Thursday, October 28, 2010

Color mixing continues....

On this day, artists ages 3-5yrs began exploring collages. They started with the option of oil pastels then adding glue and paper/plastic scraps to their drawings. For several weeks leading up to this class, students had been working with color mixing and paint, this being the first week these materials were not readily available. At one point they began to play with color mixing the dyed glue and soon became more invested in this than their works of art on the table. They excitedly voiced their new color concoctions just as they had done in weeks prior. At this age, each discovery seems to be met with pride, positivity, and an immediate need to share the inspiring news with their peers



Posted by Picasa

Painting between the lines...

This painter continues to find temptation to paint outside of his paper. Often, when confronted with a clean sheet, we would observe him attempting to paint on the wall between his paper and that of his neighbor artists. It required a lot of constant redirection on his parent's part.
After contemplating this we realized he may be drawn to the areas he already sees color, and not understanding his mother's "nos" and continual diverting of his brush when there is already paint where he wants to go.
Our goal in the studio is to problem solve in a way that lets the child continue to explore and create, with more yeses than nos, but in a way that allows for some control of the environment.
One solution here is to experiment with one long sheet of paper across the wall, giving the artist a greater freedom of expression and movement, and a beginning a social awareness of other artists in the studio.
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Let the Observations begin....

My goal for this blog will be for it to serve as a documentation and process journal of the discoveries and learning moments that I observe during my 1st year internship as a graduate Art Therapy student. Initially I will begin by talking about two specific children: one, a younger child who attends class with her parent/guardian and one, slightly older, who attends one of the afternoon classes. This first post is really just a test because I've never tried this before.
Posted by Picasa