The Monkeys translate their friend's artwork!

Our new friends in Kontula have become even more alive as we all sat around to talk about the self-portraits.  What do you think this picture means?  What do you think our friend is trying to say with that gesture?  Through the process of trying to understand what the picture is conveying, we started to connect with the picture and the person behind the camera. "I like horses too!" "I like to do gymnastics too!"

We had a good discussion about translation.  Can we say something exactly in another language?  We practiced saying hello and how are you in different languages.  Even from that we sometimes got stuck because the direct translation wasn't always exactly the same. 

We tried applying this concept of translation to picture form by tracing the self-portrait.  Then when we added color, we could play around with how color enhances and changes the meaning of the picture.  All the elements come together so choose carefully what you would like to communicate!

The Monkeys did an amazing job!

Sincerely,
Arlene, Sanna, Ben & The Monkeys

The 6 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland.

Through photography, The Monkeys tell about themselves

The Monkeys were very happy to hear that they have new friends in Kontula! They got even more excited when they found out that they will get to meet their new friends in May after making and sharing art with them for a few months.

Since this is the first artwork in the series, we thought long and hard about what we would like to share with our new friends.  Everybody chose things they like to do, things they are interested in or shared traits about themselves:

Adripto: cabin crew (I like to help)
Neha: dancing and drawing
D: drawing
Pauli: hockey
Pranav: skating and playing with friends
Aryan: I like flying on airplanes
Aleksi: hockey
Vika: drawing
Aliah: I would like to show them how I draw
Rafael: I like how to play Kimbu with my friends
Nithila: I like to draw and I want to show it to them
Miriam: I want to show how I make snowflakes
Kinshuk: I want to show them how I play with legos
Miska: I want to show how slow I am
Miro: Playing with my soft toys
Umer: I want to show how fast humans are
Mikael: I like building castles

Once we got into the project we wanted to share even more things with you! Umer said, "We have some powers to teach you."

The Monkeys said that they liked taking the photo and also liked pretending for the photo. We hope you did too!

Sincerely,
Arlene, Sanna, Ben & The Monkeys

The 6 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland.

Luovat eskarilaiset, Kanelit -ryhmä

(English below)
Eskariryhmässä on 15 lasta, iältään kaikki ovat tällä hetkellä 6 –vuotiaita. Ensimmäisellä kerralla lapsilta kysyttiin, mitä he haluavat kertoa itsestään tai mistä he tykkäävät ( 3 asiaa ). Sen jälkeen he saivat valita jonkin heille mieluisan asian, josta otettiin valokuva.

Esikouluryhmä Kaneleiden lasten ajatuksia itsestään ja siitä, mistä he tykkäävät eniten ( 3 asiaa ):

S; Mä tykkään hevosista, sota- ja rosvoleikeistä.
A; Mä tykkään mustekalasta, poliisi- ja rosvoleikeistä, Spiderman ja Superman vaatteista.
Sh; Mä tykkään kissoista, seistä päälläni ja värittää paljon.
Lu; Mä tykkään hevosista, kissoista ja värittää paljon.
To; Mä oon mustekala ja mun lempieläin on mustekala. Mä tykkään koirauinnista ja päällä seisonnasta.
La; Mä tykkään leikkiä palikoilla, koiraleikeistä ja tykkään leikkiä Pokemoneilla.
El; Mä tykkään leikkiä palikoilla Laurin kanssa, simpukoista ja meritähdistä sekä apinoista.
Le; Mä tykkään poneista sekä tehdä hamahelmiä, lumipalloja ja lumienkeleitä.
Lun; Mä haluun leikkiä ulkona, mennä Hoplopiin, tehdä sirkusta ja piirtää.
Ma; Tykkään perhosista sekä mennä ulos ja tehdä lumiukkoja.
Z; Tykkään mennä Hoplopiin, Lampipuistoon, olla ulkona ja leikkiä Terhin kanssa.
Te; Tykkään apinoista sekä tehdä kärrynpyöriä ja harrastaa jumppaa.
Ay; Tykkään päällä seisomisesta, siltakaadosta ja kärrynpyöristä.

