One of the highlights of this year’s Summer’s Cool program–studio classes for kids ages 3-14, was the D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) Director class. Considering that even short films can easily take months to shoot, edit, and produce, it was impressive to see 14 young filmmakers complete a video project in a mere 15 hours. Below are two of my favorites:
To Be Named Shortly: A Documentary
by Emma and Hannah
Vanished
by Zoe and Sierra
Uncover your children’s eyes, and invite your spouses for some good ol’ fashion Burlesque action. Throughout the last week a group of 15 teenagers have been getting a firsthand experience into the world of screenprinting at the studio of Minneapolis’s very own Burlesque of North America. The art collective consists of Todd Bratrud, Bjorn Christianson, Mike Davis, Aaron Horkey, George Thompson, and Wezz Winship. With once loose foundations (relying on “ Special” discounts from friends at Kinko’s for their zines, and creating posters for parties) Burlesque kicked off its launch in the late 90’s with the purchase of a studio on 25th and University, where they worked with First Avenue producing an array of limited edition concert posters, and released their eight issue run of the graffiti/music oriented “ Life Sucks Die” magazine. Currently the group is working with an expansive and growing list of clients, both reigning from international and local regions; including The Arcade Fire, Ween, Wolf Eyes, Gay Beast, and their friends at Rhymesayers. You can find them at their new Studio on Broadway and Stinson recently acquired last summer. And ever since the new space they’ve been playing host to some awesome shows in their foyer gallery space, First Amendment, with hours as flexible as jelly (noon to five, Monday through Friday).
In the workshop “ Life Sucks Design” the assignment was to create a PSA poster design, choosing one musician from a list that included 50-Cent, Johnny Cash, Marilyn Manson, and bunch of other artists that have had “ run-ins” with the law. Working closely with Burlesque, the students were able to learn the basics of screen-printing, and a bit about working with clients, deadlines, and image restriction. For example, one of the groups that chose Jack White (Guitarist of The White Stripes), were only allowed to work with the three colors red, white, and black. While another group, focused on Sid Vicious and his tweaked/punk aesthetic.
Once all the celebrities/convicted criminals were selected, then came the tagging of slogans alluding to the crimes that the celebrities had committed. For instance, Kid Rock, who was busted for beating up another musician, was given the slogan denouncing violence. (aw, the sarcasm is thick with this one). As their ideas were recorded down on paper the first step was finished but done they went through the tedious process of cutting it out on rubylith, which allows them to the layer images.
As the exato knifes became dull and the gummy bears disappeared the week came to a close. The groups printed the many layers to their posters and got ready to display them in the gallery down the hall at the YouWorkForThem studio. The colorful posters, with a message, will be on display this Saturday, August 18 at 7 PM. Right down the hall, be sure to check out First Amendment’s opening featuring Chicago rock poster legend Jay Ryan, as well as a performance by Dosh.
This article was written by Willy Schwartz and Jen Larson, the two workshop interns. Schwartz is a former Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC) member and is currently pursuing a degree in art history. Larson currently is a Journalism major at the University of Minnesota.
Uncover your children’s eyes, and invite your spouses for some good ol’ fashion Burlesque action. Throughout the last week a group of 15 teenagers have been getting a firsthand experience into the world of screenprinting at the studio of Minneapolis’s very own Burlesque of North America. The art collective consists of Todd Bratrud, Bjorn Christianson, Mike Davis, Aaron Horkey, George Thompson, and Wezz Winship. With once loose foundations (relying on “ Special” discounts from friends at Kinko’s for their zines, and creating posters for parties) Burlesque kicked off its launch in the late 90’s with the purchase of a studio on 25th and University, where they worked with First Avenue producing an array of limited edition concert posters, and released their eight issue run of the graffiti/music oriented “ Life Sucks Die” magazine. Currently the group is working with an expansive and growing list of clients, both reigning from international and local regions; including The Arcade Fire, Ween, Wolf Eyes, Gay Beast, and their friends at Rhymesayers. You can find them at their new Studio on Broadway and Stinson recently acquired last summer. And ever since the new space they’ve been playing host to some awesome shows in their foyer gallery space, First Amendment, with hours as flexible as jelly (noon to five, Monday through Friday).
In the workshop “ Life Sucks Design” the assignment was to create a PSA poster design, choosing one musician from a list that included 50-Cent, Johnny Cash, Marilyn Manson, and bunch of other artists that have had “ run-ins” with the law. Working closely with Burlesque, the students were able to learn the basics of screen-printing, and a bit about working with clients, deadlines, and image restriction. For example, one of the groups that chose Jack White (Guitarist of The White Stripes), were only allowed to work with the three colors red, white, and black. While another group, focused on Sid Vicious and his tweaked/punk aesthetic.
Once all the celebrities/convicted criminals were selected, then came the tagging of slogans alluding to the crimes that the celebrities had committed. For instance, Kid Rock, who was busted for beating up another musician, was given the slogan denouncing violence. (aw, the sarcasm is thick with this one). As their ideas were recorded down on paper the first step was finished but done they went through the tedious process of cutting it out on rubylith, which allows them to the layer images.
