The first week of New Art Center’s summer art camp is complete!
In our children’s camp, we have been having such a wonderful week, learning about contemporary Black artists and the Elements of Art.
In 2D, instructor Janet Scudder taught students about Rob Gibbs, a Boston-based mural artist who paints larger than life Black portraiture, drawing on concepts of Afrofuturism and non-Wester cosmologies. Students painted their own murals, on a much smaller scale (see below).
A miniature city-scape in 2D class, inspired by artist Rob Gibbs.
In 3D, our instructor Eric Wyche asked the question “Do you know why the caged bird sings?” and students created their bird cages, constructed with colored paper, paying homage to the late and great Maya Angelou.
3D constructed bird cages, inspired by Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Instructor Jory Cherry has been showing students the many different ways clay can be used to construct and create. Together, they looked at artist Kimmy Cantrell, who creates asymmetrical faces in order to challenge traditional ideas of beauty. “I want to show the beauty within flaws,” Cantrell explains. “Imperfections tell stories that are far more compelling than perfection.”
Abstract beauty in clay class, inspired by artist Kimmy Cantrell.
As always, instructor Danny Bolton is hard at work directing our student performances. While some groups are working off a pre-written script, others have chosen to write their own. We are all looking forward to watching the plays as a camp on Friday!
Riley Borst has been getting our students movin’ and groovin’ in their Movement class. We have channeled our inner animal, played four corners, and stretched our bodies in between studio classes.
Over in our Teen Studios…
In our 2D studio for teens, we are working on Mixed Media Landscapes with instructor Alex Alderete. We began the week with a walk together to nearby Avery Park, drawing from observation from the nature, architecture, and animals within the park, as well as taking photographs to serve as reference in the making of later works during the week.
Creating a pictorial space with a foreground, middle-ground, and background, as well as working from imagination has been our main focus this past few days. The landscape has primarily been a vehicle to unlock our imaginations in order to create personal, visual stories.
We have used our initial drawings and photographs from nature to create a mixed-media piece, and incorporated techniques such as collage and materials like colored paper and sheet music. This work, along with our drawings from nature we reviewed together in the form of a critique, giving us a chance to share and speak about our work with each other in a critical way.
Critique and discussion
Ceramics Studio
Students also created a city in our driveway by planning the city with chalk, and creating the buildings with clay on top.
That’s it for week one! Thanks to our Children’s Camp Coordinator Kalee, and Teen Coordinator, Mursal, for help with this post.
Join us again! Space is still available in Week 3 of our summer camps… Contact Marte in the front office at 617-964-3424.
