Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Styrofoam Cups as your Canvas?! What if??

As I have said many times to my students, whenever I ask myself the question "what if?", great leaps in imagination occur.  When I was young, this used to get me in a lot of trouble.  Today, as an artist, this serves me very well.  

 Recently, a friend shared with me an artist who is an example of this idea of "what if?".  His name is Cheeming Boey and here is his story and some images to inspire you to have a "what if" moment of your own!


Cheeming Boey is a game designer and animator based in Newport Beach, California. He creates designs on styrofoam cups using ordinary sharpie pens. 

 
Boey chose cups for their availability. "People draw on napkins, receipts, wood. I was outside a coffee shop and had the urge to sketch while people watched. I found a foam cup on top of a trash can, and it was all I had, so that was what I worked with."
 

He often lapses from one art style to another. " I don’t like to limit myself to a distinct drawing style. I want to be able to branch out as much as possible. I think that has worked to my advantage, because different styles appeal to different crowds," he explains.
 

Following an incredible amount of buzz on the internet and articles in American newspapers such as The Orange County Register, Boey’s cups have now been featured in galleries as well. He sells them for hundreds of dollars!
 
This is a really creative way to display the cups.


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Children's Art Camp

I had the most amazing experience last week that I want to share.  I was contacted to teach a Children's Art Camp at the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati.  It was very stressful at times, because I had 25 students with ages ranging from 7 to 11!  Not an ideal age group, but at the end of camp, it was so fulfilling to see their smiles and totally worth all of the stress.  I kept thinking I was not reaching the students, then I looked at their artwork and realized I was so very wrong!  Their paintings were amazing!

I will share just a few photos of the children and their work.  I hope you are as inspired as I am!

This is Emaan in her beautiful head dress the girls wear before prayer time.  Emaan was one of the most quiet in the class, yet when I look at this painting I see she might have a different side to her!
Salwa was one of my favorite students!  She reminded me of a beautiful faerie!  She always had a smile on her face, no matter what.  I snapped this photo right before she went into prayer - I thought to myself, of course she has a sparkly head dress!  She was such a delight to have in class!

This painting was done by Noreen, one of the older students.  It is very well drawn and very colorful!  Noreen is in the photo below, in the very back to the right of me.
This was the very last day of camp - the little girl in the white shirt's name was Zania - she told me it meant "beautiful" - so I called her Beautiful all week during camp!
One day my daughter, Lauren stopped by to visit - the children loved her!  They acted like she was a rock star or something!  She was only there for about 10 minutes and they asked for her autograph and swarmed around her.  I asked them why they made such a fuss about her and they said, because she was so pretty! :)

This is Sara's painting - she was one of the younger children....

This painting belongs to Ahmad (seen in the photo on the right, sitting in the left chair) - he was only 7 years old.  Ahmad was one of a set of triplets that were in the class - 2 boys and 1 girl - I could not take my eyes off of them for one second or they would be running around the tables!! :)  Wally, his friend, is sitting here with the baseball hat - both boys were sweet, however they were typical boys too!!



Friday, July 6, 2012

An Inspiring Young Artist

An Inspiring Young Artist

I was inspired this week by the dedication of such a young talent and thought I would share with you...

This past week I have spent time in my studio with a very talented, 11 year old, artist named Raegan.  She has been studying with me off and on for about 3 years.  She now lives in Florida and comes home occasionally to visit family.  Whenever she comes in town, she asks to study with me in my studio!

Here is her process through pictures.....




The final painting!  Raegan is only 11 years old!  How amazing & inspiring!