Painting has no boundaries

First we were all surprised, interested, curious and sometimes even scared of the paintings we saw: M. C. Escher, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and other surrealist painters, which made us think a little bit and also realize that painting has no boundaries. 

Then, we started painting to Jun Miyake's "Lillies of the Valley". The storm, No teacher, Windy day, The tree, Flowers, Birds of Vietnam or the galaxy are some of the paintings we created. Take a look and you will find much more. 

All the best from Hanoi,
The Little Mice

The Little Mice are exchanging with the Tigers in Espoo, Finland.  Check out what The Tigers did for their Musical Paintings here!

Musical insight from the artists in Vienna, Austria

Hello!

I'm sending you the first pictures of our music-project.

On the left side of the sheets you can see the impressions inspired by Edvard Grieg, Morning Mood. On the right side you can see what children did to the music from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Summer, Presto (The Thunderstorm). Some of them really fell into the music. :)

It was interesting to notice that nearly all children had the same feelings. Morning mood is smooth and clear. A lot of them started to paint with the colour green; they painted nature and "good" things like music, birds - happiness and peace.

Vivaldi's Thunderstorm is very rude and disturbing. They had the feeling of death and threat in different forms like a house is burning or someone is crying for help. Also, bad people are in the pictures.

THANKS A LOT for your candies! We had a lot of fun opening your present and tasting the candies! In Austria we don't eat liquorice, just a few people like it (like me). But the caramel candy and the chocolat were great! They loved it!*

Its always a great moment for the children to get a parcel from far away. We loved the stamps from Finland and the children did not allow me to destroy the paper around the parcel. ;)

Winter and Christmas is coming in Vienna...

Best wishes!!

Simone

*The artists in Vienna, Austria are exchanging with the artists in Vantaa, Finland.

Tunes and Tints at The English School in Helsinki

"Look! The girls are dancing ballet!" a boy from The English School in Helsinki hollers. We're listening to music and some of us are feeling courageous enough to take a step or sway to the beat and melody. The song changes from an old school video game theme to more classical tunes. "A trip to Paris!" a girl says. "An afternoon playing games with my friends." "All of us as video game characters are inside the game!" another artist sees in her mind's eye.

The music stops and it's on to painting! The images inspired by the songs and our dance start appearing on paper in wonderful colors. The paintings tell of dreams, travels and time with friends.

Music is like a key. And different kinds of music equals to lots of different keys to lots and lots of unique worlds! I wonder what sort of doors will our Dear You friends open for us in Praque?

- Nooralotta Ikonen
http://laiskia.blogspot.fi

ps. If you would like to hear what we made our paintings to please click here and here.

The Musical Dears from Vantaa!

Hello Dears!

We have had so much fun and a nice time with our Dear You Art project and music paintings/drawings this week! Our kids listened in their own "small groups" different kind of music from Finnish classical to folk (specially our own national instrument Kantele) and world music (pop) between. And surely they were enjoying a lot also listening in peace while making "pictures".

Finally, they finished their work to an end.  We discussed different kinds of feelings we had. Children mostly told about feeling happiness, joy, pleasure, good and positive emotions and their being safe! Some had exciting feels and also little bit scary too or at least mystic:... "like some big ship by the sea without knowing what is coming next..."  All of them said they could do this again, it was so fun!

Hopefully you have received our big candy present for your kids in Vienna?

Best greetings,
Snowleopards and Anne-Marie

Symbols of Good Times in Meilahti

Mail! We received our earth art pictures from Denmark with the Danish artists' twist on our photos. It's fun how the pieces evolved with their visit in Denmark. We see that the artists there really took the time to sense our world. Thank you!

To keep the communication going we took on the art from Denmark as our inspiration for November's Dear You assignment here in Meilahti, Helsinki. We thought about what symbols could communicate our thoughts of their artwork and our thoughts about the Dear You project in general. The symbols that popped into our minds were ones of mysticism, hope and celebration. We made stencils out of these images and started painting.

After our creative efforts our vast canvas had filled up with shooting stars, meatballs, bottles and variations of the symbols of social media and internet phenomena. This is who we are, this is what we see. Will you catch what we meant? Maybe you will, maybe you won't. The main point is that you try and in doing so, we'll meet each other half way.

- Nooralotta Ikonen
http://laiskia.blogspot.fi

Being in the moment with sounds in Prague

This time at Central Point International Elementary School in Prague we made a visualization of the music project. 

I prepared for the students a long sheet of paper and than while we altogether were listening to music, we tried to express what we heard. The aim was not to create separate individual results of our observations, but we wanted to get closer to the idea of listening together and also creating together. That is why we used this kind of paper. All the students at some point disturbed each other's drawing and had to deal with each other's drawing space, which brought new element into our working method. Hopefully our friend school in Helsinki will recognize the energy locked into the piece.