+++

There are 15 children in the kindergarten group and all of them are currently 6 years old. In the workshop, the children were asked to tell something about themselves. For example, what are three things they like. After that, they chose one of their favorite things and figured out how to turn it into a self-portrait in photographic form.

Here are the children's answers;
Su; I like horses, playing war and robbers kind of games.
Al; I like the octopus, playing police and crime games, Spiderman and Superman's clothes.
Sh; I like cats, stand on the top of my head and coloring a lot.
Lu; I like horses, cats and lots of color.
To; I am an octopus and my favorite animal is an octopus. I like doggie paddling and making headstands.
La; I like to play with blocks, doggie paddling and I like playing with Pokemon.
El; I like to play blocks with Lauri, seashells, starfish and monkeys.
Le; I like ponies and to make hama beads, snowballs and snow angels.
Lun; I want to play outdoors, go to Hoplop, and to make a circus and draw.
Ma; I like butterflies and to go out to make snow angels.
Za; I like to go to Hoplop, Lampipuisto, and to go out to play with Terhi.
Te; I like monkeys, making cartwheels and going to the gym.
Ay; I like making headstands, making a bridge, and doing cartwheels.

The 6 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

The Monkeys and their epic stories

The Monkeys did an amazing job working together to create their stories! They thought about the characters in the story, what the main idea of the story would be about, and then how the story would begin, progress, and then end.

Another great part of this Inspiring Stories project is that we first looked at the artworks from our friends in Australia to gain inspiration. So you could say, K/1HT had a helping hand and was an important part of this creative process! We inspire each other!

TheMonkeys #DearYou #InspiringStories #YourSchool #Espoo #Finland #Arlene

TheMonkeys #DearYou #Espoo #Finland #YourSchool #InspiringStories

Thank you K/1HT for being such great friends to us! We love your artworks and hope you like ours as well!  Wishing you a great 2018!!

With love,
Arlene & The Monkeys

The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with K/1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia. All artists are 5-6 years old.

These are pictures The Monkeys drew as they listened to the story, The War of the Animals.

Your art inspires stories!

Inspiration is everywhere!  To see how our inspiration directly comes from our friends in Shenzhen, China we looked at the artworks they had sent us. This got our creativity buzzing!!  It was also fun to review all the Dear You projects we have been making these past few months.

We then got into three small groups where a teacher helped the students to write down their thoughts on who the characters are in the story, what happens in the story, and how does the story end.  Have a listen to the artists at work:

DearYou #Helsinki #Finland #InternationalSchoolofHelsinki #ArleneTucker

When the groups were ready with their story they had a quick think about how to TELL the story using their voice and intonation as an art form. As you can hear, they all did an amazing job!

Uploaded by Arlene Tucker on 2017-12-11.

The Explorers

Thank you for being friends with us! It has been great getting to know you through your artwork and videos!

With love,
Arlene & The Explorers

The Explorers, 5-6 year olds, from International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing with the artists aged 6 years old at Shenzhen Primary School in Shenzhen, China.

K/1HT on art

Hi Arlene and the Monkeys!

We really enjoyed your little movie where you answered all our questions. We have watched it a few times! Thank you for taking the time to make it for us!

We have sent an audio recording with our thoughts about your art works. We have some funny bits in there as well from our teacher who kept forgetting not to interrupt!!!

Australia #Finland #DearYou

This will be our last project with you because we will finish our school year in 5 days and when we start our new school year at the end of January, we will be in different classes with different teachers. It's been great to have been able to share our art and our ideas. We will miss you all!

Keep up the great creative art works - we'll check out the website from time to time to see how you are all going.

All the best
From K/1HT xxx

The K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia are making and sharing art with the Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland. Both groups are 5-6 year old artists.

Searching and Finding with your new friends

The Monkeys and K/1HT have been getting to know each other since September. In the second project, The Art of Asking Questions, we made artworks that involved how word and text have a great affect on each other. 

The artwork from Australia was received and the Monkeys made an amazing video response!

Response to The Art of Asking Questions

K/1HT responded in written form!

The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia. All artists are 5-6 years old.

"My friends are trading together"

What a day it was with The Explorers! When I told them that the idea today was to come up with a unanimous title for our collective book and to weave using recycled materials, everybody was so open minded to try new art techniques and to work together!  As always, I am deeply impressed with these young artists with how respectful and imaginative they are!

