The Art of Choosing with The English School

The Fifth Graders at The English School of Helsinki collaged whimsical portraits of themselves for our new friends in the Czech Republic. We thought about the art of choosing. What do the things we decide to show and hide tell about ourselves?

We took inspiration from Johnny Amore's humorous collage characters. The young artists cut out textures, images and words from magazines to form a collage representing themselves. It was wonderful to hear laughter around the classroom when the young artists discovered new and unexpected ways to mix and match the clippings out of magazines to form hilarious combinations.

- Nooralotta Ikonen
http://laiskia.blogspot.fi
Dear You Workshop Leader

A Letter from Hanoi

Hello all, 

Last Friday was a very exciting day both here at Just Kids in Hanoi and at Your School in Espoo. After a couple of weeks of working on their artwork, the "Little Mice" had the chance to meet their new friends in Finland and show them their Self Portrait Puppets. They all talked about themselves, their names, age and where they live. Some were a bit shy at the beginning, but, in the end, they all had fun and got a chance to show their artwork.

Many also explained about their favorite things such as, swimming, ice-cream, ninjas, the color pink, blonde hair and even their own countries which they love so dearly. It was a great surprise to see the kids find out that they are not so different after all. They all like similar things. And despite the distance, they where able to spend Friday afternoon together in a fun "show and tell" circle.

We are looking forward to start our next project and to meet "The Tigers" again. We leave you here some of their artwork so you can get to know our artists better.

All the best from Hanoi,

Toti

Meilahden Yläasteen School in Helsinki kicks off their first project!

The eighth graders of Meilahti School in Helsinki, Finland took part in the first Dear You workshop of this fall. We explored our surroundings through Environmental Art. In the upcoming sessions we're going to explore our inner environments with mindful art and top it all with explorations and meetings through performance.

During the first workshop we took our art gear to the park next to the school. We talked about how forms and colors affect the message and harmony of the art work. We took inspiration from Robert Smithson's Jetty Spiral and Kaija Kiuru's Hahmotelmia. Why had Smithson planned his work in a spiral form? Why had Kiuru chosen red strands for her work instead of green?

Most of the participants worked in teams. Every artist took the environment into account while planning and making their pieces.It was wonderful to witness the flow of ideas and how the artists came into a mutual understanding to ripen the ideas into fruition in the short time we had to execute our art work.

Next time we'll start working based on the art we receive from our new friends in Denmark. Can't wait what the wonderful artist of Meilahti school think of next!

- Nooralotta Ikonen
http://laiskia.blogspot.fi
Dear You Workshop Leader

The Tigers are Rrrrready for their Ipevo Skype session with Just Kids in Hanoi!

I learned so much about the Tigers today!  I learned that Aleksi likes to play chess because he drew a chess piece on his self-portrait puppet.  I also learned that Sofi loves the color purple because she gave herself a purple dress.  Now their new friends in Hanoi, Vietnam will also get to know them!

Before we got ourselves covered with glue and markers I first showed them different portraits of artists such as Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso.  This got our mind in the frame of choosing what we would like to tell our new friends about ourselves.

Nachu said, "This puppet is the real me and not the real me!"  

On Friday they will have their first Dear You Skype session using the Ipevo document camera and conference station.  Exciting! 

The Monkeys make Self-Portrait Puppets for their friends in Greenland

I had a great Dear You art workshop today with the Monkeys at Your School in Espoo, Finland!  First, I introduced the art of silhouettes and all the different ways we can incorporate that technique into our own practice.  We looked at classic Indonesian puppetry and contemporary artists such as Kara Walker, who use silhouettes in their artistry.

After that we jumped right into the creative process and made outlines of our bodies for our own puppets.  To incorporate a collective element into this project our friends in Greenland will write their name on our puppet.  It was fun choosing how and what we want to tell our friends for their first impression.

We can't wait to see meet our new friends from Nuuk, Greenland!

Tatjana Knudsen and her 3rd graders in Denmark are ready for Dear You!

Here are some pictures of Tatjana Knudsen's 3rd graders working on their puppets. Tatjana said, "They are just so excited and can't wait to see what they get from their friends in Finland."

Tatjana is the art teacher at Randlevskolen in Odder, Denmark.  They are sharing and making art with the artists at The English School in Helsinki, Finland.