“Sound Like An Animal” Music and Art for your Wild Ones

March 3, 2014 / mwinikates / Leave a comment

February school vacation week has the potential to be the bogey man of a museum programming calendar. Attendance is seriously weather dependent, weather is seriously unpredictable, and in one week you can have a day with over 2,000 people one day and under 200 the next. Fortunately, despite some habitually inconvenient New England weather, we had a great week of vacation programming inspired by Beyond Human and from here to ear (the one with the live finches and the electric guitars!)

In addition to great performances and presentations by Curious Creatures, The Loon Lady, Jackson Gillman, and Steve Lechner from The Science Works, we had a lot of fun with our drop-in activities inspired by animal sounds. We made ‘sonar shakers,’ bull roarers, and bird calls, and people showed a lot of creativity in their decoration of particularly the last two!

Set up for making bird calls: we dispensed rosin from the staff supply table to prevent it from going in small mouths

Final bird calls hanging up to dry, ready for a nature walk

Painted bullroarers. Helpful tip: the shorter the string, the easier it is to make that great low buzzing noise!

If you’re interested in the directions and background information from these activities, feel free to download the pdf with everything you need! Sounds Like an Animal Activity Directions

A Posey of Printmaking Possibilities

February 13, 2014 / mwinikates / Leave a comment

It’s horrendous and snowy and rainy and just overall gross outside today, which makes me dream of bouquets of spring flowers, and also makes me want to stomp things. Put those two impulses together, and you get a handful of colorful ideas for making prints with unusual materials that I’ve been collecting for the past few months, just waiting for an excuse to try out!

Printing with Natural Materials

Using a tree cookie as a pattern: like woodblock, but less carving required! Click for source.

Printing with celery and other vegetables. Pinecones don’t work as well as you’d think, based on my previous efforts, but starfruit are great! Click for source.

Printing with Recycled Materials

Cardboard tubes are one of the most useful things ever. I bet it would be fun to squish them and make different shapes to print as well. Click for source.

There are entirely too many plastic bags under my sink. This seems like a genius way to give them some bright new life. Click for source.

Probably my favorite of the lot–surprisingly pretty and definitely helping with my wintry mix grumpiness. Click for source.

Printing with Surprising Materials

Definitely click through for this one: they made a lego print Millenium Falcon! Click for source.

This one has all kinds of possibilities based on how you mix the paint and how much you ‘squish’ the balloon in printing. I love the element of chance involved! Click for source.

Negative Prints

Looks surprisingly sharp for rolling paint over a pan of jello. I like the way the give of the substrate means you get nice even pressure. Click for source.

For a softer look, using liquid watercolors in a spray bottle works great. Seems like a ‘let’s do this outside!’ activity if you don’t want to have to do a lot of clean up, though! Click for source.

Inspiration from the Greats: Women Artists

February 3, 2014 / mwinikates / Leave a comment

Representation matters, and if you too noticed that all the artists mentioned in my previous post were guys, I am here to fix that with a round up of fun activities inspired by some great women artists. If you know of other fun activities inspired by female artists that belong in this list, let me know!

Kahlo

Over at Mommy Maestra they’ve collected a bunch of possibilities for exploring Frida Kahlo’s work at different age levels (though mostly younger). I was especially glad to see a number of great books recommended!

Photo of Frida Kahlo. Click for source link

And in honor of the lady’s signature hairstyle, a fun set of directions on how to make a Kahlo-inspired floral headband.

O’Keefe

There are a couple of useful links at Practical Pages, part of a long list of artist resources, in fact. The two stand-out activities for O’Keefe feature setting up a still life inspired by her Skull & Roses painting, and using a computer-assist to emulate O’Keefe’s ‘zoomed in flowers’ style. I personally think you could skip the computer step and instead experiment with a variety of magnification tools instead. I’m a fan of the loupe style that means one can work hands-free (like the Private Eye style) — or a big tripod magnifier. That way you can work in some math and science with thinking about scale and identifying flower parts.

Computer-zoom and ‘pencil sketch’ filter + watercolors

And be sure to hop over to Grant Snider’s blog, “Who Needs Art?” to check out his beautiful webcomic about visiting the Georgia O’Keefe Museum.

Cassatt

Lots of the ideas I found for Mary Cassatt focused on process and on content (the importance of connection between the people in her paintings) as opposed to signature style. Check out the directions for a cute pastel drawing activity, or these mixed media works inspired by Children Playing on the Beach.