So how are ALL of us going to come up with one title when we ALL have such amazing ideas?  The Explorers came up with excellent suggestions such as, 1. to mix the ideas together, 2. we can vote, 3. we can take turns.  Being the kind and diplomatic group, The Explorers combined these methods and off we went with spouting out title ideas!

The top three titles were:
- Together my friend trading
- My friends are trading together
- Friends trading places

And the winner is, "My friends are trading together"!  This title really encapsulates Dear You art project and the process of exchange. Amazing how these 5 year old artists understand so clearly the heart of friendship, sharing, and creativity!

This was the first time The Explorers tried weaving and they all did a fantastic job as they took their time, asked for help when needed, and persevered when faced with a challenge.  Everybody could choose what they would like their base or loom to be.  They then played with colors, patterns, and happy coincidences that arose when weaving images together.

We hope our friends in China like our artwork!

With love,
Arlene & The Explorers

The Explorers, 5-6 year olds, from International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing with the artists aged 6 years old at Shenzhen Primary School in Shenzhen, China.

"Our Nice Monkeys"

As usual, when I visit the Monkeys we start by reviewing what have made together so far to give context and understanding. This time, their memory continued to last year when we were making art with our friends in Mexico and United Arab Emirates! They recalled all the art projects we had made together. Amazed and heartfelt that they remembered all those details!

The November project, Weaving environments, is about putting the first two art projects received from our friends in Australia into a book. But what will the title of the book be? The first challenge of the day is to come up with a title together! So how will we do that? The Monkeys suggested we do rock paper scissors or listen to everybody.  We did a combination and took a vote! They thought this could be a fair way to proceed. 

SO many good ideas for the title to choose from! The possibilities were: 'Our Sweetheart', 'Our artwork', 'Our objects in the park', 'Our nice objects', 'Our nice Monkeys', 'Our nice friends in Australia', 'Our nice group', and 'Our nice toys'.

And the winner is...
Our nice Monkeys!!

Weaving was a new art technique for most of the Monkeys and they did a great job! They started to play with patterns and colors after they got the hang of the technique. Also, we talked about the symbolic aspect of weaving and the usage of recycled materials. I think our friends in Bulli can pick up a little on Finnish language from the papers we chose to weave.

Thank you and we hope you like our artwork!

My best,
Arlene and The Monkeys

The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia. All artists are 5-6 years old.

“over” or “under”?!

Dear Monkeys and Arlene,

We really enjoyed doing this book cover activity but we did find it a little hard to remember whether to go “over” or “under”! It took some practice but we think we got there!

We did this project with a teacher intern who was with us for 3 weeks practising to be a teacher. She loves art and craft and is very artistic! Her name is Ms Harris.

She suggested that, in the little squares that were created between the woven strips, we should draw some little pictures about things that were important to us in our lives. 

We hope you like our book covers for you!

You'll be HEARING from us soon when we finish the next project!

Best wishes from us all in K/1HT. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S. We’ll be answering all your wonderful questions soon! Keep an eye out for another letter from us!

The K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia are making and sharing art with the Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland. Both groups are 5-6 year old artists.

Are you silly? Great questions from the Monkeys!

We had such a great time coming up with questions for our friends in Australia!  Before we got started we first looked at the self-portraits we received. They are so beautiful!  They also helped us guide what kind of questions to ask our new friends.

Making pictures to compliment words was a really good challenge for us.  And each picture has it's own history as well! For example, Pranav drew a picture of his family to compliment his question, "What color hair do you have?" Everybody in his picture has black hair because that's what is like in his family! I am guessing the purple figure is the artist. 

Let's turn this into a game! Below is what the artists drew. Can you think of what was their question? (some answers are below)

Adripto, "vegetables and fruits."
Pranav, "my family all have black hair."
Miro, "here is a boy who is taller than the house."
Aleksi, "cheese and carrots and watermelon."
Mikael, "there is a tree game."
Raphael, "this is a monster from Espoo."
Miska, "there are people running a race."
Vika, "this is a picture of me."
Pauli, "this is a picture of the game."
Umer, "there are 2 boys playing with space rocks."

