A Cheery 2013 to You All

I don't consider myself to be superstitious  but I do love the number 13 and I'd like to think that it's my "lucky number". I've had a surprisingly number of happy events occur on Friday the 13ths and so I would looooove to hope that the year 2013 will be a wonderful year. For all of us. I suppose my ancestors from the old country would think that I was tempting fate by voicing this hope. So when I'm done blogging I'll go throw some salt over my shoulder and find some wood to knock.

A nice way to welcome in the New Year is some bright cheerful flowers. And nothing says cheery like flowers created by my 4-5year old class. Toss in some bright colors and recycled objects and you have the makings of some uplifting artwork.

 I had the young Artists select colored papers and create vases from card stock. I wanted them to draw the vases themselves and cut them out themselves. They often want me to cut items for them but, darn it, these are skilled Artists and they need to recognize that they can control those scissors!

I showed them paper with low-key colors: cut up paper, ripped up vintage maps (which have lovely pastel colors) and plain paper. I gave them scissors and paper punches to make shapes. Some chose the punches, others went to town cutting and ripping. They used these to collage their vases. Then they placed their vases against some high-key colored backgrounds. They chose bright red and blue. They painted cut up cardboard egg cartons in low key colors to match the vases and glued the vases and flowers down on the paper. Then they chose recycled objects to fill the flowers: buttons, shells, etc.

I explained that it would be nice to place their flower vases in space rather than have them float around and they all drew in a horizon line or table top. They were then able to "decorate" their tablecloths. Most chose to use marker although one Artist glued down buttons. Didn't they do a wonderful job?

A HAPPY AND PEACEFUL NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL! 

Now off I go to find some salt to throw and wood to knock on. 

Fabulous Cities

May I gush about another wonderful children's book writer and illustrator? Oh heck, you can't stop me.

The late Simms Taback wrote and illustrated books full of humor and charm complete with quirky colorful folky and funny illustrations. All of them are incredibly clever and, though silly, are amazingly beautiful and contain details that make me want to look at them again and again.

My favorite is his Caldecott winner, Joseph Had a Little Overcoat, a retelling of a classic Jewish story of a poor man who has an old ripped coat and continually cuts it down so he still can use it. First it becomes a jacket and then gets cropped into a vest. By the end it's only a button and soon even that is lost. But the story leaves you with a moral about creativity and resourcefulness and seeing the glass half full.

OK, OK, you say. Get on with it, Paula! What did YOU make from this book? Me? Nothing. But the kids in my Pre-K group made some lovely crazy buildings and cities. What might be difficult to see in the scan of this wonderful spread from the book is the quirky details. Simms added crazy photos of people making all sorts of faces in the windows of the city. He also put in pieces of material and newspaper clippings made to look like old Yiddish (Jewish) papers.

A trip to the city for our hero!'

Together we read the book and looked at the pictures. 

The Picasso's Basement PreK artists used cut and torn paper to make their wacky buildings. They clipped pictures out of magazines to fill  the windows with faces. I told them to feel free to add any kind of details with markers and scissors. One resourceful artist even added a button she found on the floor which was very much in the spirit of the book! 

Well done, artists!

Hat Day with a nod to Ezra Jack Keats

You've heard me go on and on about my love for Ezra Jack Keats. As a little girl I loved his book Jennie's Hat. The story was charming but what interested me the most were the pictures. Keats used beautiful papers and collage and simple drawings and I was completely enthralled.



So when I started teaching a preschool class I was jumping at the chance to share my enthusiasm for the book. It helps to have the most wonderful students in the world: attentive and interested young artists. We started by reading Jennie's Hat. I pointed out the endpapers in the books. The artists looked at the many hats pieced together with flowered papers. We discussed the silly things we could put in our own hats if we drew them: pizza, pets, grapes.

A Picasso's Basement Artist hard at work

The artists started drawing faces on large paper. Then they glued large cut out hats made of manila paper which was heavy enough to support a collage. Using magazine clippings they filled their hats. Pictures of flowers, cats, dogs, candy, ribbons, cookies. One young artist suggested we add glitter. Thank heavens we're in a basement! It was a glitter fest like I've never seen. I've never been a huge glitter fan but it worked perfectly for this project!

I think the artists did an amazing job.

Check out the fantastic hats they made!

Hat festooned with dog and hot-air balloon.

Flowers and Glitter and a fairy

Doggy wearing a hat!

Happy Birthday to The Snowy Day

While planning for the upcoming Winter Picasso's Basement classes beginning next weekend I've thought about how little Winter we've actually seen. I'm grateful this year: we have a new dog and while he loved our one snowstorm I don't really look forward to walking him in freezing rain or down icy streets!

This brought to mind one of my favorite books, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. There is no book that better captures the excitement of a day home playing in the snow. The dreamy yet crisp images. The crunching sounds of the snow under your feet. The neighborhood as it is transformed into a world of new sounds, sights and smells.




As a child I didn't know that this was the first book to feature a black child as the main character. I didn't know the author was white, that people were concerned about white authors portrayals of black characters because they'd never done it well before. I just knew that it was exciting and fun and beautiful all at once      


Keat's characters and his art work stay with you. As a little girl I loved looking at the hats he created in Jenny's hat with fanciful textured collaged patterns. His simple shapes were charming but intriguing. His stories were of everyday events: making hats, painting a chair, playing in snow, putting on a pet show. Around age 8 I started writing my own books. Looking back they were very much influenced by the work of Ezra Jack Keats. Stories about pets in a pet show. Cut outs of people mixed with painted images.

The Snowy Day has turned 50. It makes me realize how important children's books and children's artwork is. That it can continue to excite, to make children want to read and to draw. And to run and play in the snow. Happy 50th to The Snowy Day. I am sure it will be just as exciting to a child in 50 more years!