Thursday, July 29, 2010

3D Paper Stars-This is one of the cooler things I've seen in a long time!



Some of the video got cut off so here is the link to another site that has clear step step directions and is narrated. I love 'ehow' lol!

Ehow Paper 3D Stars

Summer Project

After the closing of the school year I found myself again antsy to start some of my own artwork (something that gets severely neglected during the school year). I started brainstorming some things I could work on and originally I was going to take my old dollhouse out of the garage and re-do that. I did some research on dollhouses and found that in order to really create a nice one, it costs quite a bit of money for doll furniture and accessories. Plus, as I went along I realized there wasn't much room for creativity in designing a traditional dollhouse. Luckily I ended up stumbling on a book entitled 'Mixed Media Dollhouses' by Tally Oliveau and Julie Molina which uses assemblage/heritage style art to create these really interesting diorama-like dollhouse rooms. The book shows examples of 'dollhouse' rooms from various artists who each chose a different theme. It's a very inspiring book to look at, and who couldn't use some summer inspiration!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Creativity Crisis

There is a very interesting article that was posted in Newsweek about how the creativity in America is declining and has been steadily since 1990. The author further goes on to discuss the difference between convergent and divergent thinking and the varying conditions under which people are more creative. Its an extremely interesting article and it's a must read if you're like me. I've been telling people for quite some time now how important creative problem solving is. That teaching children that many times there is no 1 right way to do something but that finding solutions to things is a more fluid and ongoing process that we partake in throughout our lives.

Here's the link to the article. If for whatever reason it doesn't work you can always go to www.newsweek.com and type in 'The Creativity Crisis' in the search bar.

The Creativity Crisis