We chose to use markers and colored pencils to make our artworks. The colors and medium make such a difference!

We hope you like our questions and we look forward to hearing your response!

My best,
Arlene & The Monkeys

The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia. All artists are 5-6 years old.

Which country are you from?
Are you silly?
How long is your arm?
How do you choose your clothes?
What food do you like?
Which city are you from?
What do you look like?
How fast can you run?
What color are your eyes?
Do you like to play clash clans?
Are you crazy?
How healthy are you?
Are you sleepy?
How long is your hair?
How tall are you?

What? How? When? Why? Where? Let's make it!

We had a lot of fun with our latest project thinking up questions to ask our new friends from Finland. None of us has ever been to Finland - it seems a long way away right up there at the top of the world!

Before we started our project we talked a lot about the kinds of things we would like to know about boys and girls of our age from a different country. We looked at various examples of typography and graphic design. We also practiced writing our names on the computer in Word using different fonts, sizes, colours and features.

We tried to make the art works containing our questions look interesting by using different writing styles and trying our hand with special designs and graphics. We can’t wait to find out the answers to our questions. We’re also really excited  to read your questions for us!

Looking forward to our next big envelope!

All the best,
Everyone in K/1HT

The K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia are making and sharing art with the Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland. Both groups are 5-6 year old artists.

Expressing ourselves with carbon transfers

Teacher Tian Tian and her young artists in China have been busy making art!  They were experimenting with the carbon transfer technique and then used marker to add color to their self-portraits.

Their friends in Finland cannot wait to meet them!

The 6 year old artists at Shenzhen Primary School in Shenzhen, China are making and sharing with the Explorers, 5-6 year olds, from International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland.

ISH Explorers create self-portraits!

It was so nice to see the two groups of Explorers have Morning Meeting in their own classrooms. Both Mrs. Nikurautio and Mr. Prebble have their own lovely way of being with their students. We then got all together to talk about the first Dear You project- Unique You!  Everybody was so excited to hear that we have new friends in China who will be making and sharing art with us. We talked about when we first meet somebody new, what would we like to share with them?  What would we like to know about our friends?  This guided us in making our self-portrait.

We first used pencil to make the carbon transfer and then added charcoal.  Once the mark making started to come through, their curiosity grew bigger and bigger.  The artists could see how the charcoal was also adding elements of their fingerprints, which is a part of who they are!

Some reflections from the artists are:

Enzo said, "me playing with my dog. My dog is barking at his dog friend. I held my dog so he didn't run away."

Devansh said, "I'm in a boat going to India. There's a submarine and fish following us.

Deethya said, "She's at the hairdresser because she needs short hair. She's with her mum and there's a rainbow behind you since it's a beautiful day."

Aishiki said, "There are hearts in the sky. Because I like them. I feel like I am hearts in the sky."

One little artist said, "My picture makes me happy."  

They all make me happy!!

Before closing the package we all sat down to write a letter for our friends.  We have lots of questions!

Do you like frogs?
Do you like fish?
What do you do in China?
What are your names?
What language do you speak?
Where do you go in China?

We can't wait to see your artworks!

With love,
The Explorers, Arlene, Mrs. Nikurautio and Mr. Prebble

The Explorers, 5-6 year olds, from International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing with the artists aged 6 years old at Shenzhen Primary School in Shenzhen, China.

Monkeys make magic

The Monkeys are very excited to have new friends from Australia!  We looked on the map to see where Australia is in relation to Finland. It's a looong ways away.  They already had a sense of that because one of their teachers is from Australia.  They are looking forward to making more friends from there!

We started off by talking about what it means to make a self-portrait.  We looked at one other and tried to be eachother's mirrors. As we were investigating ourselves, we were thinking about what part of us would we like to share and tell our new friends.

This was the first time using carbon transfers and they all did a great job! As they were understanding how the technique works, they were coming up with their own ways of drawing. At that time, the Monkeys were learning about space so a lot of the artists incorporated the moon and stars into their self-portrait.

Everybody got a chance to talk about their self-portrait.  Rafael said, "I have shabby hair and eyes."  Miro said, "I am playing a game on my tablet."  Adripto included a pictures of himself and his sister.  Alia said, "It's me and my little brother. We are looking at the shooting stars and there is the flag of Somalia."  Do these sound familiar to you?

