A very important note!

I came into work and found that this had been left after one of our children's groups.

It really made me smile, so I thought I'd share it with you!

It's a great reminder that sometimes all people need to be creative is time and support to follow their own ideas.

Alice a week later....

Here is the second in the series of Alice drawings, it is by the same artist as the previous 'Big Alice' picture, in this picture Alice is the right size to get through the door but discovers it is locked and that the key to open it is on the table!













I couldn't resist putting up another 'Big Alice' picture!
Especially when the colour is as riotous as it is in this work!

Altered images

This week for our light graffiti project we worked on altering our own image

We took photo's using the digital camera

and used the computer to change how we looked!

A lot of laughing went on while we were working!

We found making the changes very funny

- especially on the photo's of the staff!

A little bit of history...

Please visit we are poets and read about a small slice of our history, it's below this picture and is titled Shine!

Another step down the rabbit hole...

Here's a fabulous piece of finished 'big Alice little Alice' work!

In this picture Alice is too big to fit through the door!


There's so much detail in the picture, what a fabulous portrait of March Hare hanging on the wall!

Masks

We made these glazed clay masks as part of a project about Native American Indians.

We talked about the shapes and symbols that were used in traditional art, we looked at pictures of totem poles and then we used this as inspiration for our own work.

We worked with a local ceramic artist, who showed is how to use objects, like pen lids, to make marks in our clay and how to cut out shapes and stick them on using 'slip' which is a mix of clay and water.

We glazed our masks, but before they were fired the colours looked very dull and nearly all the same, so it was a great surprise when we got them back to see how bright and shiny they looked!

Super-duper Hero's!!!

One of our children's groups has been working on a project about superhero's!
We talked about what powers a superhero might have, what clothes they would wear and what they would be called!

We made these models of them,
aren't they super!

You can see the magic lightening shooting out of them if you look closely!

Big and little Alice...

Do you remember the bit in Alice in Wonderland when she eats the cake and grows then drinks from the bottle and shrinks?!

That's what we worked on this week BIG and little Alice's!

We drew a middle size Alice and used the photocopier to alter the scale...

...we talked about scale and about the difference between A2 and A5 paper (the bigger the number the smaller the paper is how we're going to remember it!)

Next session we'll be creating the background's for our Alice's to fit in!

Memories of last summer...

During the summer months when school and colleges are on holiday we run both children's and adults Summer Schemes.
Last year at the adult scheme talked about life in Medieval times.


As you can see from the picture we made suits of armour, our steads, lances and shields and staged a mock joust on our front lawn!!

There were 4 Knights, each with a herald to announce them (complete with cardboard trumpet and coat of arms) and a squire, we had a crowd of 'peasants' dressed up to watch and cheer!
Our knights had targets on their shields and paint on the end of their lances, we jousted for points!

Our Chief Exec, Operations and service managers were the royal family, we decorated our gazebo as a tent for them to sit in!

We invited our office staff to come and watch,
it was SO much fun,
It's great when something brings everyone together,
so that we remember we're a working 'family'
as well as a business!

The only problem is that next year we have to do something that's just as much fun! We're talking about possible themes at the moment, look out for lots of photo's over the summer months!

Everything was made from recycled stuff... cardboard boxes, fabric remnants from a local curtain shop, old Christmas decorations, mop handles!!!

A couple of takes on a Knights introduction!

Identity

This print is part of a series of works about identity,

who we are, what makes us unique.

It is based on the artists finger print.

Poetry from the same project can be found
on 'we are poets', under the blog title
'What do you see when you look at me?'

who gives a hoot?

The rabbit in that beautiful wax resist collage certainly looks like it does!

Thoughts of half a world away...

Today it was so cold in our room.

We were glad it was a music and movement day so that we could keep warm!

There was a bit of moaning going on, until someone reminded us that on the other side of the world in Australia people are dying in terrible fires.

This picture was created after the artist visited his sister, who lives in Sydney. It is titled 'Harbour Bridge and Opera House'

We decided that not only should we stop complaining about the temperature in our room,

but that we should post this picture,

so that the people who's lives have been effected by these terrible fires

know that on the half the world away

we are thinking about them.

Who's afraid of technology?!

The next step in our light graffiti project!

Today we used Photoshop to change some of the photo's we have taken for the project so far!

These photo's are going to form part of a HUGE projection that will be the lighting and the back drop for a new performance dance piece that we've been working on...

...didn't we mention we are dancers too!!?!

Loving snowy days!

WHY?!?




This morning we took bottles of water mixed with food colouring outside and 'painted' the snow by squeezing the liquid through a hole in the bottle cap!

We also made a giant snow.... chunk? wheel?!

Then we painted it! It looked like graffiti written all over the snow!

We also made lots of patterns, we wrote our names, we painted clothes on our snowman!
Thank goodness another group had been baking this morning, there were warm cup cakes and mugs of tea waiting for us!

Still wondering why we're loving snowy days!?

Alice update...

Yesterday we talked about the beginning of Alice in wonderland, the part where she falls down the rabbit hole!

We drew Alice and the things that she saw as she fell down the hole...




In the pictures you can just about see that we attached Alice to a long black cable tie with a paper clip, so that she actually 'falls' through the picture!




The photo's really don't do our work justice!

More soon, keep watching!!

Advice PLEASE!!!

Our sister group 'we are poets' are collecting advice!

Please send them your pearls of wisdom!

Your advice can be about anything,

life,
love,
something your Mother used to tell you,
how to spread butter on crackers without them breaking!!

Please keep it clean, remember it will be read by people with additional support needs.

Send advice to:

wearepoets@hotmail.com

Tell us who and where you are and that you heard about the project on our blog too - if you don't mind!

Thanks!