Child’s pastel drawing inspired by Mary Cassatt. Click for source

Morisot

Over on Practical Pages again, there are a few fun explorations of Morisot’s paintings. The author relies more than I would on using traced outlines of actual paintings by the artist–but trying to pencil in the right proportions when copying a Sargent watercolor nearly defeated me last week, so I’m not going to object too strenuously. I will, however, say that philosophically, I think sketching/doing one’s own line work is better in the long run for exploring the creative process.

That said, the blogger and her daughters made some amazing collages inspired by Morisot’s “The Cradle,” each turning out differently despite using the same line art to begin.

Collage inspired by The Cradle. Click for source.

She also has a painting activity inspired by “The Butterfly Catchers,” which just begs for a unit done outside, with butterfly nets and a combined art/science observation lesson.

Finally, just as a new year reminder, Brain Popcorn also exists in a (less formal, more frequently updated) tumblr version, with bonus occasional posts about politics, geekery, and women’s issues to intermingle among the museum and education posts. Drop by to say ‘hi!’

Inspiration from ‘The Greats’

January 15, 2014 / mwinikates / 2 Comments

Happy New Year to you all from Brain Popcorn!

I hope these first few weeks of 2014 find you well and happy and looking forward to all kinds of new ideas and things to learn and explore in 2014. Looking back at how I spent some of my Christmas vacation, and forward to some of what’s coming up at the museum, I decided the year’s first post ought to be about inspiration.

Over the break, I went to the always rewarding Museum of Fine Arts, and spent an uplifting and intimidating 2+ hours in the Sargent watercolors show. It’s up for a few more days, and if you have the chance to see it and have *any* interest in anything from painting to color theory to cool images from interesting places to travel, it’s more than worth the effort to get there (preferably in the early morning before it’s positively swamped).

Underside of the Rialto Bridge, Venice, by JS Sargent

It takes a lot to convince me to buy the catalogue for an art exhibition–pretty as they are, they take up a lot of space and I am seriously short of bookshelves these days. (Books under the coffee table, in the night stand, on the top shelf of the closet, in my pocketbook, on my desk…) However, this was a knockout of a show and there was absolutely no question that it was worth it–especially when I can prop the catalogue up near my easel and try some of that ‘learning from the masters’ method of self-pedagogy. Maybe it will knock a few original compositions loose, too.

In the spirit of art forms that are a little more accessible than insanely intricate paintings of moored sailboats and the graceful facades of Venetian palazzos, however, here is a collection of some of my favorite art activities inspired by some big-name artists:

Mondrian

A perennial favorite for transformative works due to his simplicity, Mondrian has always been a personal favorite of mine as well. I can’t explain it, because generally squares of primary colors aren’t exactly my taste, but there’s something reassuring about the rules his paintings follow. (I was a kid who liked coloring inside the lines.)

Here are a few fun examples of people who took Mondrian’s squares to another level (click the pictures for links to the sources):

Mondrian Owl on Artsonia, drawn by a fourth grade student

Mondrian mobile, from a French elementary classroom

“Mondrian’s squares have lost a side!” Triangle paintings from a French elementary classroom

Klimt

I really love the projects that go from 2D inspirations to 3D transformations.

Inspired by the Tree of Life, 5th grade project

Chihuly

Coffee filter ‘Macchia’ (and a version for older kids on the same site)

Sharpie on spiral-cut plastic bottles for the chandelier look

Also, be sure to check out the assorted very cool inspirational posters over at Masterclass Minis! (see example below)

Finally, check back for a second round in “Inspiration from the Greats: Female Artists” coming in a few weeks!

Six Word Mysteries

November 22, 2013 / mwinikates / 2 Comments

Thanks to the urban legend of Ernest Hemingway’s horrifically sad six word story (“For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.”) the idea of the six word story has been bruited about as a writing exercise for authors of all levels of experience.

How might this play out in a museum setting? Education programs often make use of ekphrastic writing prompts–poetry, found poetry, personal reflections, point of view exercises, etc.

What kind of six-word story comes to you when you look at this object?

Please add your stories in the comments below, the more the merrier!

What is it? A souvenir coconut, collected in Mexico prior to 1956.

The catalog information reads: “The object has intricate carvings of a bird, owl, rattlesnake, rabbit, lizard, house, Indian head, and flowers and vines. The object overall is made to resemble a cat, with inlaid eyes and teeth. There is a little door in the side.”

Fuzzy and Ferocious

October 10, 2013 / mwinikates / Leave a comment

…and yes, I realize it’s October, but at least this time I’m not talking about Halloween costumes.

As you all know, the Art & Nature Center reopens next week, and late last week saw the return of a venerable member of PEM’s collection: an 1886 bison, fur freshly brushed, etc., ready to take center stage in his new installation. Watching the install was fascinating, and I’ve gotten to write up details about this item’s history and his exciting new future on PEM’s blog here: A Fine Furry Welcome.

