A Taste of Japan

The Chicklet has been wanting to go to the Arizona Museum for Youth to see the Jump to Japan exhibit. We went on Sunday, the first Sunday of the month. Mesa has free admission to their museums on the first Sunday of the month so we expected it to be crowded. Boy, was it!A little store. Lots of fun, colorful stuff. It was meant to show some of the toys, comics, and characters that Japan is known for.
The Chicklet has almost outgrown children's museums. There was no way she was going to fit in one of these cute kimonos.There were different areas of Japanese culture to explore. Hand painted scrolls.A creature to hang out with while waiting for the bus.Helloo! I'm driving a cat! I must be going pretty fast, I'm a bit of a blur.

The exhibition ends this coming weekend. Take your kids or grandkids but the museum closes at 4pm! We tried going a month ago thinking they closed at 5pm and there was only 20 minutes left before closing.These caught my eye. "Gyotaku," Japanese fish printing. I picked up a vocabulary card for this very technique last month at the Arizona Art Education Association State Conference.Fish in motion, fun! Fish are inked and then a print is pulled showing off the textures and features of the fish. I was telling my 3rd graders about this exhibition and I remembered that I have some rubber fish made to explore this technique. I went fishing in the storage room and pulled out a set of fish, another of insects and one of leaves.

Third grade has only 3 more classes in Art before Fall break so I think we could have some fun pulling prints and combining it with a color lesson too. We finished a very intense unit of drawings of flowers and watercolor painting.Flowers and fish. My 3rd graders should be nature experts!
Marissa

Art and Recycling

Collage/assemblage enthusiasts, found object lovers, hunters, gatherers, tinkerers-Go see this exhibition at the Arizona Museum for Youth in Old Downtown Mesa. I read a short write up on the exhibition and I zeroed in on the picture of a sculpture made from found objects, watches, jewelery, etc.

It is the museum for youth so take your kids (or don't, there were plenty of screaming babies to go around). The Chicklet was joined by a friend and the girls kept busy with the hands on activities while I took in all the artwork. The theme of the exhibition was art made from discarded materials. Most of the artists were new to me. There's a couple I'm going to google.
OK, here's my little photogenic wonders. Once again, photography wasn't allowed in the exhibition. We took a walk across the street and visited "Betty" the elephant. Gotta love the street art along Main Street although Betty is on Robson.Have the planets aligned or was I just otherwise occupied and didn't realize how much high quality art there is to see in Phoenix? Three shows in two monthes and they're all hits, (and I'm picky). Next on the list-Phoenix Art Museum: Art of the Jumpsuit via the new light rail. Woo hoo, can't wait for a ride on our new Metro line. It opens this Sat.

It's the first week of winter and this is what it looks like:Winter in Phoenix...

I've been taking a lot of pictures of shadows lately. The distraction of colors and textures is taken away and all that's left is line and shape.

Marissa