La Reina Buzz: KIDZ ART STOP

Welcome to the Kidz Art Stop a place that will inspire visual communication and development with a playful fun factor for the child and adult. This monthly article will include fun activities for the home, classroom, park, play ground or family vacation. Our focus at Kidz Art Stop is literacy and the arts, stimulating the child’s thinking while they explore and learn creatively.

Have you ever seen a child smooth finger paint over a sheet of paper with both hands and pull their fingertips through the paint to make squiggles, shapes and lines? Or observed a child happily coloring and exploring with crayons? If so, you have seen the concentration on these children’s faces, and the joyful expressions of art explored. You have witnessed creative art in process!!

Creating art expands the child’s ability to interact with the world around them, and provides a new set of skills for self-expression and communication. Not only does art help to develop the right side of the brain, it also cultivates important skills that benefit a child’s development.

Art may seem like fun and games… and yes it is!... but you may not realize that your child is actually learning a lot through exploring the arts and doing art activities. While at creative play they are picking up these skills:

Communication skills Cognitive Development

Problem-Solving Skills Decision Making

Social & Emotional Skills Visual Learning

Motor Skills Inventiveness

Self-Expression and Creativity Cultural Awareness

Language Development Improved Academic Performance

When kids are encouraged to express themselves and take risks in creating art, they develop a sense of innovation that will be important in their adult lives. Through self-expression and creativity, children’s skills will develop naturally, and their ability to create soar.

Art is a process, not a product so it’s the process that brings great rewards!!

We all know children love to play, love imagination, and love to create stories, so here at Kidz Art Stop we have created wonderful projects that incorporate imagination, storytelling and creative play.

IN AND AROUND TOWN CITYSCAPES WITH JAMES RIZZI

The New York painter/artist James Rizzi (October -1950 – December - 2011) is one of the most successful and famous artist of our time. The colorful and typical 3D technique stands for joy, vitality and a positive point of view. James Rizzi was one of the most popular artist of the past decades.

At First Glance, James Rizzi's art may be mistaken for the artistic efforts of a young child, however this is not an entirely erroneous judgment, for it is certain that Rizzi wanted to incorporate the freshness and vitality of children's art in his work. In this regard he is not alone. Some of the great artists of the twentieth century, including Klee, Dubuffet and Miro, deliberately used a childlike style in their work.

Rizzi, born and raised in New York, turned his childlike imagination into artistic powers, transforming the city itself into something wonderfully original. His large panorama of Urban life beams with energy and playfulness, reflecting all the diversity and human variety that is at the core of New York. Colorful happy streets where children jump rope, shoot baskets and walk their dogs.

Look at some of your fellow student artists images below and create your very own Rizzi inspired cityscape urban life art piece. It’s easy all you need is some art supplies and a little imagination.

Let’s get started.

I think it’s important to use white watercolor paper or heavy stock paper, no matter what the quality, as that is what makes the project so vibrant.

Instead of straight rectangular buildings, add curved lines and interesting shapes and faces as a substitute. Draw your buildings and shapes big enough to color in between. See student pictures below and in video to be inspired! Feel free to submit your completed James Rizzi inspired masterpiece to artbymamamia[at]yahoo.com we would love to showcase your work!!!

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

WHITE WATERCOLOR PAPER OR HEAVY STOCK PAPER
CRAYONS OR OIL PASTELS (FILL IN WITH VIBRANT COLORS)
BLACK OIL PASTEL OR BLACK MAGIC MARKER (FOR OUTLINE DETAILS)
PENCIL AND ERASER (SKETCH OUT YOUR CITYSCAPE THEN FILL IN AND OUTLINE WITH BLACK)