AQUARIACOSMS

Using clear glass jars, wire, laminated drawings, food coloring, and other materials, youth will create their own underwater microcosms.
 
I wasn't quite able to get quality pictures of these projects - I only had a few minutes and they're tricky to photograph (excuses!), but looked so interesting in person. It was cool to see the drawings become magnified and slightly distorted when immersed in water, and some close-up pictures like the one above remind me of objects suspended in ice. Here are a handful of pictures that unfortunately do not do these beautiful little aquatic scenes justice.

Ethan's cool sketch and Helena's Octopus Queen under a big blue arch, w/ fish

Gabriel's aquariacosm w/ underwater city

Anika w/ her jar, filled with fish, bubbles, shapes, glitter, a heart and a mermaid

Close-up of Ethan's underwater scene with octopus, shark and fish

Havana with her aquariacosm

Juliet's jar filled with mer-creatures. And a cat!

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." ( !!! )

ART AFTER SCHOOL AT BLOOMBARS

If you aren't already familiar with BloomBars in Columbia Heights, it is most definitely a spot worth checking out. It's very likely they have at least one class or event that piques your interest, if not many more, and it's an inspiring example of a DIY, non-profit, creative entity that has fostered and continues to build on a sincere sense of community. From the BloomBars website:

BloomBars is not something you can easily describe. Some have called it an artist and non-profit incubator, performance space, art gallery, theater, dance studio, screening room, youth academy, and center for health, wellness, and community engagement-They were all correct.

Established in 2008 in Washington, DC’s burgeoning Columbia Heights neighborhood, BloomBars is driven by a volunteer team of artists, educators, and community and business leaders. Redefining the perception of a bar, BloomBars does not serve or allow alcohol on its premises fostering a safe and family-friendly environment.

BloomBars has movie screenings, poetry readings, fitness classes, art workshops, Samba-dancing babies, and lots more, including. . . an Art After School Program run by yours truly happening right NOW! The Art After School program is normally a register-and-pay program (as its humble Director does need to buy supplies and occasionally some groceries, too), but this session of Art After School at BloomBars has been generously funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and is consequently essentially free (a $5 donation to BloomBars is suggested) and open to all between the ages of 7 and 12. Please spread the word to anyone you know who may be interested - We'd love to have as many students as possible taking advantage of this class while it's still running. We may even extend the class an extra week or two. 

Full description of AAS program and classes after the jump.

YAYOI KUSAMA'S "OBLITERATION ROOM"

Check out  Obliteration Room, a rad, interactive children's installation by Yayoi Kusama at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art.

From the Queensland GoMA blog:

"This space has been transformed into a series of domestic—style rooms, reminiscent of the average Australian home, filled with furniture and objects painted entirely white. This functions as a blank canvas that becomes ‘obliterated’ over the course of the exhibition through the application of brightly coloured dot stickers."

If there's one group of human beings I would trust to obliterate anything with thousands of colored dots, it is definitely KIDS. I've shown my Art Brains classes one or two pictures of work by Kusama in the past while discussing installation art - I think they'd be pretty excited about this one, too.

More here, here, and here.