We listened to:
Flight of the Bumblebee
Amelia from Montmartre
Japanese relaxation music
433 John Cage

- Rudolf Samohejl 

The Musical Tigers get inspired by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky

Art is another form of self expression and today the Tigers taught me a lot about that!  We started the session by looking at artists such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.  These two great artists were very much inspired by music. We talked about the kinds of sounds and music we started to hear when we looked at their paintings. 

Composition 8 (Komposition 8)

Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944). Composition 8 (Komposition 8), July 1923. Oil on canvas, 55 1/8 x 79 1/8 inches (140 x 201 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Castle and Sun

Paul Klee, Castle and Sun

Ancient Sound

Paul Klee, Ancient Sound

Then we listened to some music and hopped along to it to see visually and physically how the rhythm is.  We jumped when the tune was high and crept closer to the floor when it was low.  After we felt comfortable with the music we shimmied to our drawing tables and started painting away to Schneider TM's song called "Frogtoise" and to Nightmares On Wax song, "Les Nuits".  Can you hear the difference through the brushstrokes?

We can't wait to hear what songs our friends in Vietnam created to!

The Monkeys Move to the Beat!

Our bodies react to music sometimes in ways we can't control or foresee. We just have to experience it to believe it! Today we tried to become more aware of why and how that happens.  First, we started off by having a dance party to just let our bodies lose and move to the beat.  Then we dived into our paints and let our dancing hands guide the brush.  The stories created and felt were amazing!  

First we listed to Dean Martin's "Let it Snow". The Monkeys will be performing this song for the Christmas play so it was fun to practice it with them.

When The Monkeys listened to Helado Negro's song titled "Invisible Heartbeat" images of ocean with whales and mermaids came swimming into the artists' minds. We got into groups to create collective paintings. Bringing all of our imaginary worlds together and making them come to life is always exciting!

How do you move, what do you see, how do you feel when you hear certain songs?  What music do you hear when you look at the Monkeys' paintings?  We are excited to see what our friends in Greenland come up with!

Mice wonder, "Candy can be black?!"

Greetings once again from our Finnish Vietnamese group, Tigers and Mice enjoyed last week to the fullest knowing that Halloween was around the corner and they had a terrifying candy bag full of their favorite sweets. Here in Hanoi, we decorated our bags with different shapes and used our imagination and some music to decorate the candy bags, they turned out scary and colorful at the same time! 

Last Friday was our international show and tell circle, we shared candies, jellies, lollipops, marshmallows, and even pancakes and ice cream. We even had a girl that loved flowers so much that thought it would be nice to have them in her candy bag. 

The surprise came when our dear Tiger friends showed us a small piece of black candy... 
- What's that?? Chocolate? no wait chocolate is usually brown...
- Hahahaha, no its something we call liquorish.
- Is it black candy? Ewwwww!

Apparently some colors are not meant for candy if you ask our little mice! Black is definitely one of them... Hopefully they get to taste that Finnish delicatessen one day! 

See you next month Dear you Community and have a nice autumn were ever you are!

Xin chao!

Toti Álvarez

Sweet Times at Helsinki's English School

Have you ever eaten a small black square that tastes like salt and medicine? Well, it's called Salmiakki and it's considered quite a treat here in Finland.

This time in our Dear You workshop we shared delicious tastes and sweet sights as we made candy arc pop-up cards for our friends in Prague.

We drew some candy and glued our art on our pop up card arcs. Then we described in writing what our pictured candy tastes like. Some of our candies were real while others were make believe. They all looked pretty delicious to me!

Everyone can enjoy these sweets, even the ones who are missing a sweet tooth. I hope they munch these sweets up with their eyes back in Prague!

- Nooralotta Ikonen
http://laiskia.blogspot.fi

The Happy Cats from Vienna!

The Cats in Vienna, Austria are curious about their new partners, the Lumileopardit group in Vantaa, Finland. Simone Zobl said, "They are very proud and happy."  It looks it!

A picture has a 1,000 words!

Our friends from Nuuk Internationale Friskole in Greenland have made Self Portraits to start their new friendship with their friends at the International School in Vantaa, Finland.  Click here how the friends in Vantaa worked on their Self Portraits.

Pigeons have arrived in Denmark!

Today at Randlevskolen in Denmark we received this wonderful package from Finland. We look very much forward to show it to my students.

- Tatjana Knudsen

Creative Sensing Across the Baltic Sea

Silence. Not a sound anywhere... except ... Clink! "The sound of keys hitting metal." Wroooom "The sound of the printer working." Fifteen different sounds found in silence.

This time during the Dear You Art Workshop Meilahti's eighth graders focused on their physical senses: touch, vision, smell, taste and hearing. We started off our second workshop with the small meditation on sound. This meditation showed us that silence wasn't that silent at all. Do we take all our body's sensory data as self granted?

