripley's engrossed son: art from dryer lint. 

Yes, I kid you not!  I had been hoarding my dryer lint to use in starting campfires, but now, I think we will have to let loose and use it for art work.  My son informed me there wasn't enough different colors in the lint we had collected over the last 6 months, but I know that blue water and grey sky take all the lint you can get from the jeans that go through our dryer.

The National Lint Project (I kid you not!) shows you a range of SCULPTURES from lint.  This photo is from that website, and a review written by the Pittsburg Post-Gazette in 2002.

Doesn't seem so basic anymore does it!!!!

So what else can we do with dryer lint? 

1. Give it to the birds for nesting materials. 

2. Use it as a firelighter (put it into a toilet roll or egg carton with wax and save for your campfire). 

3. Dryer lint clay (3cups dryer lint: 2 cups water: 1 cup flour - mix in a saucepan over heat, stir until mixed, pour onto wax paper to cool, use it like clay.) 

4. Put it in the bottom of plant pots for retaining moisture. 

Due to lints flamability, it's probably a good idea not to use it for stuffing soft toys or quilts. Firemen recommend you clean your lint trap out EVERY load, and do not leave the dryer on if you leave home, because many home fires are started because of the lint.

For an amazing selection of dryer lint art go here.  I'm thinking it would be difficult to get any cheaper art material than this....

Aussie Kim

Cheap art materials - The Mona Lisa from Toast!

No longer can you complain you do not have the money for art materials....My son recieved a Ripley's Believe It or Not book for Christmas, and ever since then we have been quoted interesting "facts" which he feels like will add to our appreciation of life.  I will spare you from the majority of these gems of information.  One entry he thought I would be particularly interested in, (correctly), was a copy of the Mona Lisa made entirely of burnt toast.  This is something you need to see to believe.  It is very well done.  Following a websearch I discovered toast art is alive and well. 

You can checkout the original toast art by Tadahiko Ogawa of Kyoto here (arrow down to see the large picture).  At this website you can also view other renditions of the Mona Lisa (very creative!).  Why stop at toast - click here to see a pasta and spaghetti rendition of the Mona Lisa.  Infact - just keep clicking on the Next Mona Image and then go back as well, by clicking on the Previous Mona Image.  I had a great laugh at this one (arrow down), I will never look at that painting without laughing now...

Not enough toast art for you?  Try this lady's website - she is a current artist who specializes in toast art.  Also this website that has toast as wall art. 

Now go tell your kids you want to do some toast art, and see them wonder if you've lost it.....

Aussie Kim

Eloquence on Nature

For those of you with older children, and those of you without, I recommend you go to the National Geographic website and read the cover story about Permafrost called Cold Scapes.  If that doesn't make you go outside and kiss the earth I don't know what will.

I think it is wonderfully written and very thought provoking prose.  Why not ask your older kids if they think it is interesting writing, and if so, how did the author make it interesting?  In my opinion, it makes for fascinating reading because the author is obviously writing about something he loves. 

For those of you with younger children, pick out a few key paragraphs to read to them. Be sure to dwell longer on the pictures.  (Sometimes it's a good idea to read the essay first - it makes it easier to answer the questions younger kids always ask). 

"The world is beautiful, in many unfathomable ways. In our hurrying, though, we frequently miss what is beautiful around us, in the same way that we forget from time to time what we want our lives to mean. Just to stay afloat in the modern world, many of us reluctantly choose detachment from the constant stimulus. We even turn away from beauty, as if it were another thing we had had too much of.

Gazing at these images, I think of our habits of detachment. More than any other region of the planet, the Arctic has responded in starkly visible ways to global climate change. It is here, if you will, that a canary is singing faintly in a mine shaft. To make pictures of these places—this is my presumption—I imagine the photographer had to have been thinking about us in some way, about how we are going to fare. The images are not merely beautiful, an exoticness to admire, but an invitation to reattach ourselves to the Earth, specifically to a place that has now grown oddly poignant."

Essay by Barry Lopez	Photographs by Bernhard Edmaier
Once you have read the article, go check out the photographs here. Of course, please try to avoid looking at the IRONICALLY placed advertisements for vehicles, yes I know they are hybrids, but why not advertise a push bike instead? Aussie Kim (LA Sue will now translate for the non-Australians - she means bicycle - I had to ask)