Hello out there to everyone in the Do Art Nation!
It’s been an amazing fall season of art and art workshops. It seems like every day we get to meet new people, engage in new and fascinating challenges, and make our ART just a little bit better!
We were recently out at my home library, Ella Johnson Memorial Library in Hampshire IL, for our Paint A Drum Workshop! Jerry’s mom Karen met me at the library, and we rearranged their programming room for an AWESOME day of painting and crafts!
The kids, as always, thrilled us with their creativity, making brilliant use of the stencils. Karen, as always, was invaluable, and with her help we were able to get all the kids to make a drum in an hour. Special shout out to one attendee, who finished his drum early and painted a rainbow monster with extra sharp teeth.
Watching all these other kids work on their crafts had me thrilled, and even a bit jealous. With Paint a Drum style workshops, you often spend so much time assisting people in their artistic projects that there’s little time for anything else. This means that the workshops themselves are a blur of color and delight, but I left this workshop, as I often do, with a longing to make a drum of my own. I get real joy and tranquility from the act of painting, with its patient application of layers of paint, the opportunity at every moment for innovation and subtlety. The idea of applying this, not to a flat surface, but something 3 dimensional, had me ready and willing to take up construction paper and recycled container, to make something awesome.
So on Sunday, Jerry gathered his mom, his niece, and his nephew, and we all made drums together! In a kitchen setting, with fewer and more self-reliant artists (Jerry’s niece and nephew are quite accomplished artists themselves, and needed little help with glue, scissors, or paint), I found myself with the leisure to experiment.
I wasn’t quite as fancy as Jerry, who started cutting out pieces of cardboard paper (like Matisse near the end of his life), and created elaborate patterns of flame. Instead, I glued the paper to the drum and began to paint. Little by little the picture took shape–a steam boat on the ocean, with a sky of stars behind it and two googly eyes cheekily placed in the foreground.
Jerry and co were still working on their drums by the time I headed home. The results are fascinating–each person using their abilities and inspiration to make something completely different. Whether Jerry (who made the aforementioned fire drum with cardboard pieces and paint) or his mom (who made more use of the stickers and twine), each drum reflected in its own way the creativity, the curiosity, and the personality of the artist. The “Paint a Drum” workshop, because it blurs the line between artistic media, really allows these particularities to shine through. Are you a stencil person? Do you like to draw out your design? Do you want to experiment with color and contrast? Do you want to make something WACKY with stickers? It’s up to you!
So I get to start my week with a bevy of creative memories, absolutely excited for what the future brings to Do Art. What have you been working on? What new artistic projects have you found to bring joy and creativity to the fall season? Let us know!