We pondered what senses we mostly use when getting around in our day to day lives. Do we just use our eyes or do we open up all our senses to be here now?

Since we don't have the chance to visit our new Danish friends right away, we decided to take a different approach. We drew on top of the printed out photos from Denmark, sensing the environment and artwork they've made through our imagination and our own creative process. We represented our sensory feelings through the use of form, color and lines.

After much creating we made a video message to Denmark, but alas, the camera didn't record. But fortunately we still have these beautiful creative pieces that truly speak for themselves. And so, we'll let the art do the talking on our behalf in Denmark!

- Nooralotta Ikonen
http://laiskia.blogspot.fi

Lotta in Finland and Anaana in Greenland make art together!

Lotta, from Espoo, Finland pulled me aside today to show me the picture she created. Anaana, her friend from Greenland gave her a picture and she drew on top of it. They are making art together! Thank you for sharing and opening up space for each other.

The Tigers are Sweet!

Not only are the Tigers sweet, but they have a sweet tooth and sweet sense of humor!  It was fun talking with them about what kind of candy they like and when they give candy to their friends and families.  Aleksi likes Salmiakki like a good Finn!  

I'm not too sure if their friends in Vietnam can even imagine what Salmiakki tastes like!  Toti, that's going to be an interesting challenge for you to explain :).

This topic started some great stories on the candy bags they sewed together.  For example, Vilma said, "I drew raining lollipops!" Ida and many of the other Tigers drew ice cream and cookies for their friends.  Using autumn leaves the Tigers picked up from the forest adds a beautiful touch to their artwork too!

This was the first time The Tigers practiced writing their new friend's names on their bag.  I'm sure everybody is excited for their next meeting on Skype!

I know I am!
- Arlene Tucker

Sewing, Symmetry and Candy!

The Monkeys and I talked about symmetry and what it means to draw a still life. We found symmetry in the leaves they picked up and we also found symmetry in our bodies. We put the idea of what is symmetrical to use when we created our candy bags!  The compositions The Monkeys made when putting their candy together was great too!

We didn't do any tasting in class, but it was fun to talk about flavors and more importantly, why and on what occasions we give and eat candy.  Halloween is coming up and so this was a fun step towards getting ready for the holiday!  It was mentioned that we also give and eat candy on Easter. We'll have to wait a few more months for that one :)

The Monkeys had great questions for their friends in Greenland.

Nikke asked, "What kind of candy do they have in Greenland?
Minea asked, "Do they like our drawings?"
Lotta asked, "Have they eaten our candy before?"

Thanks Monkeys!
- Arlene Tucker

Great questions from the artists at The International School of Vantaa!

The artists at The International School of Vantaa in Finland are a very welcoming group of 4th Graders!  As I was approaching the school I saw a few kids playing outside and they all ran to me asking if I was Arlene.  Wow!  What a warm greeting for my first time at this school :)

They then took me upstairs to the class where Mary Banda, their teacher, and the rest of the artists were waiting to start creating their first project to be exchanged with Nuuk Internationale Friskole in Greenland.

Mary had the great idea to Google Map where Greenland is in relation to Finland.  This prompted many questions!

What language do they speak in Greenland?

What is the weather like?

How come there is so much snow when it is called Greenland?

Maybe our new friends in Nuuk could help us answer some of these questions.

Here are the Self Portrait Puppets they made.  I like how some artists decided to turn this into an interactive game or took the time create texture with different materials.  They look forward to hearing from their new friends in Greenland!

The 7th and 8th graders at Randlevskolen make Environmental Art

Starting in September 2014 Line Hansen and her artists at Randlevskolen in Odder, Denmark will be creating with the artists at Meilahden Yläaste in Helsinki, Finland.  Below is a bit about their first workshop.

Line said, "Yesterday the 7th and 8th graders at Randlevskolen made environmental art. The students took some great photos and made some very different artwork, but they were all inspired by the nature around the school and the beautiful day that we had yesterday. They were really engaged in the process, and some of them could have continued for hours. They are also vey excited about receiving the artwork from Meilahti school.

We didn't have time for all the documentation and making a video message, but we will do that in our next English lesson on Tuesday. Sadly, we only have three English lessons per week, so we won't have time for working with video and photo editing. However, we would gladly post our video and photos anyway."

It's so wonderful that the participating schools can integrate Dear You into their curriculum. Both groups are learning video and photo editing outside the project with the shot material.

Happy Heijastinpäivä!

October 1 is Heijastinpäivä in Finland.  Heijastin = Reflector and Päivä = Day.  So happy Reflector Day to You!  That means we should get out our reflectors and prepare for darkness to fall.  Winter is coming!  Reflectors should even be given to your pets.  We want everybody to be safe on the street.

Have you ever heard of this kind of celebration?  I wonder if there is such a day in Estonia, Sweden, Greenland, Norway, or Denmark?

Moomintroll reflectors are really popular in Finland!