Creating at Collage Collage

Until this week, I had held back from taking Boo to art classes.  After all, she has an art studio bedecked with quality art materials and an experienced art educator (c'est moi) at home.  But, you know, sometimes planning and delivering thoughtful projects in the course of a busy week is just too much for this mama, especially when her creative energy is being channelled into building a wee human.  And I have been somewhat out in a creative wilderness for the last couple of years whilst at home with Boo.  So, both being in need of fresh creative input, I thought it was high time for a long-desired visit to Collage Collage, a shop come kid's workshop space come gallery space located near Main St, in Vancouver. 

We've been planning this visit since February when we found Collage Collage's kids drawing station, in a downtown gallery in the midst of Olympic mayhem.  For us, it requires a car journey across a busy bit of town, but my confidence in driving and negotiating the city has grown since I got my own car in February, and I was finally up for it.

There are many art workshops for kids available in this area, but it takes a little something special to entice me, and Collage Collage seemed to offer that.  There is contemporary artists' work in the shop and there seems to be a broader approach to studying artists' work than the frequently trotted out 'modern masters', though I appreciate that they are 'new' to the kids! 

I was practically salivating in the shop.  As well as many familiar favourites (books by Lisa Cinar, Oliver Jeffers, colouring books by Taro Gomi and Rosie Flo, Okido magazine, art materials by Lyra, Stockmar etc etc) there were many things new to me and some artists' editions which look very interesting.  I wasn't there to shop on this visit, however; I fancy a solo visit for that. 

We dropped in on a Thursday morning for a drop-in one hour workshop for 2-3 year olds (and mamas/dadas), led by the owner Erin.  The shop was flooded with little ones, and Erin managed to accommodate 13 little artists along the central table and on small desks.  The class begun with free drawing on long rolls of paper and a chance to say hello to other wee ones and their parents.  Then the children moved to the 'story carpet' and were introduced to some books about the surrealist artist Rene Magritte designed for children. 

We looked at 'Mr M: The Exploring Dreamer' (Sozick Meister et al, Simply Read Books, 2010), an interpretation of Mr Magritte visiting landscapes of the imagination, which did seem to resemble Vancouver, with mountains, bridge, a bear, crows, and beach and so on.  We also looked at a board book about Magritte which was most probably 'Magritte's Imagination' (Susan Goldman Rubin, Chronicle Books, 2009).

Storytime over, the children moved back to the table and drew elements from the landscape (bridge, mountains, beach etc) with oil pastels onto brown paper.  Erin then gave out silhouettes of Mr M, his umbrella, crows, and trees, which were collaged onto the background.  The next stage was to paint onto the composition.  It was very effective to carry out the piece of work in stages for this age group as they are often quick to declare they have 'finished' and this created a good pace.  I may have chosen to do the silhouette stage later as many of the kids obliterated theirs with paint, but its a small point.  I don't want to generalise (as I don't really know) but at 2 years, Boo's art was all about process and experience.  Now, however, she is beginning to approach some degree of representation.  When she paints a narrative accompanies the painting to describe what she is painting.  So I think she found the task of painting different elements such as the bridge (that's the green vertical lines in her painting!), the sea, beach, snow on the mountains etc helpful for her in structuring the composition.  The final stage was the application of blue glitter paint which was pushed around with a spreader to represent rain.

The workshop concluded with a recap on the story carpet, a second look at the books studied, and some time to explore the book box, whilst the adults paid, chatted, or looked at the shop.  There is also a little cubby hole with organic felt shapes and boards for those of approx 3ft in height.

This was Boo's first experience of making art in a class with her peers, and she was totally engrossed throughout.  As well as drop-ins, 3-5 yr olds can attend a series of booked classes 'sans mama'.  I'm sure it'll be great for her to do this once she is familiar with the place and structure, but I have to admit I'll be reluctant to leave, not for her sake, but for mine!

Apologies for the lack of pics of Collage Collage (forgot my camera - doh!) but you can see a whole load and find out all info about workshops etc at www.collagecollage.ca