WINTER 2014 STUFF!

We've had a very busy season this Winter (and one riddled with oh so many snow days and make-up classes!), and are already getting started on our Spring session at some schools, too. We're totally backlogged with pictures, and I wanted to post a few phone snaps from the earlier half of the season, including some poem collages, pop-up valentines for the natural world, x-ray specs, and a peek inside an alternate snow globe world. Chrysalis and Hybrid Creature plaster cast photos coming soon to a Make/Believe blog near you!

VALENTINES FOR SHREE JANABAL

Today, in honor of Valentine's Day, the children at Murch Elementary worked with Make/Believe to make valentines for our friends at the Shree Janabal Secondary School in Marpha, in the Mustang District of Nepal. Jessica Kain, the mastermind behind the Marpha Foundation - an artist run organization dedicated to community and the arts - will be delivering these lovely painted hearts (with our best attempt at a few Nepali phrases) to the children at Shree Janabal, with whom she works on some seriously fantastic programming in Marpha. We are really excited to be sending greetings across the ocean, and I am even more excited to tell you that Make/Believe has plans to work on some direct programming with the Marpha Foundation and the students in Marpha this upcoming Fall. More on that another day!

In the meantime, check out all the cool stuff the Shree Janabal kids are already up to here, and more pictures of our District of Columbia --> Mustang District hearts. Happy Valentine's Day!

MONSTER VALENTINES / MONSTERS IN LOVE

This week's project completed by both my Comet and BloomBars Art After School classes was inspired by Monster Valentines, a book I've had since childhood. The story is about two best monster pals, Prunella and Rosie. Prunella is "mean, the way monsters are supposed to be", while Rosie is an unusually friendly monster. Rosie's idea of a nice valentine is one trimmed in lace and offering sweet sentiments, while Prunella's ideal valentine is one dipped in skunk juice on "icky" green paper that compares its receiver to a crocodile, or threatens her with a bite. I asked the AAS kids to make valentines in the spirit of Prunella, considering what a traditional monster might find attractive and pleasant. You can see the results for yourself below - edgy offerings of monster love that would make any scaly, furry, slime-loving creature blush.

L: a message written in monster language, R: "I hope your Smellentine stinks with love"

"Be my valentine or else...I will crush you"; "You are so crazy, you don't look like a daisy"

"Have an ugly, weird, ghostly Valentine's Day. And scaly too."

Three monsters

L: "I hope you think I smell"; R: Elliott and Justice with valentines

The monster on the left has a brain stuck to its face.

Helena w/ box of monster candies; Torin with valentines

"Roses are red, violets are blue, this valentine's roadkill, not unlike you"

"Roses are red, violets are blue, You will die too soon." ( !!! )