There are no pictures of the author standing in front of a live bison in Yellowstone NP, because, unlike many tourists, she values her life. Photo by the author’s family, Wyoming, 2006.

Bugs are his Paintbrushes

September 11, 2013 / mwinikates / Leave a comment

Steven Kutcher working on a piece made by applying watercolor paint to the feet of a darkling beetle, which he directs with his finger
Original photo by Jonathan Alcorn for The Washington Post, courtesy of the artist

Check out the results of my fun conversation with Beyond Human participating artist, Steven Kutcher over on PEM’s Connected blog: Painting with Bugs.

Ideabox: Sand

July 30, 2013 / mwinikates / 1 Comment

Pinterest is a remarkable tool. I use it to collect ideas for blog posts, artworks for possible exhibition topics, creative and professional inspiration, and cute and geeky things that make me smile. It also, however, has made me really think about the way I do Ideabox posts, since it is so easy to type ‘playdough’ into the search box of Pinterest and find 90 recipes for everything from scented to sparkling to glow in the dark doughs. (See my Ideabox: Dough post for some of my past favorites.)

So what makes the Ideabox different from losing a few hours to pictures of smoothies and babies in Ewok costumes on Pinterest? Why keep doing it? I’ve decided the answer is context and connection, which is still at the heart of why I write here.

And so (because it’s summer and the beach is calling to us all) I present:

A Grand View of Sand (Geography & Travel)

Sand collected from a series of travels as a slowly evolving souvenir. Found on Pinterest

I currently live on Massachusetts’ North Shore, which has an awful lot of pebbled beaches just waiting to churn underfoot and dump you on your rear when you’re carrying 50 pounds of dive gear.

Pebbles on a Martha’s Vineyard beach, photo links to source

But even here in Massachusetts there’s a lot of variety, such as the purplish sands of Plum Island, or the soft white dunes of Provincetown.

Provincetown, photo from Lonely Planet (photo links to source)

Sand from Plum Island, Rowley, Massachusettes Magnification 250x, by Dr. Gary Greenberg, photo links to source

And of course, lots of other places are known for their colored sands: black, pink, etc. I can imagine a lot of great geography assignments featuring sand samples and postcards with writing prompts from different places, discussing the plants and animals found nearby, what makes for a good travel destination (or not!) and why, and all of it tying back to our next topic, the geology of the area involved.

A Granule of Sand (Geology & Scale)

Magnified sand is one of my favorite things to look at through a microscope or as a piece of science/art photography. Dr. Gary Greenberg has a number of beautiful images here, and I have also seen amazing posters of magnified sand from around the world, though sadly I haven’t found any recently. I can, however, imagine creating a set of sand cards in the classroom to look at through magnifying lenses or a good microscope. This would be a great introduction to a study of scale, an opportunity to do magnified drawing practice, a way to further explore the process of erosion, or even a fun comparison with a similar study of snowflakes.

Maui Pieces #2 by Dr. Gary Greenberg, photo links to source

Aggravations of Sand (Architecture, Engineering, Etc.)

Anyone who’s tried to walk on soft, shifting sand knows how aggravating it can be–slippery as snow and with three times the abrasive power, unless you skim the surface like a sidewinder.

So beyond the uses of sandblasting in architecture, how else can you explore sand from an engineering point of view?

Design Challenges: Build a better beach wheelchair or other adaptive device. (Sand skis? Apparently these are a thing, but it just looks like an invitation to the world’s worst rug burn to me…)

A beach wheelchair

Explore the effects of sandy ground in an earthquake with a shake-table, tray of sand, and Lincoln Log towers.

Test the efficacy of various kinds of interventions to prevent erosion (breakwaters, jetties, dunes and beach plantings, etc.)

Aggregations of Sand (Art & More)

Second Fig
by Edna St.Vincent Millay
Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand.

Lots of places have sand castle and sand sculpture festivals (above image from wikimedia commons), but here are a few artists I enjoy, some of whom I’ve come across in working on a proposal for a Dirt themed exhibition.

Sand circles drawn by Jim Denevan

Sea Dreams by Leonardo Ugolini

Not actually sand- colored guano bottle art found at the Halifax Maritime Museum in Nova Scotia this summer. Check back later for a ‘museum highlights’ post from my recent travels!

How else do you suggest exploring sand? Any good stories, songs, or non-fiction to recommend?

Guess Who?