We are very curious about you all and where you live!  The Monkeys would like to know, what do you see in Australia?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

My best,
Arlene & The Monkeys

The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia. All artists are 5-6 years old.

Dear You: A Live Act at Ilmifestivaali

(English below)

Pe 13.10. klo 9.30–11.30 työpaja esikoululaisille ja koululaisille
La 14.10. klo 12–16, avoin nonstop-työpaja
Su 15.10. klo 14–15 performanssi, avoin kaikille 

Vapaa pääsy! 

Kuvitellut tilat heräävät eloon Dear You –ryhmän A Live Act – työpajassa. Työpajassa tutkitaan ja toteutetaan unelmien maailmoita installaation ja performanssin keinoin. 

Lauantaina perheille avoimissa työpajoissa tutkimme multimediatekniikoita sekä veistoksellisia muotoja ja teemme niistä osallistavan installaation. 

Sunnuntaina on kaikille avoin tanssiperformanssi teatteritilassa, jonka osallistujat ovat itse luoneet. 

Jakaa sinun unelmasi! Paina tässä lisää infoa.

Kenelle: Yli 3-vuotiaille, koululaisille ja perheille
Kielet: suomi, englanti, venäjä 
Työpajojen ohjaajat: Arlene Tucker, Anastasia Artemeva
Sunnuntain performanssi: Arlene Tucker, Anastasia Artemeva sekä tanssitaitelija Vera Lapitskaya ja muusikko Mayim Alpert. 

Kutsu yhteisen installaation tekemiseen löytyy Teatteri ILMI Ö:n kotisivuilta: https://www.teatteri-ilmio.fi/tapahtuma/ilmifestivaali/ 

Taiteiljat: 
Anastasia Artemeva on Venäjällä syntynyt, Irlannissa kasvanut, nykyään Helsingissä toimiva visuaali- ja yhteistötaiteilija. Hänen teoksensa muototutuvat monivaiheisissa prosesseissa ammentaen inspiraatiota installaatiotaiteesta, taidekasvatuksesta ja ihmisoikeustutkimuksista. Temaattisia lähteitä ovat sosiaalisten normit ja hyväksytyt totuudet, yhteiskunnallisen läpinäkyvyyden ja eksklusiivisuuden kyseenalaistaminen sekä niihin vaikuttavat sosio-poliittiset, kulttuurilliset ja henkilökohtaiset rajoitteet sekä kommunikaatiokeinot. 

Arlene Tucker on taiwanilais-amerikkalainen taiteilja ja kasvattaja, jonka alaa ovat interaktiiviset installaatiot ja arjen värittäminen leikillä taiteen keinoin. Inspiroituneena kielitieteistä, eläimistä ja luonnosta hän löytää tapoja yhdistellä ja etsiä merkityksiä jaetuista ympäristöistämme. Usein hänen teoksensa rakentavat tiloja dialogin avaamiselle ja julkistamiselle, kannustaen näin tulkintoja ja yllätyksiä kukoistamaan. Arlene loi Dear Youn vuonna 2013, jotta koululaiset, koulut ja taiteilijat ympäri maailman voisivat kerääntyä yhteen taidekirjeenvaihdon kautta. Hän on esittänyt töitään taiteilijana ja taidekasvattajana Euroopassa, Pohjois-Amerikassa ja Aasiassa. 

Vera Lapitskaya on Helsingissä toimiva tanssitaitelija ja kasvattaja. Vuodesta 2009 alkaen hän on sekä työskennellyt itsenäisenä sooloartistina että tehnyt yhteistyötä muiden taiteiljoiden kanssa, niin Suomessa kuin kansainvälisestikin. Hän lähestyy taidetta monialaisesta näkökulmasta, joka suo tanssille tilaa kohdata musiikin, maalaustaiteen, runouden ja kaikki muut taiteenmuodot. Opetuksessaan hän suhtautuu ihmiskehoon inspiraation lähteenä ja rohkaisee oppilaitaan, ikään katsomatta, ilmaisemaan itseään liikkeellä sekä löytämään oman kehonkielensä. 

