Tiny Books Big Fun

I am seduced by the digital realm, I admit. But there is something about working with paper that floats my boat. I had a great opportunity to be reminded of this recently at the Tiny Books Exhibit and Workshop at Riverviews Art Space here in Lynchburg, VA. It added to the festive experience that it was very well attended in no small part due to great local newspaper coverage.

Art To Tell Stories and More

I am heading off to NYC in a few days.  My trips to New York has been exciting and formative over the years. In my family, it was the tradition that our father took us on a short trip to NYC when we were 10 years old.  I am especially anticipating this visit because I have two destinations that tie directly into my current app development; the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

• China, Wine Vessel (Zun) in the Form of a Goose, 206 B.C.E.-220 C.E. Bronze, 11 1/2 x 6 3/16 x 17 1/2 in. (29.2 x 15.7 x 44.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum photograph

Recently I discovered that the Brooklyn Museum has made available for download and use many images from their collection. These images are available with a Creative Commons-BY license. This means I am free to adapt their images and share them with this license as long as I credit the museum. What a boon to media developers.  Congratulations to the Brooklyn Museum and other institutions who are doing the same.  The Portland  Art Museum is another resource I am tapping for this project. Both the Brooklyn Museum and the Portland Art Museum have extensive collections of ancient Chinese and ancient Egyptian art.

China, Eastern Han period (25–220 CE),earthenware
The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Collection of Early Chinese Art, Portland Art Museum

Since my trip to China in 2011, I have intensified my study of Chinese art history.  The Asian Art Museum (in San Francisco) has a very extensive offering of art history lectures on iTunesU.  At one point I realized I had watched over 45 hours of lectures about Chinese art history focusing on the Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties. I am fascinated by the early bronze sculpture and especially intrigued at how accessible they are for children. There are so many animal objects that reflect not only a realism and love of the creatures, but are humorous and delightfully entertaining. Case in point is the goose at the top of this article and the hedgehog below. It does add to the mystic for me that these objects were made over two thousand years ago.

Egypt, Hedgehog, ca. 1938-1700 B.C.E. Faience, 1 5/8 x 1 5/8 x 2 13/16 in. (4.2 x 4.1 x 7.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 65.2.1. Creative Commons-BY

My project, which is designed for very young children, involves finding a selection of these animals and bringing them together in a story with animated components that bring the animals to life. I am working with sculpture from ancient China and ancient Egypt. Why these objects for this age group?  I am a great believer in introducing children to artwork from around the world to better understand of our shared history, our shared human experience.  I am also a great believer in starting this process as early as possible.

ABC Egyptian Art from The Brooklyn Museum of Art

The first book I bought for my daughter when she was a baby, ironically, was the ABC Egyptian Art from The Brooklyn Musueum. I was surprised to discover that it is still in print, originally published in April of 1988, a few months after she was born. 

I am making connections with the Education Departments at these museum to brainstorm about how to add to their efforts to make their collection available to children everywhere, regardless of whether they can come to the museum in person or not. As an educator and artist living in a small community in Central VA (after years in the DC area) I seek out those arts institutions that are invested in making their collections and exhibitions available online.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, another greatly anticipated destination this trip, has innumerable online resources for accessing their collection. Their new series 82nd & Fifth is a collection of short videos of artwork selected by curators to document work that has been significant to them. There are currently 16 in the series building to a total of 100. While at the Met I will be spending a lot of time in their Chinese galleries. 

I will also visit the MoMA Art Lab.  Not directly related to my current project, but I am looking forward to meeting Cari Frisch at the Sandbox Summit in April and would love to drop in and say hey while I am there.  I am a huge fan of MoMA's online presence. Their exhibition On Line with this virtual component has been a part of my college level drawing curriculum for a few years.


I am finding a robust and diverse collection of objects to incorporate into stories that introduce young children to artistic expression that has been a part of the human experience for thousands of years. This makes me very happy.  I am looking forward to sharing these stories soon.

Kids, Technology and Electricity: A Book Review

If you are like me and live the Eastern US, you may be experiencing a power outage.  A wind storm, known as a derecho came through Central Virginia last Friday night about 9pm.  It sounded like a train with winds gusting up to 75 miles per hour.  It was the first storm I had experienced that was frightening.  We live in a wonderfully wooded area of the city and I have never seen trees endure such stress.  Miraculously most survived intact, of course many did not.

