Brainchild Arts and Crafts

09/04/2016

08/19/2016

Afterschool Art Workshops are back starting on September 5th! Click here for more info!
www.brainchildartsandcrafts.com

08/19/2016

Come and see the new fall line of precious clothing for little girls and their mothers at the Belleville Workshop tomorrow, Saturday, August 20th at the Belleville Workshop!

A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, and touches a heart!

Tell us about one of the special teachers in your little's life, so we can send a back-to-school surprise her way. Share below to have the chance to spread a little MJC love.

08/19/2016

Check out our young movie makers final project! The kids did the camera work and the acting. So much fun!! I have DVDs for all of the participants. Heather Usry Heather Butler Blaylock Carrie Drake Melanie Groner Busby

Brainchild Arts and Crafts presents a short film by: Lila Usry Miller Usry Pratt Smith Hayden Smith Macey Busby Jack Blaylock Audrey Drake

08/05/2016

Here's the scene from the Goonies that the kids filmed yesterday and which edited together last night.
https://youtu.be/1PlMmIBrhzg. More to come!

08/05/2016

Movie Makers Camp with the wonderful and talented Michael Williams has been going strong all week. In the mornings we watch a film. So far, we've watched The Goonies, ET, Inside-Out & The Wizard of Oz. And then in the afternoon we learn about acting and movie making by doing activities inspired by the films we've watched. The end goal will be a couple of real scenes, acted in AND FILMED by our students which Michael will edit together for us. In spite of the heat, which limited our ability to film outside, we've had an amazing week so far and look forward to a big day tomorrow. Here's a photo album for you to flip through to get a sense of what we're learning. We'll post the final clips here, so stay tuned!

07/16/2016

In this lesson, students looked closely at the work of Louise Nevelson, known for her abstract sculptures made from cast-off pieces of wood — actual street “throwaways” — uniformly coated with black or white spray paint. We made our assemblages from pieces of 2x4s that we cut to different heights with a mitre saw and glued them onto a plywood panel which we then spray painted white.

Louise Nevelson is one of many great artists (including Pablo Picasso, Jackson Po***ck, Chuck Close, August Rodin, Andy Warhol, and Robert Rauschenberg) who were also dyslexic. There's more about her here: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-nevelson-louise.htm

07/15/2016

Mike Kelley is our inspiration artist for today. We did a mosaic project a little while back based on artist Mike Kelley's memory-ware flats. Kelley references a Canadian folk art called “memory ware.” This art practice is created by using common household objects such as bottles, picture frames, ashtrays and any variety of recycled trinkets and plastering them with sentimental keepsakes: buttons, beads, charms and pendants. I received a donation of about 50 lbs of Mardi Gras beads from Ms. Peggy Walls. We used these beads to create a group mosaic/memory ware flat today. I will deliver this fantastic piece of art to the mom that wants the mosaic the most and has a place for it!

Here's more info on Mike Kelley: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/contemporary-art-evening-auction-n09420/lot.2.html

07/14/2016

Today at the Belleville Workshop our inspiration artist is one of my favorites, Kiki Smith, and then: Word art element / Is Japanese Haiku poem / On finished painting.

07/14/2016

Today at the Belleville Workshop our inspiration artist is one of my favorites, Kiki Smith, and then: Word art element / Is Japanese Haiku poem / On finished painting.
Here's more on Kiki Smith: http://www.walkerart.org/collections/artists/kiki-smith

07/13/2016

Continuing our week of Word Art (and other projects), today's main project was about positive self-talk, choosing a simple mantra, and then making a "prayer beads" inspired charm to remind us of the mantra. I had rosaries in mind, but the students took the prayer beads idea more in the direction of charms.