Mayim Alpert on muusikko, säveltäjä, soitinrakentaja ja äänisuunnittelija, varttunut Arkansasissa ja kotiutunut Helsinkiin. Vuosia hän on rakentanut kitaroita jms., soittanut bändeissä, ja tehnyt musiikkia teattereille ja kaikenlaisiin tapahtumiin.

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Friday, 13.10. 9.30–11.30 workshop with school children
Saturday, 14.10. 12–16, open non-stop workshop
Sunday, 15.10. 14–15 performance, open to the public

Free entrance!

Imagined spaces come creatively alive in Dear You’s A Live Act for Ilmi Festival. We will explore and realize our dream worlds through installation and performance. In the workshop open for families we will explore multimedia techniques and sculptural forms to build the set for the participatory installation. On Sunday, there will be a dance performance in the theatre space created by you!

Share your dream! Click here for more info.

For: children over 3 years old, school children and families
Language: Finnish, English, Russian
Workshop facilitators: Arlene Tucker, Anastasia Artemeva
Sunday performance: Arlene Tucker, Anastasia Artemeva with dance artist Vera Lapitskaya and musician Mayim Alpert

For more information about the festival: https://www.teatteri-ilmio.fi/tapahtuma/ilmifestivaali/ 

Artists:
Anastasia Artemeva is a visual and relational artist, born in Russia, raised in Ireland, and currently based in Helsinki, Finland. Her work is developed through a process-oriented artistic practice, drawn from installation art, art education, and research in human rights. Conceptually, it draws from the codes of social norms and accepted truths, questioning transparency and exclusivity affected by socio–political, cultural and personal restrictions and means of communication.

Arlene Tucker, is a Taiwanese and American interactive installation artist and educator interested in adding play elements to daily life through her art. Inspired by translation studies, animals and nature, she finds ways to connect and make meaning in our shared environments. Often her artworks create spaces for dialogue to be opened and to be divulged, making way for interpretations and surprises to flourish. Arlene created Dear You in 2013 as a means for school children, schools, and artists from all over the world to come together through mail art exchange. Over her career she has presented her work as an artist and art educator in Europe, North America, and Asia.

Vera Lapitskaya is a dance artists and educator based in Helsinki. Since 2009, she’s been working as an independent solo performer and in collaborations with other artists in Finland and internationally. In her artistic work she is looking for a multidisciplinary approach which gives space for dance to meet music, paintings, poetry and other art forms. In her teaching she approaches human body as a source of inspiration and encourages students, regardless age, to express themselves through physical movement and to find their own body language.

Mayim Alpert is a musician, composer, luthier and sound designer, raised in Arkansas and based in Helsinki. For many years he has been building guitars etc., playing in bands, and making music for theatre and many kinds of happenings.

From single to double self portraits

We had fun on our first Dear You !

The kids had done the priming activities before the day, discussing identity and DNA etc with Barbara Turner, the classroom teacher. 

They had also spent some time preparing their "transfer paper" with 6B pencils so that when it came time to doing their self portraits, they were able to hit the ground running.

On the day we did two activities - the first was doing a self portrait with the eyes closed, and i did a demonstration of this on the whiteboard, which was a source of much hilarity - the resulting self portrait is pretty odd! 

Self portrait with eyes closed using hand to feel the face. Demonstration on whiteboard for K1HT class, for the Dear You Art Project with a class in Finland.

Some of the kids were able to concentrate on this for a bit - many of them found it challenging to keep their eyes closed and focused, perhaps because of the proximity of all their friends - but at any rate it offered an alternative way of "seeing" the world through touch. 

For the second activity, I had found some double mirrors from the university - our visual arts students use them for a self-portraiture activity in first year. They are on a hinge, I think these mirrors are designed for hairdressing apprentices originally.

So I asked them to do a 'double self portrait'. There were a few tricky things about this - the mirrors were standing up at 90 degrees on the desk, and so their reflective surface was a bit low for them to see their own faces. So Barbara got them to take away their chairs and kneel down on the floor so they could actually see their own faces. 

