This summer Suzanne Joyal and myself have been guest visual arts specialists at the Marinwood Summer Day Camps program. My first two workshops were Funny Comics (7/11) and Sculpt Like Michaelangelo: Working With Clay (7/25).
In Funny Comics, we used professional techniques to unlock our creativity. First, our young artists responded to a selection of rapid-fire writing prompts, followed by a selection of rapid-fire drawing prompts. Next, we put together the writing with the drawings to make unusual and humorous connections. Finally, the artists either re-drew their new comic, making changes to improve the humor, or were inspired to make a new comic all-together.
For our clay workshop, I introduced and instructed in the techniques of the pinch pot, the coil, and the slab. We then constructed lidded jars out of air-dry clay. Some of the artists chose to embed beads, sequins, and glitter in their jars! Being summer, many of the artists shaped their jars like ice cream cones and sundaes, or other creative forms, like an Egyptian canopic jar! the artists used our remaining session time to sculpt whatever they like using the techniques they had practiced.
-Gabrielle Gamboa