July 29, 2013 / mwinikates / 1 Comment

In the years I have worked in the ANC, I have had a lot of people tell me about their favorite pieces of the center—the Build A Bird interactive, the Wrenchophone, the harbor seal that hung out in the mammals case during Eye Spy. I’ve also harbored a few secret favorites of my own, like the trio of eastern screech owls peering beadily from their crooked branch, or the scrimshaw piece that depicts Ben Franklin. (Why would you make a scrimshaw portrait of Ben Franklin? These are the stories I want to know!)

Eastern Screech Owls, with an artist intervention during Eye Spy

In that time, however, the other ANC staff and I have also heard a lot about things people have loved in the past, and things they wish we could bring back, or do more of, or explore in a different way. We’ve kept track, and considered all those assorted ideas and favorites in addition to the prototyping and surveying that I mentioned in my last post. We then worked all of that into our plans for the re-envisioning of the Art & Nature Center’s ongoing exhibition. Over the last year we’ve been mixing and matching, adding and rearranging, inventing and tweaking, until we were all really happy with the new plans.

Toucan origami folded by Michael LaFosse

So now, the checklist is set, the floor plans are shaping up, and the artworks are rattling their boxes, eager to leap onto walls and into drawers to be seen and admired by all.

(Okay, so that last part is a little bit of an exaggeration, but only because I can’t prove it’s true.) In that spirit, here are three sneak peeks at some new wonders to see when the ANC opens in October.

Take a good look, and make a guess in the comments below. Do you recognize any materials? Shapes? Artistic techniques? (Go wild, and I’ll post the answers in a few days.)

Mystery Object 1:

Mystery Object 2:

Mystery Object 3:

Happy Trails: A Year of Stories and Art

December 17, 2012December 17, 2012 / mwinikates / 2 Comments

Once a month, I lead Story Trails, a program for families on Sunday afternoons that’s targeted for kids ages 5-8 with their accompanying adults. We look closely at an artwork in one of the exhibits, read an associated story, and then head for a studio space (or other safe art-making zone) and create something inspired by the artwork, the story’s theme, the illustration style, or the associated science/history/literature component. (Remember how my middle name is ‘interdisciplinary?’) Along with whatever their creation is, participants (including adults, because grown ups get to play too) take home a set of other recommended books, interesting web links, and an activity to try at home. Sometimes we also have special guest speakers, generally local authors and illustrators, with the occasional bee-keeper or lobster fisherman.

It’s a lot of fun, it’s a lot of work, and it’s one of my favorite programs, so I thought I would share the books and art activities that I loved most from this year.

January: The Spiral Connection
Book: Blockhead, the Life of Fibonacci by Joseph D’Agnese
Exhibition Connection: Ripple Effect, the Art of H2O
Art Making: Wall hangings with Fibonacci prints – we used flowers (both silk and cut flowers will do, flatter ones like sunflowers and daisies are better), pinecones, and seashells with fabric paint on plain white bandanas (available at most craft stores), to make printed patterns that feature examples of the Fibonacci sequence in nature, and then added extra decorations with fabric markers, and hung the bandanas on dowels to create easy-to-hang fabric art for your wall.
January Story Trails handout-small

I love the ‘turning page’ look that our creative services team designed to differentiate Story Trails programming from other museum events.

February: Read the Stars
Book: How the Stars Fell into the Sky by Jerrie Oughton (retelling of a Navajo Coyote story, which is traditionally only told in the winter months)
Exhibition Connection: Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art
Art Making: Constellation Light Boxes – We talked about creation stories and specifically constellation stories, and then used awls and sharpened dowels to punch holes in shoe boxes to create our own (or recreate known) constellation patterns. We then added a hole in whatever side of the box was opposite the constellation pattern to either a) hold up to our eye and then up to the light to see the stars ‘shine’ or b) put a bright flashlight into and project the star pattern into a darkened room.
February Story Trails handout

March: Cloud Factory and Guest Appearance by Illustrator Katy Bratun
Book: Sector 7 by David Weisner
Exhibition Connection: the concept of storyboarding in art, as exemplified by a series of paintings of a battle in the Maritime Art collection
Art Making: Katy Bratun led a story-boarding workshop in which kids drew a series of 4-8 panels of a story on the theme of taking a journey, and bound them into a simple book using card stock and yarn. This was a great literacy-skills support program and kids were very, very excited to share their stories with a real author/illustrator.
March Story Trails handout

