The World Art class is having a good time being Egyptian scribes. We have been studying their writing, hieroglyphs. Can you decipher Cate’s ancient Egyptian curse? E-mail your guesses to rumphius@creativityunhinged.com. Go to our flickr page on the left toolbar to see more photos!  Hint:  Find a hieroglyph key at the following link:

http://www.jimloy.com/hiero/yourname.gif

What do you do to find inspiration?  Being creative is basically what my job is all about- and it is hard to feel inspired when there is a house to be cleaned, bills to pay and errands to run.  And, it can be tricky for kids to also feel inspired when they go to art class after a day at school.  So, last week, we explored ways to unwind from sitting in a desk for most of the day and to gear up our imaginations in order to create wonderful works of art.  We listened to Saint-Saens, Vaughan Williams and even music from Singin’ in the Rain.  We also played fun theater games that encourage interaction.  We discovered there are so many ways to feel inspired!  My favorite, though, is a wonderful walk with my big dog, followed by a cup of tea and some great old-timey folk music.  It always revs me up for a day of creativity.  Another great way to get me inspired is to spend an hour with incredibly inventive kids.  World Art students, you never cease to inspire!  In this picture, Nicholas listens to the Danse Macabre and records his inspirations!

Making junkbox puppets is fun for all ages, but there is a very special type of young imagination that makes junkbox puppetry an even more creative artform!  Just when you think your puppet dog looks like a dog, a young voice shouts, “Where are his spots?”  Yes, where are those spots?  Young children have an uncanny knack for adding those oh-so-important details that make creating puppets from garbage so much fun and that make the puppets truly come to life!  Here, our spot expert, Tess, cuts and glues and cuts and glues to give our dogs just the right number of spots!

What would every young Prince and Princess love for their very own sculpture garden?  A series of sculptures of their stuffed toys, of course!  This cuddly creature was created by Jasmine.  Check out our flickr photostream for more!  Great job, everyone!  I love the wonderful collection of clay sculptures you have created.  From rocket ships to giraffe busts, you are all so creative.  I especially love it when you sculpt something you didn’t think you could.  With a little bit of focus, guidance and effort, you have all let out your inner artists!!!

A new session of World Art has begun!  We are now European Sculptors!  We welcome our new students and welcome back our returning ones.  We would also like to welcome Jason Tu, my assistant teacher, a student from Westford Academy.  Our current project is creating sculptures for the make believe sculpture garden for the birthday party of Prince Isaac and Princess Elizabeth Antorio, the royal children of the Kingdom of Westford.   We are the royal sculptors for the Antorio family.  Please check out more photos on flickr.  Just click on the icon to the left.

Introducing the cast of Green Eggs and Ham, the Opera!  We are busily rehearsing the challenging short opera of Green Eggs and Ham.  I am the Grouch and these fine thespians are trying ever so hard to get me to eat green eggs and ham!  This is a wonderful opera for children and adults and will be performed on Saturday, December 12 at Westford’s Parish Center for the Arts at 1pm and again at 2:30.  It is paired with our junkbox puppet play, Cowardly Clyde.  Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased by e-mailing tickets@creativityunhinged.com or calling 978-995-7002.

I just had to share this beautiful Native American weaving created by Rebecca in our World Art class.  She worked very hard on it at home as well.  Excellent job, Rebecca!  We completed our first session of World Art last week.  Please check out our photos from this class on flickr.  The link is on the left side of this website.

Emily and her mask

When the mask comes off . . .

We had another exciting World Art class yesterday.  We had many different activities going on at once in our classroom.  Weaving.  Painting,  Hairmaking.  Casting masks.  Mess cleanup!  It was a busy one, and we accomplished a great deal.

Our two student Emilies were our last brave students to have their faces cast to make their Iroquois False Face masks.  Sophie and I were a great team.  We made their noses appropriately crooked as the Iroquois did with their masks.  The photos show the Emilies with a mask drying and with the mask freshly removed.  Not exactly my idea of a facial.

I Bought Me a Cat named Silkie

I have always loved the American composer Aaron Copland.  And, I love him even more for publishing one of my favorite folksongs, “I Bought Me a Cat.”  This is one of his Ten American Songs, and it is a wonderful tune beloved of young and old.  I am so excited to announce that it will be a tune in my new musical, An American Story, which celebrates our nation’s folk music heritage.  This is the show our Rumphius Musical Theater Class for Kids will rehearse and perform in the Winter session.

And, the Winter and Spring 2009 Rumphius classes are now posted online on my website.  I have added two new classes for younger children including Rumphius Arts Academy for children ages 3.5-5 years and Rumphius ToddlArts Academy for children ages 2-3.5 with their caregivers.  I am currently taking registrations for the Winter and Spring sessions.  Here is the direct link for class information:  http://www.creativityunhinged.com/blog/classes#2010.

What a day in World Art!  Native Americans are known for their sense of community, and our class mirrored this today as it took a classroom community to begin creating our Iroquois masks!  The students worked together very well to create masks on their faces and on milk jugs for those who wanted to create a mask with a different look.  I was proud of everyone and all of their hard work!  The masks are drying nicely.  I can’t wait to see them painted and decorated next week. Ema (pictured) is a true Iroquois!  She adds to the communal feel of the classroom with her excellent attitude, hard work and smiling face (even when it is covered with plaster strips)!