Land Art In Town
Last week we hit the streets with a box of chalk in hand. After flipping through the action-oriented book, "Land Art in Town", we were inspired to head out the door to make some art of our own!
Sometimes all it takes is a small shift in perspective to get the creative juices flowing and to start seeing your everyday surrounding in a whole new light.
Every so often I will leave out a book, such as this one, to see if anyone picks it up. My kids both love books, so chances are if something with pictures is out long enough they will start flipping through it at some point. My five year old brought this one to lunch one day last week and told me that he wanted to go out and make arrows all around town! I said, okay, after we eat let's grab our chalk and start on foot in our neighborhood.
After drawing arrows, x's, and question marks on the sidewalk for a while, the kids began thinking their art might seem mysterious to anyone who happened to see it. "Who drew this?" they might ask. Or, "What does this mean?". So, to follow along with their mission and shake things up a bit, I ran out and made a flower around a sewer grate. I made them watch for cars on the sidewalk on our not so busy street and made them promise never to run out on the street on their own! (And in all fairness, this was very close to a driveway, so I didn't go out too far).
After this, they were excited to see what else they could transform with their chalk. Across the street we spied a line of bushes with a large long afternoon shadow spilling out across the length of the sidewalk. Hmmm....what if we traced the edge of that shadow? Well, we did and it turned out to be a amazing way to trace the arch of the sun throughout the day. As this was close to our house, we could watch from the yard throughout the day as the shadow crept farther and farther from our line and eventually disappeared all together! Tracing shadows, put that on your list of things to try. Simple yet amazing way to make the day tactile!
The walk was shaping up to be a good one. Lots of playful interactions with our environment that provoked a naturalist like way of viewing the world. Shared with an artist's creativity and perspective as well. These quick chalk art pieces were forcing the kids to take a closer look at the intersections of natural and man-made elements around our neighborhood.
Organic lines, patterns, and shadows were our jumping off points as we circled our long block. Once we started we couldn't stop! And every time the kids saw someone coming, they would freeze and try not to be seen. They wanted us to add art to the neighborhood and make everyone who saw it question and smile. I wanted the same, and was hoping our drawings would slow people down for a moment and allow them to take some time connecting to their environment as well.
These pieces could be called urban art, public art, graffiti, land art, or simply children's art. But whatever you want to call it, when you start interjecting a little color to a space that is a mix of concrete, tar, and neatly trimmed lawns, I'd say nothing but good things can come of it. : )
