community artwork - countdown 'til paint time!

Hi all!

The last couple of weeks has been full of creative life ... I've been reworking and finalising the designs for the community mural, getting the painting materials organised, as well as working on 2 artist books for an exhibition mid year, plus starting back teaching kids art classes a couple of afternoons a week for the new term. Busy Bee!
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In wonderful news, the final design submission was approved this week! Yay! Which means that next week I'll be elbow deep in delicious paint and a 70 metre long wall!! The wall has already been cleaned, sealed, undercoated and painted in the background colour 'sandstone' by council, ready for us to paint next week. I'm so glad I didn't have to do it - wall prep is a huge job!
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In the meantime, I'm working on sourcing all of the materials for the mural, creating stencils and templates of the pattern designs, finalising measurements and a few other loose ends.
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The overall design was slightly re-worked to a little look more like a plaited river weaving into and around itself, than a long slithery snake. I've also added some splashes in here and there to illustrate the water theme (click on pic above for better detail), and tweaked the colour palette to match the true colour swatches for the mural. The reason the overall design has been kept so simple is because the wall mural area is situated in a thoroughfare, so we needed to create a design that will keep the traffic moving. The simplicity of the design will also lend itself well to highlight the feature designs that insert into it ...
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And here's a sneak peak of the pattern designs that will 'fill' the wavy spaces in the mural! I'm making templates of each of the design icons, which will be reused over and over to create a repetitive pattern on the wall. The colour of the wave on the full mural design above, corresponds to the coloured pattern design shown here:
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kids exhibition!

Woohoo!
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The very first artworks have arrived to be exhibited on my kids art blog, Creative Kids Oasis.
They are wonderful!
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Last week I put out a call for ideas, and the lovely Sally from Caffeinated Prints gave me some great feedback about generating more interest in Creative Kids Oasis. She suggested that maybe someone needs to exhibit first before others feel safe to submit their artworks, and then Voila! In come 2 gorgeous new artworks! They are from my lovely nieces Brooke and Immy.
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Check out our very first exhibiting artists here!! http://creativekidsoasis.blogspot.com/
(Yes, I AM excited about this!)
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If you have any helpful hints for me to generate more interest in this fab opportunity for kids to exhibit their artwork online, I'd love to hear your comments, emails or kid's artworks!!
creativekidsoasis@hotmail.com or chrissy_foreman@hotmail.com
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Yippee! Talk soon xx

community mural - design submission

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Dum-de-dum-dum-daaaa (hum along with this in your head & think 'suspense film music').

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The overall designs are finally complete for the community mural. I've sent them off to the funding body so I guess I'll find out what they think soon enough. Here they are regardless! The mural will be painted along a thoroughfare, so it was important to create the design in a way that keeps human traffic moving, rather than stopping to enjoy fine detail on the wall. Click on the top design (1) for a better view.

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Specs:
1. 3 design workshops were held with community groups: Disability Arts organisation, Kindy group, Local Resident Artists. Over 50 drawn designs were collected as basis for mural development. Drawings were based on over 20 historical community stories about the local river.
2. Overall mural concept (see 1) & close up excerpt of mural concept (see 2). Indicates colour scheme & general design only.
3. Colour palette was selected from a design session drawing submission. (see A & B)
4. Overall flowing river concept selected (see 1) based on repetitive use of ‘wavy lines’ during community design workshops.
5. The River is broken into long thin coloured sections to represent repetitive community references to ‘rafting logs’ down the river. (see 2)
6. River ‘waves’ to be filled with repetitive use of community design elements to create patterns. Actual pattern designs will vary. (see C)
7. Text excerpts selected from community stories provided will be stencilled onto mural.
8. Background colour selected to represent sandstone ledge along riverbank.

feedback wanted!

Hello to all of my valued blog-friends out there. I have a question for you all and I'd like you to be totally honest if you could take a moment to help me out ...

A little over a month ago I launched a new blog called Creative Kids Oasis

(Here's the address in case you haven't checked it out already: http://creativekidsoasis.blogspot.com/)

Basically I love working with kids & art & sharing positive opportunities to feel good ... So each week on Creative Kids Oasis I come up with a positive & creative project for kids, and the blog space serves to exhibit the resulting artwork created based on the art workshops offered.

I've had heaps of great feedback from people, saying what a wonderful idea it is ~ but alas, not one response has been sent through!!

So it got me thinking ~ Do any of you guys have any tips of ideas that might make it more appealing? What works? What could be improved on?

Here are some hypothesis' I've come up with:

1) It's a fun idea for the kids to do the workshop, but in the 'too hard basket' to scan/photograph the artworks and email them through.

2) It's a good idea in theory but many parents may not have time to pass it onto their kids or sit with younger ones to do it.

3) All of the great feedback I've received have been from adults ~ maybe should it be open to adults also/instead?

4) I'm just jumping the gun and I should relax and allow more time for it to 'take off'.

5) A blog is more 'hidden' than a website - maybe it should be a website instead to reach more people.

6) The workshops aren't appealing to kids

7) Art workshops are better in person, rather than online

If you guys agree or disagree with any of the above OR have your own ideas, I'd really appreciate hearing from you! And I can take constructive criticism ~ honesty is my bag baby!

Thank You guys xx

community mural - design sessions 2 & 3

Yesterday was the second design session for the community mural I'm currently working on ~ this time with a kindy group!

Much the same concept as design session #1 with the disability arts organisation; we offered historical stories about the river to the group and asked the children to respond.

This workshop reiterated the precise reason why I love working with children ~ their imagination.

Where the original stories we'd discussed with the kids involved historical takes of swimming and fishing in the river; the children offered visual responses including (but not limited to) mermaids, self portraits, fashion parades and raining dots. So, so beautiful!

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The third design session involved gathering with a few residential artists for their ideas, which proved to be very exciting also.

So, now that we have all of the design content, it's time to sift through them all and find recurrent/popular themes and negotiate ways to weave the different ideas into an overall mural concept. We've made a start; thinking in simple, bold patterns and monochromatic colour slabs (prelim sketches below). It may not look much at the moment, however the concept in motion is shaping up to be very savvy indeed! In the next week or so the overall design concept should be complete, ready to send off for council approval ~ keep your eye out!!

C xx

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inspirational quotes

I have always loved hearing an inspirational, optimistic quote.

This morning I was sent a whole document of them, so I've plucked out my top 10.

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~ Think of each day as a special gift and unwrap it gratefully.

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~ What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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~ Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits. Robert Louis Stevenson

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~ Make it a rule of life never to regret and never look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it is only good for wallowing in. Katherine Mansfield

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~ I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars. Og Mandino

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~ In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer. Albert Camus

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~ I can't see, and this is why I can be so happy in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God‑made world, not a man‑made world. Helen Keller

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~ I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship. Louisa May Alcott

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~ Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. Einstein

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~ Grey skies are just clouds.

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Do you have a favourite quote too? I'd love to hear them ~ share your inspiration!

workshop

This weekend I attended THE most fabulous colour workshop, facilitated by the extraordinary Sophie Munns. To say that I am newly inspired by colour is an understatement~~!!!

The workshop content focused on our relationship to colour through taste, touch, sound, music, smell, relationships, memories, feeling, journalling, preferences and oh, so so much more!! So, so great!

My camera is on the blink (literally - it just blinks instead of actually working) so when I get it fixed I'll upload some of the workshop content. Ahh - feeling refreshed and energised! Thanks Sophie!!!!