TRUE DETECTIVES

L: The Big Questions. R: A student details found evidence.

One of our Spring 2014 Art Brains projects involved playing detective and building "case files" for imagined mysteries. Before my first class worked on this project, I was a little nervous that some kids would be confused about how to formulate their own mystery from scratch, or that I would have to continuously discourage violent themes in their work inspired by TV and movies. I could not have been more wrong. The kids picked this up right away and ran with it (mini magnifying glasses and evidence baggies in hand)! It was so fun to watch them hatch new ideas about clues and suspects, all for totally PG mysteries of their own invention. Here are some snaps of some of the reports, photos, and other evidence gathered in the files. Elementary (school), my dear Watson.

Okay, "Ded pepl" might not be totally PG. That one slipped by me!

A red ghost left behind sooo many red fingerprints. And ghost bread, a big break in this case.

This is cupcake frosting, not blood! It's a cupcake caper.

MINI MUSEUMS

"Mini Museums" is one of my very favorite Art Brains projects of the season. After looking at some inspirational pictures and talking about all the different kinds of objects one might find in different museums, each student created his or her own mini museum display case, complete with shelves and labels, and accompanied by detailed informational pamphlets. Take a look at some of the treasures the Art Brainers have invented and presented here!

Left: Is it or is it not? Was this a mermaid's bra? Which is Anne Frank's diary? Is this a spoon from the Titanic? Is this a unicorn's horn?

Right: "Taylor Swift wore this necklace. Katy Perry ate off of this plate."

This display case commemorates various surprising and untimely deaths of earthworms. Yep.

Thanks so much to teaching artist Eun Jeon for contributing pictures to this post! Eun is a talented graphic designer, and is on her way to North Korea for a summer internship at a non-profit that advocates for human rights there. Best of luck Eun, we'll be thinking about you!

PINTERESTED: CHARLES BURCHFIELD

A 2010 Charles Burchfield article in the New York Times, and more on Make/Believe's Pinterest page.

STORY FORT

Last Spring, we told campfire stories, and this Spring, we're story fortin': using story spinner wheels, the Art Brains kids are working together to weave random spins into elaborate stories while huddled together in bed sheet forts. This has been nothing but bigtime fun so far, and I wish I had audio recordings of the kids talking and getting psyched about new ideas for our tales. The latter have thus far included classes living in giant underwater castles in swimming pools in the middle of the desert, flying sharks, magic booby-trapped gardens, and lots more.