Clementine At Whole Foods

Clementine Art in the Daily Camera

Not even two years after its founding, Boulder-based Clementine Art will have its line of natural art supplies for children carried by 285 Whole Foods stores nationwide starting the middle of August.

Click on the title for the full article.

Art on the Move

While hot cars and cramped airplanes definitely aren’t the place for mural painting, art explorations while traveling can be simpler and more doable than you might think. With a few offbeat art supplies and a simple bag or pouch, it’s possible to stretch beyond the usual coloring book and crayons to provide low-mess, engaging, and truly creative art experiences for your child. You may even get a moment to crack open that summer novel you’ve been dying to read.

Travel Journal Kit
A truly special vacation should live on in memory. Making a travel journal with your child is a way to combine art, early literacy, and scrapbooking all in the same meaningful activity.

You’ll need:
Carrying case
Journal (you can buy a pretty one, use an office supply notebook, or staple together a stack of printer paper)
Writing and drawing tools: markers (thin and thick tip), crayons, colored pencils
Camera
Glue stick
Envelope—for collecting special treasures—a feather, a ticket stub, a note from grandma

Each day, you and your child can pick one or more memories to record. Children younger than 5 will likely draw their memories and tell the accompanying stories verbally. Parents can record the children's words (preferably verbatim), underneath the drawings in caption or story form (book format helps literacy development). Let your child take the photographs and glue special treasures in the book as well. At the end of your trip, you’ll have a delightful collection of child-centered memories to look back on. Don’t forget to have your child ‘read’ it to you before bed.

The Art of Childhood

It turns out that many of the major, modernist painters of our time, including Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro, were influenced by the art of children.

The NY times spoke of Paul Klee and his place in "modernist tradition that sought refuge from academic constraints in the somewhat mythical paradise of an untrained eye that sees the world afresh, a childlike hand still unshackled by habit and skill."

This is an article worth reading.

Active Art

Flying cotton balls? Splatting stockings? Tire swing painting? Some art projects were just made to be done with the whole body. If the typical art project is akin to a tea party with crayons, these high-velocity, active, and messy art explorations are the trampoline. They engage the big motor muscles, developing eye-hand coordination, balance, hand and wrist strength, agility, and motor planning. For parents who like to stay active, it just takes paint, paper, and a few common household items to create a head-to-toe art experience for your fast-moving child.
Cotton Ball Splat
Ages: 2–10
You’ll need:
Bag of cotton balls
Large sheet of easel paper
Liquid watercolor paint* mixed with water (or food coloring mixed with water until it works like paint)
Bowls for paint
Splat Away
Tape or pin the easel paper to an outdoor fence or wall. You can also leave the paper on the ground, but the effect is a bit less dramatic.
Fill your bowls with liquid watercolor/water or food color/water mix. Stand back from the paper about 2–6 feet (younger children closer). Your child will dip the cotton ball in the paint and throw it at the paper. Try different colors, different styles of throwing, and different quantities of paint. The resulting mural will be a colorful, abstract, and glorious exploration in color, movement, and physics.
Modification: Fill some spray bottles with paint and water and spray away! Liquid watercolor paint is available at Discount School Supply.

Mindful Mama

I love this website/e-zine. It's a lovely little corner of the internet about thoughtful ways to parent, cook, purchase, and all while taking care of the environment. Great content, cozy design. It's a winner.

Anything Goes

At Clementine Studio, an art space for children in Boulder, CO, I often set up an art activity called ‘Anything Goes.’ I arrange a six foot table with the most inviting materials I can find: colorful paper and wooden shapes, tubes, cubes, spools, and baskets overflowing with embellishments; bright pom-poms, bendy pipe cleaners, funky buttons, sparkly glitter shakers, glue, scissors, and vibrant bowls of creamy tempera paint.

Much of the time, children approach the table tentatively, look longingly at all of the inviting materials, and turn to ask:

“What am I supposed to make here?”

“Well my friend, what do you want to make? You can make anything.”

After I watch the child’s face light up in anticipation of the possibilities in the word ‘anything,’ very often, I watch it fall again when the child realizes that there are no directions for making ‘anything,’ and self-doubt sets in.

This moment is the magical, possibility-filled moment of the day. I call it the creative edge; a defining element of both art and the creative process. When a child is inspired by the challenge to create something new, she has met her creative edge.

A child engaged in the creative process feels challenged because every area of her brain is engaged. The creative process develops both right and left brain abilities to dream, plan, brainstorm, problem-solve, synthesize, interpret, express, and execute an original vision.

As a parent, you are likely interested in helping your child develop her creative abilities. When choosing art activities for your child, you’ll want to make sure that the activity you provide has the potential to support the development of real creativity.

A child’s creative edge is a magical place. When encouraged to explore this place in their own way, children learn to think creatively. The act of creation is natural, joyful, nourishing, and developmental for children. When you provide opportunities for your child to engage in creative thinking, stand back and be prepared to watch her glow, hum and shine.

Look for this article in Mindful Mama magazine. www.mindful-mama.com