Kids and technology don't work well without electricity.  We are in our 5th day of no electricity and no clear end in sight for our home.  However, kids and art go well together... even without electricity.

No electricity, no ice.  OpenPhoto.net

What is the up side of all of this?  It's time for crayons, pencils and paper.  It's a time for sleeping on the porch and drawing in the dark or pretending to connect the dots when the fireflies light up.  It's a good time for clay or play dough, if you have access to water. It's a good time to haul out the art books and show the kids some of your favorite images and objects.


A good book to read to your kids when the power is out is Frida Kahlo: The Artist who Painted Herself, written by Margaret Frith and illustrated by Tomie dePaola.

World class artist with a complicated life story

If you are not familiar with Frida Kahlo's life and work, she is a great inspiration to kids because of the obstacles and challenges she faced in her life.  What child doesn't like to play dress up, whether is as a princess or a super hero.  Frida and her costumes and pets will generate some good ideas for art projects.

The text is framed as a little girl's report about an artist with whom she shares a first name, even if they are not spelled exactly the same way.  Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico in 1907.  Her mother was Mexican and her father was German.  As a student she suffered a traumatic accident that left her bed-ridden for long periods of time and would affect her health for the rest of her life.  Her life story is complicated because of her work, her marriage and her interests in politics.  She is one of the most famous and revered artists from Mexico.

Picture Book as Funny for Adults as Kids: The Art Teacher from the Black Lagoon

The producers of The Simpsons are masters at it...creating media that is as entertaining for adults as it is for children.  The Art Teacher from the Black Lagoon is not the equivalent of the long running animated series The Simpsons, but it is very clever.

It was the first day of art class. The kids had heard all about the art teacher, Krayolla Swamp.  She had quite a reputation.  Some of her dresses were made out of egg cartons and she made her hats out of paper plates.  She had a long pony tail she used as a paint brush and the art room was a recycling dump. The last student who had opened a closet in there was still missing.  Swamp even made students paint with their hands and feet.  Gross. 

Jared Lee's illustrations provide additional humor to Mike Thaler's story.

What follows are a series of puns on art materials and artists’ names that will be over the heads of the youngest readers but will be appreciated by adults. One class activity was oreo-gami or folding cookies. Artists named Dolly and P.Catso have work featured.  All of this fear and trepidation was for naught. Miss Swamp wasn’t a monster after all.  Very clever illustrations and humorous text make this a delightful read for both children and adults.

2012, Spotlight, (2003, Scholastic)

ISBN: 978-1-59961-952-1

Kids, Art, Inspiration in a Book: Family Day at the American Art Museum

Lloyd Schermer, An American Puzzle
On exhibit at the Luce Foundation Center

Exhibition Concept Inspires Family Event

Inspiration was the word of the day Saturday, May 19, 2012.  Inspired by the exhibit Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage, the  Strike a Pose Family Day event brought kids, cameras, artwork and a book artist together.   Leibovitz, famous for her portraits, documented objects and environments that were formative in her development as a photographer in the Pilgrimage exhibit.  The kids attending were asked to find there own inspiration among  the artwork and architectural features at Luce Foundation Center at the American Art Museum (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington, DC.

The kids were provided with Polaroid cameras with film for 4 images and access to all of the artwork at the Luce Foundation Center. After they shot their four photographs, artist Sushmita Mazumdar  helped them craft a four page book with pockets to hold their images.

Workshop leaders demonstrating how to fold paper to make the book.

The kids deftly followed her example. The construction of the book created panels at the bottom to hold the photographs.

In addition to the photographs, commentary was added to explain their choices. I spoke with a number of the kids and they enjoyed telling me about the artwork they had seen and showing me their books.

What inspired me?  

I loved seeing the kids so engaged in their work and seeing the products of their labors.  I was also especially inspired by this artwork by Robert Hudson, After Wood.

Robert Hudson, After Wood. On exhibit at the Luce Center for American Art

The Luce Foundation Center for American Art is an impressive enclave in the historic building that houses both the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum. The Center is made possible through a generous gift of the Henry Luce Foundation and is a study center and visible art storage facility. The Center contains thirty-five hundred paintings, sculptures, miniatures, craft objects, and folk art pieces from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.