Welcome to Shyness and Bloom!
Shyness and Bloom Studio has opened its doors to the children of Victoria B.C.! Children's Spring art classes are starting in April! Small group and private lessons available. I have also had a lot of requests to do Birthday Parties, and would absolutely love to! Contact me if you are interested!
Please visit the new Art Classes page for all the details.
Below are some reflections of recent projects I have done with kids.
Summer 2010 - The adventures of "Sleepy Lion Lullaby"
Spring/Summer 2010: Shyness and Blooming
March 2010 - Art in the Air Spring Break Camp at SMUS
March 2010 - The Bird Project at James Bay Community School
January-March 2010 - The Dollhouse Project at Shyness and Bloom Studio
Spring/Summer 2010: Shyness and Blooming
We had a busy spring here at the studio! Seven hard working artists came week after week to paint, make robots, crowns, birds, houses, cars, fairs, mobiles, artist trading cards, jewelry boxes, stuffed animals, shell creatures, pinwheels, and more. On top of it all, I knocked off 10 paintings for an art show (July –Sept) We were busy here!
As I found myself (bravely) trying a new subject matter in my own painting, I took more notice of the delicate balance in letting my students create what they want, and pushing them beyond what they think they can achieve as well. I don’t see anything wrong with helping children glue things together, or help paint large areas in a colour of their choice. Helping my students with their visions is my role as an art teacher. They are, after all, pretty new at this. So guiding them to use materials wisely and to use tools with care, introducing them to new mediums and ways of doing things in order to help them express themselves is my job. Their job is to refine their visions, try things out, acquire new skills, and bring their imagination to life.
Lets talk about the “Robot Project”. I was so excited about this! I spent hours collecting bits and pieces and painting things silver so that the kids would have a huge selection of parts to use to assemble their robots. I began asking questions as the kids sorted through the materials, so that they would begin to flesh out an idea. “What will your robot be for?” “How will it move?” “How will it see?” “How will it think?” Unsurprisingly, I found that the boys were much more engaged in the project than the girls. The girls quickly whipped their robots ideas together, so they could go work on their lovely “royalty” projects (jewelry and crowns). The boys, however, kept working on their robots, actively trying to make them work. I think we spent 2-3 hours in total on this project, and look how diverse and wonderful they turned out!
Another student of mine came to class with a desire to learn to paint realistic-looking animals. She was 10, quite lovely, and already a talented drawer. Her subjects of choice: a flamingo, and a sloth. (We had lots of good laughs as we worked on these strange animals!) I decided that the best way to teach the process and techniques was to paint along side her. We both painted from the same photos, and I showed her how I applied the paint, and offered advice and pointers as she worked. We used acrylics, which I am not as familiar with as oils, so we learned about the quality of the paint together. Again, I was blown away with what she achieved in a short time.
After the intensive painting lessons, we lightened it up with “Artist Trading Cards”. If you haven’t heard of these, I suggest you Google it and check out the art form. I have a book called “Artist Trading Cards Workshop” which is a great book to have for inspiration. Using any medium you like, you can create a collection of unique and diverse cards measuring 2.5” x 3.5”, which you can keep for yourself and/or trade with other artists. So, I brought out my trays of paper crafts, water colours, glue, scissors, and we went to town. When the little girls from my other class saw them all pinned up on the bulletin board looking charming and attractive they too wanted to make some. I supplied them the same materials, and they had a great time making their own. Inevitably, (as 5 and 6 year olds do) they sourced out the stickers and decorated most of their cards with them. Can you tell which cards were made by the little girls, as opposed to the 10 year old and me?
Ever so often, a teacher gets a student that sets a whole new level of what they expect is possible. This spring, I got a new student who has astounded me with her ability to stay focused on her work, while keeping childlike and spontaneous. She has impressed me with her clarity of vision, her determination and follow through, and focus on productivity. And she is only five. Attention spans, as we teachers, and parents know so well, tend to grow as children get older. Some younger students seem to happily settle for less than their vision, because it’s just so much work to make it look right. Others will quickly crumble in frustration and discouragement as they fuddle with new mediums and clumsy fingers. So what’s it like when a five year old knows exactly what she wants to make and is willing to put in all the time and work to get there? Well, I can tell you, it’s pretty darn fun!
The magic started in our first class together, when she began exploring the studio, and expressing to me what she would like to try. She was immediately attracted to the unpainted dollhouse shell that I had, and decided emphatically that she wanted to make one of her own. Having not seen the houses that the other girls had built earlier in the year, I was delighted to guide her through the project, and follow her lead as much as possible too. As soon as we started, I was impressed that she wanted so much detail, and didn’t tire of all the painting, and gluing. The easy/fun part of finding all the bits and pieces and deciding on décor and furniture, didn’t consume her focus. She had an ability to collect items, keep her ideas and intentions for them solid in her mind, while she worked through the steps to get to the point to add them in. There were a lot of wood pieces that she happily painted, and she spent a lot of time on the walls in her kitchen. Her mother told me that when she took the house home, she kept it close to her at night, and spent hours playing with it, with her little dolls.