As the exato knifes became dull and the gummy bears disappeared the week came to a close. The groups printed the many layers to their posters and got ready to display them in the gallery down the hall at the YouWorkForThem studio. The colorful posters, with a message, will be on display this Saturday, August 18 at 7 PM. Right down the hall, be sure to check out First Amendment’s opening featuring Chicago rock poster legend Jay Ryan, as well as a performance by Dosh.
This article was written by Willy Schwartz and Jen Larson, the two workshop interns. Schwartz is a former Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC) member and is currently pursuing a degree in art history. Larson currently is a Journalism major at the University of Minnesota.
Recreate Yourself:
An activity to build on your visit to the Picasso and American Art exhibition
A great way to wind up a family visit to the Walker is to reflect on the artists you saw by making some masterpieces of your own. The Picasso and American Art exhibit shows a wide variety of portraits by both Picasso and many American artists, like Roy Lichtenstein, Jackson Pollock and Max Weber to name a few. What you may notice is the way that these artists divide, rebuild, and fragment the figures in their portraits.
During a Summer’s Cool class called Paint like Picasso students learned to emulate Picasso by creating several self portraits and then cutting them apart and reassembling the pieces to create a new work of art. Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Grab a mirror and make faces (lots of faces); the more variety in the faces the more variety in your final work of art. After studying your face, make several (4-5) black outline (contour line) paintings of those faces you can make. Let them dry. (Black markers or crayons will work too if you can’t make a mess!)
Step 2: Add Color. Fill in the white space with creative colors. Think about Picasso’s palette; in his paintings people certainly weren’t limited to natural skin tones and realistic colors. Let them dry.
Step 3: Cut them up, yes, cut them up. These can be in various shapes and sizes, but it seems to work well to cut each face into 5 or 6 average size pieces.
Step 4: Put them back together. Use a larger piece of paper to reconnect your shapes in a new way and there you have it your very own Picasso inspired masterpiece!
Many thanks to artist Jennifer Nevitt for teaching the class and developing this fun project; to Ariane Smith our fabulous Family Programs intern, for assisting the class and writing up this post; and to Antonia Ukofia, yet another wonderful Family Programs intern, who made the images above.
Here are some example projects made by kids in the Paint Like Picasso class:
Before you marvel at everything new on a stick at the State Fair, try twirling with a Picasso.
The Walker’s exhibition Picasso and American Art is closing in four weeks, so plan a visit, and after seeing the show, you may want to try your own Deep-fried Picasso on a Stick.
Check out the portraits by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, and Jasper Johns among others and note the way they processed Picasso’s imagery. Many of their painted, drawn, and sculpted faces were treated cubistically, so the viewer sees several planes of the face simultaneously. With this concept in mind, combined with an eye on popular culture, the twirled portrait was born.
Yesterday, August 9, 2007, some dynamic young artists (ages 5 and 6) from Minneapolis Kids made some bold portraits. These students played with the features of a face and worked on four sides to simulate a 360 degree portrait.
If you’d like to do this kitchen lab at your table, here is the recipe.
Materials: Tagboard, oil pastels, colored tape, 1 chop stick, and a pair of scissors
Congratulations you’ve made a Deep-fried Picasso on a Stick!
All photos: Ilene K. Mojsilov
I just finished reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai when the phone rang. A friend of a friend of a friend offered to drive me around Beijing. As we cruised by Tiannamen Square in his black, leather-interiored, tinted windowed Nissan, with Neil Young wailing on the CD player, and the AC cranked to the max, this international businessman extolled the virtues of Chairman Mao, “He was a poet and a philosopher, not a politican. The people loved him. They still do. He should have stayed out of politics.”
Maybe. Who knows? The world might be a different place. But certainly no stranger than presnt-day China, or India, or any other part of the world that’s developing at a pace previously unimagined.
What’s the fall-out to this mad-cap pace? Only time will tell. But meanwhile, we are blessed with writers like Ms. Desai to help us put it all in perspective. We will discuss her latest novel at Thursday night’s meeting of The Artist’s Bookshelf.
To prepare for our discussion, please consider the following:
1) What is the significance of the title of this novel? What are some of its intended meanings or resonances?
2) The novel follows the intertwining personal journeys of several primary characters. Why did the author utilize this approach as opposed to the more conventional one central protagonist?
3) What observations does the novel provide regarding globalization and post-colonialism?
4) What is the significance of the dog named Mutt?
5) What does the novel have to say regarding social class?
6) The literary world has come to know and appreciate several major authors of the Indian diaspora. Yet, Kiran Desai distinguishes herself as the voice of a new generation. How does she achieve this?
7) What is the most poignant scene of the novel?
All of this and more! Thursday, Aug. 9th. Tour at 6 pm, discussion at 7 pm.
See you there.
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