Booking Cubism: Making a Picasso-Inspired Flag Book

Booking Cubism: Making a Picasso-Inspired Flag Book

Inspired by the innovative artist  Pablo Picasso  and the  Cubist   style he pioneered with Georges Braque,  CREST Enrichment students from kindergarten through 5th grade made Flag Books, and added special features (literally, features!) to reflect the fractured faces and images which dominated Picasso’s oeuvre during his Cubist period.

I took photographs of the students faces, sized them, and printed each out on a page of blank white mailing labels. Students were then able to peel off different parts of their image, and put them onto the flags in their books. This young artist adds color to the black and white photographic images she has arranged in her book.

Above, the photographic portrait printed on the labels may be providing guidance to this young artist as she works on her Frida Kahlo-inspired self portrait.   Here the young artist can see her own rendition of her portrait, as well as the photograph of her face printed on labels. Her flag book is seen to her left.

This proud young artist shares his finished flag book, front,

back,

and center.

Parents and other family member joined us for our “Last Class” event of the session, and helped adhere the “portrait” labels to the flag book kinetic pages, which move from side to side when the book is pulled opened and pushed shut.  The flags make a satisfying flapping sound, too!

This devoted young artist displays a stunning sense of color, as well as design!

Here, father and son work on the first grade student’s flag book, together.  What could be better?!

Keeping the Faith: Inspired by the Storied Quilts of Faith Ringgold

Keeping the Faith: Inspired by the Storied Quilts of Faith Ringgold

I recently led elementary school-aged students through a project inspired by the storied artist Faith Ringgold, progenitor of the art of the “Story Quilt“

Students used pieces of “eco-fi” (made of recycled plastic bottles) felt, upon which they built their “story”, using pieces of cloth/fabric/textiles, ribbon, more felt, “pom poms“, feathers, fabric tape and so forth. All materials soft fabric or adornment materials.

Some young artists glued two to three pieces of felt together, some used a single sheet.

Students learned about gluing different sorts of materials together. How does one glue down feathers to a surface, while retaining their “feather-like” quality?

Students worked in close proximity at the cafeteria tables where our class is held, interacting and sharing about their pieces as they went along.

The color and texture of the materials seemed to affect the makers. The young girl above in the flowered dress put her piece to her cheek a number of times, enjoying its softness.

This young artist displayed incredible patience, cutting and gluing multitudes of repeating shapes onto the felt, bordering them with fabric tape, and even backing the piece with black felt.

All of the makers displayed relish and joy in the materials, and unbounded creativity. Whether working abstractly or figuratively, the students shared their stories with shapes, color, texture and imagery!

What a JOY!

Inspired by Faith and her Storied Quilts

Inspired by Faith and her Storied Quilts

Teaching a class for the C.R.E.S.T. Enrichment program of Santa Monica entitled, “Making Art Inspired By Great Artists” allows for many exciting possibilities.

The artist Faith Ringgold is a natural for children, as she has written and illustrated for them herself. She created a unique “hybrid” art form she calls the “Story Quilt”, which combines quilting and painting, with a focus on cloth.

Students aged 5-9 worked with pre-cut pieces of Eco-fi “felt (made from recycled plastic bottles), and developed their scenes or stories by adding cloth, “pom poms“, ribbon, leather, textiles, feathers and fabric tape.

Many of the students chose to glue pieces of the felt together, to create larger works.

Although some look abstract, each holds a story that expresses aspects of the maker’s experience. The piece above holds an ice cream cone, and later pizza was added!

When I asked the talented young artist why she put a dollar sign on the piece above, she shrugged and said simply, “I don’t know.” Somewhere in there, is a story!

This young artist kept putting her piece up to her cheek, enjoying its tactile softness.  She said it depicted a “state”.  Did she mean flag?

It was fascinating to see how several students used pieces of the same textile or cloth.

The piece above is actually backed in black felt, and the six-year-old artist framed it with a border , hallmarks of Ringgold’s “Story Quilts”. This first grader’s old’s patience in piecing together all of the felt rectangles, (which she also cut out), is stunning, as is the finished piece!

As all of the “Story Quilts” are.  Inspired, and inspiring!