The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Reinvents Itself

Did you see the article from the Sunday, June 14 edition of the Chicago Tribune covering The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago? Click here to read full article MCA 2.0
During the summer we make many trips to the Art Institute of Chicago Museum...I want to start going to the MCA just as much.

Master Kitz teaches a Simple Lesson in Composition

Composition in art is the plan, placement or arrangement of the elements of art in a work.  Something that can be hard for a young child to understand (and even a lot of adults).  Composition is what makes a piece of art feel balanced, gives it structure or gives the point of view.  Many artists will work days even years figuring out a composition of their painting before they even begin painting.

Kidzaw developed a Master Kitz® that was inspired by the artist, Paul Klee.  The name of the painting is "Flower Myth".  The tool that helps children begin to think about composition is something very simple that they can easily move around.  We have pre-cut shapes that were inspired by the composition of "Flower Myth" and the children are able to move the shapes around to make their own composition and keep moving the pieces around to see how each shape's placement effects the entire picture.  The shapes have a sticky back so all they do is peel it off like a sticker and place it down into place.

Look at our gallery to see how some children composed their paintings from these shapes.
How would you compose your painting?

Rain, rain go away come again another day!

Don't let rain spoil your summer days...why not have a Treasure Hunt!  Just stash clues around the house that lead kids to hunt for the winning prize...they love it.  My brother and sister-in-law make a Treasure Hunt for my boys every time they leave for a visit and the boys can't wait to run through the house to follow the clues to the ultimate prize!  What is your favorite thing to do with the kids indoors when it is raining?

More Than Painting on Paper

You can use Master Kitz® Tools on many different surfaces other than just making a painting.  You can use the stencils with chalk on the side walk, you can use the van Gogh roller to make decorative paper or wrapping paper.  The possibilities are exciting and we would love to see what you can come up with…send us your pics and we will post them online.

kidzaw tip #101

Mixing Colors:

Did you know that you could use the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) plus black and white to make all the colors of the rainbow?  To be able to mix colors takes a lot of practice, but each kit has selected colors that represent the master painting to help make it easier for children to decide colors.

Here are some color mixing you can do with the oil pastels included in The Starry Night Master Kitz® to make even more colors:

Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary

Congratulations to my Aunt Marjie and Uncle Roland on celebrating their 50th wedding Anniversary.  The whole family celebrated and relatives and friends came from near and far.

We took the Master Kitz Tree of Life and created a picture for them to remember the day.  It was a lot of fun and many people wrote poems and well wishes among the curly branches.  Now, that's a Tree of Life!