“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have”- Maya Angelou
What happens when you truly give kids space to express themselves freely? They create art that tests the bounds of their creativity; they create stories through their art that reflect certain aspects of themselves. At this year’s Summer Art Camps we were able to witness that: young artists pushing the limits of creativity and creating amazing artwork. No matter the project proposed, our young artists made it their own.
Over the course of four weeks, each week of camp was based around a certain theme. Within each week’s theme, every camper had a story they wanted to share through their art. Here are a couple of highlights:
Our first week of camp was “Campers and the Box of Stories”. Our young artists were able to visit the Museum of Glass to view Preston Singletary’s Raven and the Box of Daylight exhibition, which tells a cultural story through art. From there, they created multiple works of art that told a story they wanted to share.
One of our campers, CY, shared his love for science and watching things melt. It was amazing to spend time with him and see how he would incorporate science aspects into his works of art. One of his works of art was a felting project made of dark green, blue, orange, and green felt. The green felt was the background of the project; while the dark green and blue were stitched together to create the body of a chameleon. He discussed his work of art and what the idea was inspired by. He loved learning about different types of vegetation, so the chameleon he created represented a tundra. He used the colors green and blue for the chameleon because chameleons are green, but in a tundra environment it would be blue to camouflage with the cold. He also mentioned the chameleon had an orange eye because it represents fire, so if the chameleon were to travel to the desert it would be able to camouflage there as well.
CY explaining felt project at “Box of Stories” art show
For camp Cartoon World, we were able to show our campers our newly opened Bart at TAM exhibition. They loved this experience, as the exhibition is painted in bright, neon colors. Seeing various stills of “The Simpsons” television show helped inspire their own drawings. They were able to spend time at one of the stations in this gallery that allowed them to sketch a Simpsons character from a still provided or create their own characters. They loved being able to sketch over the stills and see how their works of art would come out!
CAMPER GALLERY
