Post-Consumerism with Pint Sized Artists

This past weekend I had a very exciting opportunity: I got to teach art workshops to kids at the Chicago Children's Museum. If you've been keeping up with my blog, then you may have already known that I have a painting on display in the Children's Museum's Unboxed: Adventures in Cardboard exhibit. The weekend workshops were a part of that exhibit.

I brought in two paintings to show the kids, Untitled (Blue and Green) and Untitled (Red).  I allowed them to (gently!) touch the paintings so they could learn about texture in artwork. I also brought a few copies of my book for them to look at.

The museum staff was prepared a fun array of textures to work with. There was honeycomb cardboard, cardboard tubes, and even some pieces shaped like slices of pizza.  The children were provided with various types of glue, scissors, and washable tempera paints.

Of course, we didn't have every color of tempera paint so I had a chance to teach some kids how to make the color brown from the primary colors.

I was amazed at their creativity. They made houses, cars, robots, and spaceships, as well as some non-representational works that defy categorization.

I had such a great time, and I think the children did too. Though my workshops are over, the exhibit will continue until May 5th. For more information, visit the museum's website.