The other tricky bit was just how to do a double self portrait. I didn't give them a demonstration - partly because I wanted to see what they would come up with - but in retrospect it might have been good to do so. There are some basic things about drawing your own face in a mirror which would have been worth pointing out - like observing specific things about the visual characteristics of one's own face, rather than just taking for granted that we all have two eyes, a nose and a mouth. You know, the usual "draw what you see, not what you think you see". 

So I reckon if we were to do something like this again, I'd focus more on the actual mechanics/principles of observational drawing, so we would generate more specific, less generic, faces.

However, some of the kids did do some really interesting double self portraits, strange doublings, where two faces sit side by side, or one next to the other, or one slightly at different scale but otherwise almost identical. 

We then got them to do their transfer print, using their double self portrait. This was a process involving a normal pencil - so that a harder tip could push the image through the 2 layers of paper onto the sheet that was receiving the image. 

The transfer prints came through successfully, a bit faint perhaps, but it worked. They have a nice low-fi feel to them I think.

Barbara had photocopied lines onto the back of the paper, so the students then wrote a letter to the Monkeys in Finland - they enjoyed this process - for some reason a lot of them want to write "Kind Regards" at the end of their letters - very formal!

After the class, Barbara and I (together with a couple of young artists)  experimented a bit with using crayon or pastel rather than 6B pencil as our transfer medium. This has advantages, as its much faster to cover the surface of the transfer paper with crayon, and the image transfers much more darkly to the final print. I reckon if we were to do this activity again, that's what we'd change. 

I think Barbara was going to post them to you in the day or so after the activity - so with any luck the Monkeys will receive our parcel soon!

All the best,
Lucas

The K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia are making and sharing art with the Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland. Both groups are 5-6 year old artists.

Our Shadow Selves from Canada

Unfortunately we had very poor weather with gray skies and rain for much of the time, so were unable to check out our shadows outside. As a result, we created our "shadow selves" by reflecting what we felt and liked on the inside, into a drawing for others to see. We gave our nod to the idea of shadows (e.g., being dark) by drawing with charcoal on the black background. The students really liked the opportunity to explore and draw the things that they liked and that represented them with charcoal. They were very eager and excited to explore both the medium and the topic!

To see the wonderful presentation Kaarina made of the artworks and creative process, please click here.

Kaarina Losey

Kaarina Losey is the 6th grade teacher at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.  Her group of artists are making and sharing art with the Päivi Huhtinen and her group of 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland.

Shadow portraits of our stuffed animals!

The Monkeys were so playful and adventurous when creating our shadow portraits.  We first started the workshop by searching the space to find shadows and to see how we can make shadows using natural light and flashlights.  Some questions that came up were, "Hey, where did my shadow go?  Why is my shadow chasing me?  What's the name of my shadow?"

Then we talked about how we were going to make our shadow portraits using black paper and graphite pencils.  While we were drawing we were testing to see the different affects graphite and light have on each other.  So lovely to see how a "normal" everyday medium can be looked at in new light.

After our works were made we gathered around to see the what came out of our shadows!

V: I made a dinosaur and butterfly. They are friends.

N: I drew a dog with a lot of teeth so that he can eat.

I: I drew a sun, hearts, a dog, and a banana.

C: I drew a dinosaur.

J: I drew a chair and its shadow.

P: I drew the sun, speeder and a rock.

E: I drew a smiling dog.

O: I drew a monkey and hearts because I like monkeys.

K & N: W drew a hand with a heart in it.

L: I drew a dog.

A: I drew my hand and a hare bunny.

Some of the Monkeys got out their stuffed animals or toys to make shadows and then use as a still life. Very clever artists these bunch of Monkeys are!

With love,
The Monkeys, Arlene, Ben, and Atefeh

The 6 year old Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the 4-6 year olds in KG2D from Collegiate American School in Dubai, U.A.E. 

Cy Twombly and shadow self portraits

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Here are pics of a few of our shadow drawings. The children used different mark making techniques in white crayon around their shadows to had more complexity to their works.

We looked at Cy Twombly's paintings to think about mark making. Catching our shadows was actually a little challenging as we had some cloudy days here this winter! Plenty of sun now however! 

Thank you,
Liz

KG2B class from Collegiate American School in Dubai, United Arab Emirates are making and sharing art with Class 1 from Sneinton C of E Primary School in Nottingham, UK.