Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

October 2016

From Russian Karelia to Finland!

2016, 6th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, RussiaArlene TuckerComment

Here are drawings of the characters and their homes created by the artists in Karelia.

Ученики Финско-русской школы в Хельсинки получили художественную посылку из России. Ребята из Кепской школы им. Ортье Степанова  (п. Кепа, Калевальский район, респ. Карелия) придумали дома - гравюры для своих героев. Это третье задание 4-х месячной сессии проекта Дорогой ты осень-зима 2016г. Присоединяйтесь к нам! 

The artists from Кепа школу (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia are making and sharing art with the artists from 2B at Suomalais-venäläinen koulu.

Home sweet home

2016, 5 years old, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Mexico, United KingdomArlene TuckerComment

This project went really well and it was a perfect for our curriculum since we were learning about how to describe our own homes. So we took this opportunity to make a drawing and a little message describing their homes to our friends abroad. 

They were really excited about letting everybody know how their houses looked. Also, when we covered the drawings with the black paint they got kind of nervous because they thought it was ruined. But then, when they draw the outside of their homes on top of the black paint their faces were priceless!! They were amazed to see that if they scratched the black paint, our friends in Nottingham could be able to see the inside of their homes!!

Saludos,
Mrs. Vicke Benavides

The 5 and 6 year olds in Prepri C from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico are making and sharing with the 5 and 6 year olds in Class 1 from Sneinton C of E Primary School in Nottingham, UK.

Viva México

Viva México

Enjoying Layers of Love in Canada

2016, 6th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, CanadaArlene TuckerComment

Greetings from Canada! 

They really enjoyed the artwork as they got going with it. A few students used too much paint in an attempt to cover it completely and then had the paint flake off instead of allowing them to etch it off.

Some were very hesitant about painting over their artworks. :) Others enjoyed it so much they asked to do a second artwork jn the same manner!

Kaarina

The 6th graders at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, ON, Canada are making and sharing art with the 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland.

The English School in Helsinki show their love for their Canadian friends

2016, 6th Grade, Canada, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

I asked the group to think about what makes them feel home.  They wrote some thoughts on the back of the work. We used a ready made black & silver scrap-card board.

Last lesson we looked through the images made in Canada. They loved the works and had lots of comments. 

We packed the Layers of Love scratch drawings, their comments, and the school posted it today.

Br,
Päivi

The 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6th graders at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, ON, Canada.

Flying homes on their way from Finland to Canada!

2016, 4th Grade, 9 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Canada, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

Our homes are on their way to Canada!

Young artists from 4A in Viertolan Koulu, Vantaa, Finland, are a real team of independent thinkers! Each artist created their own, unique home for their character.  In some homes there were pets and flowers, a little bit like in the artists' own houses, while others were evidently created especially for Pockemons, horses and superheroes. Because of the small size of the paper, the secret houses look like postcards with a coded message. 

Some of the young artists, encouraged by their wonderful class teacher Kirsti, had prepared personal letters addressed to their new friends. This is already the second letter they have written to the artists in Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada. It is very inspiring to see different ways of communication that we can use to connect with each other.

Anastasia Artemeva

The 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4th graders from Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada.

ISH shares their Layers of Love!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

The artists in K1 never seize to amaze me!  Each of the artist's home, which they made using scratch art technique is unique just like their character.  We started off the session by remembering who our characters are.  We dove deeper into our stories and lives of our characters and talked about what their homes were like.  What does the outside of their home look like?  What about the inside?  We used our own homes as reference.

K: The Ninjagos are playing outside in their yard on a sunny day.
DEV: Spiderman is dressing up in his house to get ready to fight the bad guys.
V: Elsa is coming inside her house to have snacks.
SH: Elsa is playing outside in the park, but all of a sudden it rains so she ran inside her house.
DEE: Elsa went outside and saw a swing and then she went on it. She saw a bean stalk and climbed up it and saw a castle and a giant.
G: Elsa is looking out the window and she saw somebody. She ran outside and played with them.
K: Elsa coming home from the market.
AI: Elsa lives in a home. She's looking at the Caste's garden.
SA: It's quiet inside the home.
MI: He lives in a den. He is hiding from the fire outside. He is safe inside.
EN: Living on the rocket, they are flying far away with the rocket. They are eating food inside.
SP: There is a tornado with spaghetti and meatballs in it.
SH: It is a car park with some tractors.
KA: Ninjago and doodle are making spaghetti.
AL: Piccachu is playing football outside the house.
SAT: The boy is playing with his toys inside the house.

As you can see everybody was open to exploring how we can use this technique to understand spaces and the revealing process of the different layers involved in life and in art practice.

We hope our friends in Mexico like it!

