...the Bronx Is Up and the Battery's Down...the people ride in a hole in the ground....

I'm looking forward to representing Picasso's Basement at the upcoming Fanwood Green Fair on June 26th and that got me to thinking about the wonderful projects the kids have done with recycled items. I always save and reuse what I can, from cereal boxes to yogurt cups to bottles.

Months ago I told you about our  Upcycled New York City. Well here it is! I still have to poke the holes in the background and add the strand of lights so it will look like night stars. But I figured I'd better get this posted before another 2 months pass!

Watch Out! King Kong is on the loose!

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Lincoln Center complete with taxis

Chrysler Building with Empire State Building in the background

Riddle me this, Batman!

I got one for you.


Q: What does a vinyl Thompson Twins album, a Barbie doll shoe and an egg carton have in common?

Give up?
A: I can use them ALL as art supplies!`



I have many generous friends who have literally kept Picasso's Basement going by supplying me with their refuse. Several parents of Picasso's Basement students recently asked what else the art room could use. My list is long and everchanging but I've done my best to put together a current list. If you have anything listed that you'd like to contribute or you have something new (or old) and exciting that you think you'd like to pan off on me donate, please drop me a line!

1. Clear square CD Cases. Really. With or without enclosed CD
2. Egg Cartons (Plastic for great paint trays, styrofoam/cardboard are saved for crafts)
3. Bubble Wrap (the small bubbles, not the big ones)
4. Rounded small Applesauce/Fruit containers 
5. Extra craft supplies you're getting rid of! (Wait! Why would you get rid of it?! Well, IF...)
6. Old maps
7. Buttons
8. Pencils 
9. Erasers
10. Wooden frames
11. Plywood Scraps (big enough to cut into small signs with a jigsaw)
12. Printer paper
13. Vinyl albums and singles (do you remember these?)
14. Bottle caps. (Yes. Still.)
15. Laundry detergent bottles, preferably brightly colored ones
16. *Teeny tiny toy pieces (Gumball machine items, Polly Pocket dolls and accessories. Letter blocks etc.)
17. Old magazines for cutting up.
18. Things with weird textures. (I know. It's vague. Use your imagination. Have a strip of mesh food baggies? It's fantastic for printmaking!)
19. Art books
20. Art posters
21. Lampshades

If you want to know what the teeny toy pieces are good for take a look at this fabulous piece created by one of my Middle School students:

Assemblage ala Louise Nevelson

And if I haven't said it enough, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU  to all of those whose generous contributions have kept my art program going! 

We Built This City On Rock and Roll...and we Recycled Too!

Mutant Schnauzer Attacks City!

OK. Not really. This is, of course a teaser about the latest Picasso's Basement project.

In all my time of teaching Picasso's Basement classes the most popular project ever was my Russian Byzantine Architecture  project when the artists created a Byzantine inspired cathedral out of recycled food boxes, cups, plastic and styrofoam. It has been the most requested project by all the artists here. They worked together to form one big building which now sits in my art studio. It taught them a little bit about Russia, architecture, recycling, and mostly teamwork. 

And so it begins....

I wanted them to learn more about all styles of architecture and since we are so close to New York City I knew the kids would really get excited about this. 

I started by saving all sorts of interesting boxes, cans, tubes and containers. I painted them white and tossed them in a giant crate. The students have to pick through to find what they think will work to help them best represent the buildings' architectural elelments. 

There will be more to come of this project in the next couple of weeks as I have two groups of artists working on this, each group working for 2 weeks. 

Taking a break. After all, the Empire State Building
wasn't built in a day!

Hard at work on the Guggenheim Museum

So far the students have learned about many kinds of architecture including:

• Art Deco (Empire State and Chrysler Buildings)
• Renaissance Revival (Flat Iron Building)
• Beaux-Art (Washington Square Arch, Main Branch of the NYPublic Library)
• Gothic (St. Patrick's Cathedral)
• Post Modern (the Lipstick Building)

Plus they have mastered how be inspired without creating an exact replica and, most importantly how to make the most out of an empty fruit container!

So stay tuned please! There will be much more to come!

Oh, and don't forget to vote for Picasso's Basement at

 Circle of Moms Top 25 Creative Mom Blogs. 

2 days of voting to go!

This Is Not A Marker

My students love markers. Why? Beats me. I do like using an archival non-bleeding pen for my illustrations but as a child I was never a marker fanatic. Always preferred pencils, paint and collage, etc. Perhaps the marker selection wasn’t as abundant when I was a kid. Did we only get tiny packs of primary colors? I don’t remember. But I do know what a challenge it is to get some kids away from the markers. Some of my kids challenge me when I pull out any other material.

So my goal for my last single summer class before my upcoming Picasso’s Basement Camp in August was to come up marker project that I loved and thought they would enjoy.

Let ‘em go marker crazy!

I did a little thinking and, although I did alter it, in the end I have to credit one of my favorite art teacher blogs called There's a Dragon in my Art Room http://plbrown.blogspot.com/ for this lesson. She leaves this project for her substitute teachers because it is so easy to set up. But I fell in love with it for several reasons:  

1. It involves a lot of creativity. 
2. It encorporates recycling. I’m a recycling freak.
3. It requires very little prep work. Always a nice factor in the summer. 
4. It allows the kids to work with those darned markers.

First we read a wonderful picture book called Not A Box by Antoinette Portis. Simple plot: A rabbit is sitting in a box and is asked “why”. Because it’s NOT A BOX! It’s a ship. Why is he sitting on the box? Because it’s NOT A BOX! It’s a volcano! The book was for much younger children than those in my class that day, but I was surprised to find that they enjoyed predicting what the rabbit would do next with the box and were also quick to guess the moral: With some creativity and imagination you can make something into something else!

I dug through my collection of scratched and damaged CDs for this project, but also set out a pile of recycled soda bottle caps.  I kept a hot glue gun handy at a safe distance from the kids.

I pre-glued the CD’s on large sheets of heavy paper using the glue gun. The Picasso’s Basement Artists were told that they weren’t CDs and that their assignment was to surprise me by turning them into something else by drawing around them. With markers. (Imagine the delight of those marker-loving kids!) I gave them the option of adding bottle caps.

I also suggested that they could title their work.

Gentle readers, kindly remind me that in the future I should specify that they put the title and their names on the BACKS of the drawings. Luckily in this case the titles seemed to add to the wackiness of the artwork! Here’s a sampling of the pictures they came up with:

The Space Craft 

The Space Ship

The Eyeball

The Lady Bug

National Tiki Day

I'll start by acknowledging that I am waaaaaay overdue for a new post. And believe me, more are on the way. But I have an excuse. My poor old emac computer (posthumously named Fergus) completely, utterly and totally fried itself. I'm talking toast. Flambe. It took 3 days for my attic to stop smelling like a weenie roast. Luckily some kind friends have helped me set up shop again and I'm back to work.

So until that new post is ready I give you some inspiration from my wonderfully creative 7 year old who, last week, declared a "National Tiki Day". It required the wearing of costumes during dinner, an abundant supply of fruit (perhaps to humor the hungry Tiki gods), and of course some great homemade tiki decorations. 

Given that a busy day of football watching and shelf dusting was already in progress we had to use whatever supplies we could find to make our tiki decorations. "And what would that be" you ask? (Go ahead, ask!)  Why, the cardboard inserts from toilet paper rolls and a strand of holiday lights. The results speak for themselves.