Art, Books, Kids, and Ideas

Yet another post about books. This time it’s Art books.

I’ve been thinking about my upcoming Summer Camps, and which artists I would like to introduce the kids to this year. This is my favorite, most dreamy (and short), world-is-my-oyster stage of lesson planning.  This is the sweet spot, when I go to galleries, and libraries, trawl the internet, get obsessed with Pinterest projects, and inspired by everything and anything, before the mundane reality of putting pen to paper (or rather, finger to keyboard) takes place. Everything I look at has possibilities; chopping peppers makes me think of a printing project, visiting my pediatrician’s office makes me think of kids painting murals.

Two weeks ago, I took my kids to the National Gallery of Art. They love visiting museums and galleries, and I  was looking for some inspiration to hit me. Our favorite thing to do at the NGA is to visit the kid’s book shop in the East Wing, words cannot describe the deliciousness of that place. We found a lot of cool things. The eight year old found an architecture sticker book, and knitted mice in matchboxes. The four year old found a pop-up castle, dragon puppets, and a half sucked lollipop under a table.

I found these beauties:

The two books I bought

Checking out Calder mobiles at the NGA

Richard Long piece at the NGA

Very tempted to buy this

Calder Sculpture in DC

Both of the books I bought are great for kids, and interactive (although the Calder one is pretty fragile, so the 4 year old will not be playing alone with it). The book on Alexander Calder makes my thoughts go: Hmmm….. mobiles, paper sculptures, pop up books, balance, working with wire, drawing with wire, using found objects, ooh, toy making!! Galimotos.
The Keith Haring line of thought is more: Old Sesame Street animations, Mr Men books, Street Art, Basquiat, Banksy, Warhol, marker pens, poetry, fingerprints, symbols, street signs, color symbolism, emotions. Twister contests!

My brain is doing a happy dance, and my face is kind of dazed. I’m definitely getting that book on Mythological Beasts as well, can you imagine my line of thought on that one? I see Minotaurs, maps, and mazes in a future camp, I’ll get back to you on that one.