When she came back after the May long weekend, she had a new idea, and a new goal -to make a fair. Inspired by the Oak Bay Tea Party, she envisioned rides of all sorts and together we built them and she detailed the whole thing with colourful paint, jewels, shells, and trinkets that she found in the studio. The best part is, each ride functions; the Ferris wheel spins, so does the swing carousel, and the “Confessor’s Dream”, and the teeter totter goes up and down. We finished the project in 3 hours, (WOW! I know!) and I’m sure she will treasure it and play with it for months to come. She also decided to make a store for her dolls who live in the house to shop at, and a car for them to drive, and a zoo. Done and done.
The school year eventually wrapped up, and so did art lessons here, but we’ll start up again in September. We had 2 separate art shows here, where the kids showed off their art work to parents and grandparents, and then I had my art opening at Habit as well. It was also a somewhat of a book launch party, for my book “Sleepy Lion Lullaby”, and all my dear ones showed up, some old friends, and some strangers too! On the hottest day of the year so far, the door stayed open, and people mingled and I couldn’t have asked for anything nicer.
The Adventures of Sleepy Lion Lullaby
This book happened with a little magic, I think. About a year and a half ago, I had a great idea to paint animals in space. I started with 6 paintings, and after I finished the first set, I wanted to sell them but I didn’t want to lose them, so I decided to somehow turn it into a book. Animals, space and dreams are 3 of my favourite things and with that as my inspiration, I wrote the verses, painted a few more pictures, and put it all together.
I like to do things myself and I was adamant to do all the publishing on my own, so every step of this book making was done by me, from the initial ideas and fun creative stuff, to the ISBN, CIP data entry, and sourcing out a printer. And now it is time to get it out into the world. And so, the journey of self promotion and distribution to book stores and retail shops begins. With a closet filled with 2000 copies, I know I have my work cut out for me.
All I can say is that this book was made with love, trust, and reverence for this beautiful world and the expansive universe beyond. I hope you enjoy reading it, and most importantly, I hope the children you read it to also enjoy it, and sleep well, and have sweet sweet dreams.
I have already received wonderful feedback from friends and family, a sister who thinks it’s the next “Goodnight Moon”, and a couple rave reviews from people who don’t even know me! One even titled “Sleepy Lion Lullaby: A new Classic” (say what?) Check out Snickerdoodles And Kids Book Review for an interview I did about self publishing (they also reviewed my book, so at the end of the interview click on the link and check it out too!!)
Sleepy Lion Lullaby is now available at these fine stores:
Tall Tale Books - 795 Fort St. Victoria B.C.
Munro's - 1108 Government St. Victoria B.C.
Regalia Boutique - 16 Fan Tan Alley, Victoria B.C.
Kids in Print - 2014 Douglas St. Victoria B.C.
Chicken Little - 4407 29th St. Vernon B.C.
Art In The Air - Spring Break Camp -2010
Each Summer, Winter and Spring breaks, St. Michaels University School runs camps for kids and teens through their Education Extension Program. I have been working for these camps for a few years now, and this past Spring Break I lead an art camp for a group of 26 students ranging from Kindergarten to grade 6. Initially, I thought that engaging such a large number of kids all day long with art would be a huge challenge and I was a little daunted by the prospect. But as soon as I gathered enough supplies for 4 full days of art and wrote up a day by day schedule of fun art projects and activities, I became extremely excited and couldn’t wait for it to begin.
We began the week making Shrinky-dink key-chains, beaded bracelets and necklaces, and sculpting dough. I baked the dough to harden it during lunch, and in the afternoon the bright and beautiful acrylic paint came out, and the kids got busy painting their sculptures and kites. With many different projects on the go at once, and allowing students to move between them as they desired, not once did I hear an “I’m bored” or “I’m tired”. Having such a large group with quite a range in ages, I think that is quite a success.
In the midst of all the chaos of creation, I was aware of how fortunate I was to have the opportunity to be surrounded by the energy of ideas bouncing around. Busy hands, buzzing voices, and focused minds immersed in creation reveal that there is actually a lot going on when children are creating art together: idea sharing, story telling, problem solving, encouragement, laughter, discovery, learning. Day two we ventured to the beach in search of inspiring driftwood that we could paint and bring to life the animals, creatures, and other things we saw in the shape and contours of the wood. Most kids picked small and easily portable pieces, but 3 boys and one girl each found huge logs and a gnarly stump that were a challenge to carry back to the school but just couldn’t be passed up. The painting of the driftwood revealed many wonderful products of the imagination.
The next day we made more sculptures, but this time out of wood scraps from my dad’s woodshop. This is a project I had wanted to do with a group of kids for a long time, and was really happy to be able to do it. I wanted to see how kids reacted to the odd shapes and sizes of wood, and what kinds of things they would be inspired to build. With a couple of the older kids helping with the hot glue, everybody was able to make something wonderful. At one point, one student was trying to approach making a Pikachu shape with popsicle sticks, but didn’t quite know how to make it all work with the materials she had, so she soon decided to make a modern architectural building design instead, and was even more excited about her new idea. Another student working alongside her had also adopted the challenge of trying to construct a Pikachu, but persisted to make hers work. I was happy to assist her when it came time to glue the shape together. Both girls were deeply immersed in their work, and I went around the room and saw several children involved in the same sort of problem solving, evolution of ideas, and persistence to make things work.