April: Weslandia
Book: Weslandia by Paul Fleischman
Exhibition Connection: Earth Day, and an incredibly cool bit of textile art on view in Perfect Imbalance: Exploring Chinese Aesthetics that featured pumpkins, ears of corn, and tomatoes as exotic fruits
Art Making: Butterfly Seed Mats — We used burlap, white glue, and butterfly seed mix to create biodegradable bits of art that you could plant in a corner of your garden and grow wildflowers to attract butterflies. Simple but incredibly effective. This book happened to be requested in the previous year’s visitor survey, and happily was already on my list for potential programming.
April Story Trails handout copy

May: Sing a Song for Mothers and Family!
Book: Anna Hibiscus’ Song by Atinuke
Exhibition Connection: Mother’s Day, and inspired by both the African Art collection and PEM’s ceramics collection
Art Making: Good Cheer Jars – We mod-podged tissue paper and other bits of recycled paper onto glass jars to create good cheer jars. A good cheer jar can work any of several ways: a) a semi-voluntary fine paid when one is in a bad mood, the proceeds from which are then used to do something cheery for the family like a trip out for ice cream, b) a collection of slips of paper on which you write things that make you happy and pull one out to read when you need cheering up, c) a mandatory fine for using the household’s forbidden words like ‘I’m bored.’
May Story Trails handout copy

My Sea-Monster sand painting, which is still on display over my desk.

June: Beneath the Deep Blue Sea
Book: The Serpent Came to Gloucester by M.T. Anderson
Exhibition Connection: Local history and the Maritime Art collection
Art Making: Sea-Monster Sand Paintings — Using pre-cut mattes, construction paper, white liquid glue, sand, pebbles, and small sea shells and bits of sea glass, we created maritime-inspired natural collages. Some of them got very, very intricate, particularly those who decided to make mosaics of sea glass. This was one of my personal favorite art activities, and many of the adults who were at the program participated with gusto.
June Story Trails handout

Illustration from The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton

July: What a Bright Idea!
Book: The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton
Exhibition Connection: Contemporary art in the Japanese Art collection
Art Making: Day-Glo (and Glow-in-the-Dark) Paintings — Using black construction paper, day-glo poster paint, and some very cool glow-in-the-dark paint, we created scenes that looked awesome in general and even better under the light of our interactive black light box. We also had samples of varying materials that kids could test to see whether or not they would react with the black light and start to glow, including beads, assorted fabrics, gelatinous substances (in safe containers), and assorted paper products. This was one of the year’s most popular programs.
July Story Trails handout copy

August: What Does the Clay Say?
Book: Dave the Potter, Artist, Poet, Slave by Bryan Collier and Laban Carrick Hill
Exhibition Connection: Ceramics in the American Art collection
Art Making: Experimenting with Clay – Though the idea was to start with pinch pots and some coil-building, clay programs always take on a life of their own. Some people made pots, others branched out into sculpture and beyond. Everyone had a fabulous time, including some adults who had missed the story and had no kids, but wanted to come work with clay anyway.
August Story Trails handout copy

September: Hats Off To You!
Book: Miss Hunnicutt’s Hat by Jeff Brumbeau
Exhibition Connection: Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones
Art Making: Decorate a hatbox – We used 12″ cake boxes from ULine, which fold into very decent sized hatboxes and are easy to decorate with colored pencil, stickers, collaged recycled material, and crayon.
Sept Story Trails handout copy

October: Canine Crusader
Book: Dex – The Heart of a Hero by Caralyn Buehner (alternate title Superdog)
Exhibition Connection: Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones and the Caps, Capes, and Characters weekend festival (organized by me)
Art Making: Superhero capes with interchangeable emblems – We used SmartFab and craft foam with adhesive velcro dots to create capes (I cut each cape to length to suit children individually), and discussed designing emblems that suited their personalities for their superhero alter egos. The velcro made it possible to rearrange or replace emblems later.
Oct Story Trails handout copy

Detail from the Pastrana tapestries

November: Oh What a Knight!
Book: The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie dePaola and The Princess Knight by Cornelia Funke
Exhibition Connection: The Invention of Glory: Alfonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries and the Weaving Tales of Glory weekend festival (also organized by me)
Art Making: Tournament pennants — More SmartFab and back to fabric paint — we created jousting pennants inspired by the fabulous examples in the Pastrana Tapestries and the illustrations in both books.
Nov Story Trails handout copy

December: A Patient Brush
Book: Twenty Heartbeats by Dennis Haseley
Exhibition Connection: Perfect Imbalance: Exploring Chinese Aesthetics
Art Making: Chinese brush painting – We used rice paper (available at ACMoore or less expensively from Dick Blick), Chinese calligraphy brushes, and red and black watercolor paint, with examples from ‘how to’ books on traditional brush painting style.
Dec Story Trails handout copy

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