With love,
Arlene and the artists of K1

The 4-5 year olds in K1 at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4-5 year olds in K2B class from San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

The Tigers know how to love!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

The Tigers really amaze me with how present and creative they are! As if we were in the homes of our characters we were drawing the interior and exterior of their houses.  Brilliant!  Each one is unique and takes you to a special place.

Everybody was eager to draw with oil pastels and paint.  At first the scratching came as a bit of a surprise, but once they realized the affect it would give, they experimented away!

We hope our friends in Mexico enjoy our artwork and stories!

With love,
Arlene and the Tigers

The Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with Nursery A from Colegio San Patricio Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.  Both groups of artists are 4 years old.

The story gets even more exciting with the Monkeys!

2016, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Mexico, Pre-SchoolArlene TuckerComment

We started off the session by telling each other stories about our characters, which we had made from the previous Dear You art workshop in Lights, Camera, Action!.  From then on, it was a smooth flow as to how to develop our ideas when creating our homes for the characters in Layers of Love.  We took each other on an imaginary adventure to discover what's on the inside and on the outside of our home.  As we scratching away the top layer the Monkeys realized that they could manipulate what they would like to reveal about the inside of the house.

Can you see which picture matches the artist's description?

K: I have an apple tree and pear tree and strawberries in my yard.
E: I have many strawberries in my backyard. There is a forest nearby.
VIO: My house is white. There is a forest and there are blueberries in the forest.
O: My house is brown and there are some trees around it.
VIG: It has many door and many flies.
N: My house is black. My room is so big.
L: It's white and super large.
J: It's long and it has a big room.
VE: It's white and big and beautiful!
A: It's white and almost big.
P: My house is big and the door is brown. The floor is brown because it's made of wood.
I: My house is a rainbow from the outside.
AA: I have a forest, terrace, trampoline, and black door in my house.
AL: I have a green house with a dark brown roof.
E: My house is red and black. There are trees around it.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!

With love,
Arlene and the Monkeys

The 5-6 year old Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5-6 year olds from Colegio Bosques de las Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.

Sharing the Love!

2016, 3 years old, 4 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Mexico, SingaporeArlene TuckerComment

Ms. Rachel, core teacher of N2A, presented Layers of Love project in a unique and meaningful way to her students. 

Our homes represent more than our financial assets; they have a deep and unique emotional meaning. Our earliest memories of home are often connected to our childhood. Layers of love (our 2nd mailing project with Mexico) helped us to contemplate about our homes, inside and outside. It was not a mere art experience that just involved paper, oil pastels and paint to enhance creativity but a reflective process that helped children to share their perspectives through illustration of what home meant to each one. 

I live in a tall building. I stay on the 7th storey. I have many books at home. I have toys in my home. The lift is on level 1. When you press the button, the lift will go up. I have a big table and a small table at home. I have big and small chairs too.
-Jiang Xi Wen

Nursery 2A and Nursery 2B, 3-4 year olds at 215 EtonHouse Bi-Lingual Preschool in Singapore are making and sharing art with the 4 year olds from Nursery B at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.

The Layers of Love from Berlin!

2016, 4 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Germany, Mexico, Pre-SchoolArlene TuckerComment

I am happy to send you some pictures of our scratch project and the amazing stories of our creative artists. Our kids were delighted to see the new colorful images coming out as they scratched using very different tools: plastic forks and knives and other sharp objects. Some of them depicted inside of the place where the character lived, others displayed the outside.

Here are some of our stories:
Basti: This is a house with a chimney and smoke comes out of the chimney, down there is grass and the sun is up in the sky. Here I have a door and two windows. And here is my bed. 

Raphael: This is a house. Out of the chimney comes a thick smoke. It has a door and windows. Near the house explodes an askumet. In the front of the house are large cobblestones.

Leyla: It's a man with a house, a letter box and a tent. The house is full of ghosts. The doors and windows are broken. In the left corner is a heart for the monster. 

Maya: It's a scratch tree. It has leaves and they have different colors. It was a cat who scratched it all about!

Linus: It's inside the place but it's not my place because my place is very far away.

Aya:  It's a house. A heart. It's my house. It's raining outside and snows sometimes.

Lyn: I was in my room and my sister was in her room. My father wanted to go to Aldi (supermarket) to shop and then there were two monsters next to the house. The monsters were nice and wanted to get married. The sun war shining and my sister looked out of the window and so did I . The girl monster had a necklace.

Tarja: This is inside the house. There is one circle inside it. There is an umbrella with a very long holder. Here is a 4, that's how old I am. 

I am sending the parcel out today, hope it arrives soon and safe. And our friends in Mexico like our pictures and stories a lot.

Best wishes,
Lusine

Lusine Boyajyan and her group of 4 year olds artists from Kita Felix and Friends in Berlin, Germany are making and sharing art with Angy Castillo and her  Kinder A group from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.