Another thing I noticed throughout the week, which related to developing skills in specific domains, was that while all this imaginative chatter was taking place, the students were getting used to how the dough behaved, how different sizes and shapes of wood fit together, and they were all learning from it. Consciously or not, they were evolving in their craft, and through that learning, they were clarifying their visions and developing their artistic selves.
When students finished building and painting, they had the option of colouring with markers, making more jewelry, or making creatures out of pom-poms, pinecones, feathers and googly eyes. Some students made huge families of puff-ball creatures, and some spent their free time diligently working on intricate colouring pages. Each student demonstrated originality, and yet it was clear that their ideas were inspiring each other. We spent the final day glazing and embellishing the sculptures, setting up for the art show, and heading out to Gyro Park to fly our kites.
By the end of the week, I was completely exhausted, and over-the-moon proud of all that the kids made and accomplished. I asked them at the end what was their favourite part and some of the answers I got were “Everything!!!” “I liked the driftwood sculptures!” “Shrinky dink!!” “My favourite part was that you didn’t tell us what to make, you just let us use the materials how we wanted to.” That observation meant a lot to me, because it speaks to my whole philosophy of teaching art. For me, it’s about encouraging children to use their imaginations, and to provide the materials and assistance they need to see their visions through to a final product that they can be proud of.
The more I work with children in this capacity, I notice how important it is to provide a comfortable and inspiring environment in which they feel relaxed and un-intimidated by their surroundings and materials, and where my primary role is to provide inspiration and to respond to the child’s ideas and to help them follow the direction of their imaginations. The children definitely enjoyed themselves on many different levels, and I personally think that knowing how to enjoy the process of creation is the secret to a lasting relationship with art. Art is as much about discovery and innovation as it is skills and aesthetics and when children are fully engaging their artistic selves, they are exercising creativity, imagination, story building, and idea shaping. This is just like the experience of play, isn’t it? -Natural and necessary for childhood development.
The Bird Project -March 2010
Every year, starting in February, James Bay Community School begins a 3 month focus on visual arts which culminates in a “Gallery Gala” at the end of April. Local artists come into the school to work with students and to help them become artists. This project is supported and funded by donations from a group of James Bay residents who want James Bay children to have the opportunity to participate in fine arts activities. I was lucky enough to be invited to come in and teach soft sculpture to the grade 2 and 3 classes, and so began The Bird Project.
I came stocked with felt in a rainbow of colours, feathers, stuffing, and pipe cleaners, and with a few minutes of instructions and inspiration, the children got busy each with a vision and the tools to create their very own wild and wonderful bird. Some birds were inspired by real species, and others by the fantastical depths of imagination. It was great to see children empowered by their ability to create something that they could interact with, and be proud of. I noticed as students were finishing up, that they walked around the room with their birds puppeting them with one another, creating little personalities and voices and names for their new friends.
The focus and care each student demonstrated did not go unnoticed by their teachers, who were all pleased and amazed with what they accomplished. I had such a good time there, surrounded by the energy and chaos of 20-some children all around me creating art and diving into their imagination. Can’t think of anything more uplifting than that!
The Dollhouse Project -Janurary-March 2010
A few years ago, while I was working as a nanny, I made a dollhouse with the little girl I was looking after. Actually, we each made one. Complete with colourful beaded curtains, chandeliers, and wired with Christmas lights, the houses we built were unique and a source of hours of imaginative play after they were completed. I always wanted to make more, and this winter, I had 3 eager little girls who wanted to make dollhouses of their very own.
I had to prepare the girls by letting them know that this was going to be a lengthy project, and each week we would have to work very hard building, painting, decorating and accessorizing. I was prepared to help with much of the execution, but the planning and choices were strictly up to the girls.
Young children often don’t have the stamina or attention span required to tackle a huge, multi stepped projects on their own. They are much more comfortable with quick, instantly gratifying dabblings into different ideas and activities. I think that guiding children through complex projects, scaffolding them by presenting each task step by step, has huge potential for learning and development. I talk about learning potential in my Studio Priorities, in the first priority specifically, to facilitate positive growth.
As for these dollhouses, I allowed the girls to put as much detail into their projects as they desired. Unsurprisingly, the level of detail they went into directly corresponded to their respective ages. The 5 year old’s house is completely different than the 7 year old’s house, but each completely charming in their own ways. I wondered if the 5 year old would look at the finer details and feel envious, but each of the girls were deeply involved in their own houses, and completely lost in developing their own unique imaginative worlds.
Nobody fussed, or became frustrated over small details; they all seemed to approach the houses with a very easy going attitude. They learned patience, persistence, and got to experience the pride of accomplishment. The best part is, the dollhouses will continue to inspire, engage, and evolve in their relationship with each girl. Making art that they can interact with, and engaging in longer projects, is a wonderful way to empower children, raise their self-confidence, and show them the value in hard work.
