I spent yesterday with one of the coolest kids on the planet. Keaton’s mom is a good friend of mine and suggested that he and I should do an art afternoon. I see Keaton fairly regularly and know he’s a very artistic child and he and I have developed a bit of a connection. Besides, when Mom emails you in the morning to tell you he’s sitting at the window watching and saying “When is she going to come? Huh Mom?? When is she coming??”, you just know it’s going to be a good day.
This is Keaton with the Leprechaun Trap he built. I was informed, however, that the sneaky little Leprechaun escaped. He moved the ladder to the inside and crawled in and out that way instead of jumping down the trap-tube. At least he left some chocolate behind. It must have fell out of his pockets in his haste to get away once he realized it was a trap. He also left the recipe for Stardust. Keaton had told me about it and when I arrived I was gifted with a fresh batch he had whipped up just for me.
Mom printed the instructions as were dictated to her by Keaton. Apparently I can grow plants in it as well and then they will be magical.
So I asked Keaton what kind of art he wanted to do and was informed that he wanted to learn how to use chalk pastels. He’d had some in his supply stash for a while and hadn’t used them yet. We had a blast smooshing and blending and getting pastel powder everywhere. He really liked rolling the black ones all over his hands and putting 4 colours together to draw with all at the same time. I just realized now, writing this, that I don’t have pics of the pastel work. I’ll have to rectify that soon.
The other thing we did was a little thing called Spin Art. Do you remember Spin Art? They used to have these things at carnivals and fairs where you could pay a couple bucks and make your own masterpiece. There are now kid-versions of this.
OMG….you wanna talk fun?? There’s a little spinner-handle on the side you flick to make it spin. You just drop runny paint on this and give it a whirl; the centrifugal force pulls the paint outwards.
You can mix colours, blend colours, swirl colours together with a stick or a brush.
You can drip water on it to make things more runny. Ohhh the possibilities.
This photo amazes me. When it was taken, that piece of paper was spinning so fast it was a blur. The camera actually caught the paint as it pulled to the outside.
These were some of the finished pieces. And this next one….the MASTERPIECE!
Isn’t that just totally cool??? This is why I love Kid Art so much. There’s a freeness and spontaneity that we as adults often try to work hard at because we’ve forgotten it’s ok to just let things happen. We get all bound up in “Is this good, is this right?” and don’t allow ourselves to just let art BE. Thank you for the lesson Keaton. I learn more from kids than I have ever taught them.
I know I’ve got to do this again. It was the most fun I’ve had in ages. Besides, when you have a partner in crime like Keaton, who at 6 years old did art with me for over 2 hours…… 2 HOURS (much longer than most kids would stay focused on any one thing), you just know you’ve got to do more.
I have to go. I need to find that old box fan I know is hiding around here somewhere. Did you know you can make a Spin Art from an old box fan? Yup. The internet rocks for that kind of stuff. Now….where’s that hubby of mine…….
Just Make a Mess 