Art with Mrs. Elliott : When People Are Stuck At Home, 5: Feelings Are Healthy

Takashi Murakami Flower

Hello my sweet friends,

Here is my latest letter to you. After your coming vacation, art lessons will be delivered differently, in a menu format, but for this week, I am pleased to bring you another post with video and photographs.

It is healthy to be aware of your thoughts and feelings. Artists of all types- poets, painters, musicians, writers, etc.- explore their feelings through art. All emotions, whether they feel positive or negative, are a normal part of human life. How are you feeling today? Let's work today to acknowledge how you are feeling.

Today the first artist we will meet is Takashi Murakami. You might even already recognize his work if not his name. He is a contemporary artist from Japan. He is 58 years old. He is very famous, and his artwork is shown in museums all over the world.

A Field of Flowers Seen from the Stairs to Heaven, 2018

He is best known for his paintings and prints of big flowers featuring bright, saturated colors. The colors make people feel good, and so his artwork has become very popular. There are even pillows and little stuffie toys of his flowers. How do these flowers make you feel?

The second artist is one many people now know, Vincent Van Gogh. He was a Dutch painter. Even though many people know him today, he was not famous in his lifetime. That often made him frustrated and sad. He made over 2,000 works of art in his lifetime. His artwork shows lots of different feelings, like this one below. What might it mean that the person is covering his face?

At Eterniy's Gate, 1890

People look at one another's faces to see how others are feeling. Faces tell us a lot. That is why when people communicate feelings online, they often use emojis. Did you know that Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita created the first emojis in the late 1990's? The earliest emojis did not include a lot of faces, like you see in use now. Let's look at a few emojis to get you inspired to create your own faces.

Making Faces: How Are You Feeling?

Here is what you need:
Objects from around your house or things you find outdoors.

The basics:
Combine different objects to create faces that show a feeling. Try changing the features to change the feeling you are showing. Ask your grownup to take a photo of your favorite one.

More ideas to try:
Try shifting the angles. If you angle the eyebrows upward in the center versus downward, how does that change the face? Can you make the face that you create match the mood you are feeling today?

Here are examples I made:

It's pretty neat how small changes like changing the angle of the plastic forks totally changes the expression:

These use things from inside my house

Using objects found outdoors:

It's easy to change the faces you made, isn't it? To make them show a different feeling? Changing our real feelings can be harder. It's natural to have big feelings when things are uncertain. You can give yourself time to feel negative experiences, and then do something nice for yourself to improve your mood and create positive feelings. Here are some to try.

Mood boosters:
•Read something funny, like Calvin and Hobbes cartoons
•Listen to music that cheers you up to sing or dance to
•Make a healthy snack that feels extra special
•Play with a pet if you have one
•Watch a movie that has always made you laugh
•Draw a picture of your family; add silly details, like giving yourself a fancy moustache
•Ask someone to tell you a joke, or tell one that you know to someone else
•Call someone you love

Stay well and healthy!
Love,
Mrs. Elliott

And finally, a wondrous roundup of the work you have sent me in the last week!