Winter is a game changer in Winnipeg. We complain about how cold it is but we feel proud about how we press on with our everyday lives no matter what. It is cold and we adjust, we put on boots, drink hot beverages and plug in our cars so they will start. We embrace it. I wanted to do an art project at work that reflected winter and I decided to to go with Snowflakes.this year. I started by spending two theme-related sessions leading up to the art project.
The first program involved talking about the cold weather we are experiencing and then moved on to reminiscing about what they recall about winter fun and work. I asked about, shovelling snow, going sledding, skating, riding snowmobiles! I heard several people wishing they had taken the time to build snowmen. We talked a bit about global warming and how shorter warmer winters might beof some benefits and there also might be some problems.
My second snow themed activity involved more individual and small group visits. I looked up a lot of pictures of close-ups of snowflakes on our department laptop. Little videos showing how a snow crystal grows proved to be particularly interesting. We talked about how many arms a flake has and how awesome they are. We speculated if it was true or not that there are no two snowflakes the same. I particularly like using the information and pictures on http://www.snowcrystals.com
For Art Day I wanted to use watercolor techniques which is something we don't do very often. I like tape resist projects and used strips of painters tape over water-color paper. The paint was inexpensive paint dry disk sets. I attached the paper to the table with the tape. It kept the projects from sliding around and at the same time, it gives a nice kind of matting around the art. We used bigger brushes and I encouraged the use of lighter colors to suggest a snowy day but any color was fine.
The only really note worthy change was that I rotated the paper as the session progressed. That made it easier for people who don't have a lot of reach with their arms and to encourage people to cover that whole page with color.
Our Artists were quite thrilled with their final results.
