Friday, March 30, 2012

Sixty Colors

 

I'm sure you could make tens of thousands of colors by mixing just the three primary colors of red, blue and yellow. The StudioTime artists each made sixty this week. Beside mixing and painting, half the fun was naming the colors. Throughout the week I heard Barbeque Sauce, Baby Whale Grey, and Chewed Bubble Gum.


 We started with pure red and slowly added small amounts of white to create four or so steps from red to shell pink. Some started adding in yellow next like AiLi above. Her final piece is below left.


 It was Nelson (below) who created Popcorn With a Lot of Butter and Barbeque Sauce and Mustard.


I love how the finished pieces showed each unique artists brush style! 


To get the variety of colors you see, we also used white and black (which are not considered colors). The amount of black and white in a color is called value. We also found subtle ranges of colors by adding the opposite color to the one we were using. 



It took concentration and control to show a range of colors, keep the brush clean, and not waste too much paint. 
Liam (below) and Kevin (above) both found sixty colors and I think their final pieces showed focus and new understanding of color. 



Thalia (above) had no trouble making jumps from color to color! She found amazing shades of sherberts and candy.

Friday, March 23, 2012

The Huichol or Wixaritari people are a Native American ethnic group of Mexico that produce beautiful yarn and bead art. The work they produce reflects their spiritual and physical worlds. The deer, snake, flower, bird and portals are all powerful symbols for them. Each artist in this studio processed the Huichol works and created originals that speak to their world and the beauty of the Huichol's.
 
Faith reflected the Huicho snake, portal and the deer symbolism. See the snakes raining from the sky, bringing water and protection to the corn fields?

 Annie's giant portal between the physical and spiritual worlds! Bravo Baby!

Haddie's comedy and tragedy masks reflect her passion for the theater!

 I think Cat's yellow dog just leaps with energy right off the board!

 I love that Sophia chose the Huichol turtle symbol and then added the world on it's back.

 Thalia shows two snakes raining from the sky, with flowers and a portal. The movement of the yarn excites my eyes!


Sisters Rebecca and Laura (above & below) were studying the insect world as part of their homeschooling with their Mom and incorporated the images into their yarn art. Lovely!


The Huichol use sap and bees wax to in-bed the yarn onto a backing. We used yarn, cardboard and a lot of white glue. Imagine how hard it is to work with yarn when your fingers are covered in glue!

 I love Topher's (above) stylized graphic of a dragon head breathing fire!

Iesha's Illuminated Manuscript in yarn! This image shows an open book with yarn written Arabic , representing the word of God flowing out of it with rays of light. Iesha challenges herself constantly with content and scale. This piece is large and stunning!

I love Nelson's passion for penguins translated into yarn art! Notice the iceberg he's standing on?

 Many Huichol pieces are done in the round. Clara (5) chose this challenging format and design! Bravo!

 I love how the high tech digital world and the primitive collide in Leah's wonderful happy face.


 This stunning frog jumping after a bug has so much joy and life in it. Wow Raziah!

 This gorgeous textural piece was done with no help, and without any breaks, by Liris.  She translated her detailed thumbnail color study perfectly into a powerful finished piece! Wow wee Liris!

 Kassi's dove of peace perfectly reflects her huge heart, love of the spiritual,  and fantastic sense of design and color.


 Liam also chose the strong image of the bird of peace for his image. Love it!

 Aoife chose Huichol symbols to create this modern, dynamic and thoughtful piece. Every time I look at it I see something different in it.

 AiLi translated the symbols of the Huichol and created this graphic, yet textural, design that sings with color and movement.

 I'm sorry I didn't get a photo of Lukas' final piece, but you can see the strength in this bird of prey and the musical, amazing sky of blue!

 Maggie had this vision of color and design from her first thumbnail sketch and pulled off an exciting final piece. Amazing isn't it?

 Tor chose amazing colors and strong shapes to reflect the Huichol pieces I posted on the walls. The work in progress above, finished below.

 Kevin drew out a farming landscape in perspective. See the lavender farm house in the distance? A brave artist takes chances, and this one sure paid off!

 Tristan was inspired by the Huichol symbols, even created a few of his own. The white lines on either side represent the wind blowing! Love it Tristan.

 Ajna's thumbnail sketch captured positive/negative and yin-yang balance. I feel these flowers moving and flowing! Beautiful!

 Johnny continues to be drawn to the image of the bird in flight. This time he adds a field in perspective. Wow! Reminds me of a Van Gogh landscape!


Ilana's howling wolf has so much energy and vibrancy! Oooooowwwww!

 Zarinah explores different words for God in this beautiful open-paged book with a rainbow of colors flowing from within.


 The pieces (above and below) were my two experimental samples.
After finishing them I worried this project might be too much for my students. 
It is with glee and pride that I was so wrong!


The beautiful Huichol gourd below is a gift that dear Ilana and her family brought back last week from the Huichol region of Mexico!
A treasure trove of beads pushed into bee's wax. AMAZING!
Thank you Taylor's!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Simple Gifts of Today

Clockwise from top left: Thomas and his first project in his Altered Book, Kassi bearing a beautiful gift, Johnny found a four-leaf-clover, and Lucas lost his first tooth.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Artist's Muse

Jasper LOVES the artists who arrive in "his" studio each week.
 Sofia talked sweet to him and rubbed his ears and now they are BFF.