By: Michael Manning
This year with the upcoming holidays a lot more of us will stay close to home and spend time locally with our families. The schools have an extra long break this year which means lots more time looking for some fun things to do with our kids. While certain activities are restricted due to the Covid environment, here are a couple of art projects that will be a great outlet for creativity and fun this time of year.
The first project involves smart phone photography: With some Christmas decorations still up, it’s a perfect time to go out and take some nighttime photographs. Add levels of complexity like taking photographs of decorations all around town but from a ground-level perspective so that the Christmas ornaments look larger than life taking on a new dynamic feeling. After they take the photos, have your children make them black-and-white and you’ll be amazed at what stunning images they come up with. These black and white photos are great for your home as wall art, framed in white as a series of two or three photos. Because of the black and white, they look terrific all year long.
The next is a land art project that can be done just about anywhere including your backyard, a park or my favorite location, Tod’s point. With the artist Andy Goldsworthy as an inspiration, make a sculpture, pattern or image using only rocks, sticks and leaves. Goldsworthy uses objects found in a natural setting and rearranges them into unique geometric patterns or shapes that echo the natural surroundings but are distinct from it as they are noticeably man-made arrangements. One of my favorite spots to do this kind of art is at the end of Tod’s point just past the Greenwich Community Sailing Building. The sand is coarse, the rocks are all different shapes, made smooth by the ocean and piles of seashells are available as elements for sculptures.
Last spring, we did a whole project called “Meeting at the Waters,” using land sculptures through a collaboration with the Developing Artist Program, the Greenwich Alliance for Education and all three Greenwich middle schools. This project was organized by Spurse.org, an organization dedicated to engaging young artists with the land and environment as a medium.
Whether it’s photography around town or a land art project, each of these projects can provide a way to challenge young artists to create one image or sculpture everyday for a week, documenting the entire process. I’ve created a number of books for these projects that can be quickly and inexpensively created on a number of photo processing sites such as Shutterfly, Picasso etc. We would also like to challenge everyone to send in images of their nighttime black and white Christmas decorations or all of their natural environment sculptures. Send them in and hashtag #SentinelWinterBreakPhotos and we will be sure to share them on our Social Media platforms, Red Shoe Studios and the Developing Artist program websites. We will select a winner from each project, Black & White Holiday decorations and Land Art. The winning entries will be displayed virtually along with all entries and will receive a wonderful art supplies kit donated by the Lit Easel company. Lit Easel recently donated an amazing generous supply of art materials to the Boys & Girls Club and will be partnering with Redshoe Studios and the Developing Artist program in upcoming community arts events.
