Going on a Safari!
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- Olena collecting sticks
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- Comet meets “Comet”
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- Olena
My use of the word “Safari” is intentional, and I believe well suited to what we are doing this semester. Here is a wonderful definition of safari that I found on the internet:
”For anyone who has an adventurous spirit hiding away in the depths of their being, just the mention of the word Safari will bring it rushing to the surface, conjuring up thoughts, images and desires which cause the rush of adrenaline to course through the veins. The average persons’ concept of Safari, is that of wild and rugged bush, 4 x 4 all terrain vehicles, tented camps and ferocious wild animals. All that is well and good, however, it puts a very limited box around the concept, which in fact is so much more unbounded, so vast, as to defy an adequate definition. The very basic meaning is from the Arabic word, “safara,” which simply means to travel, adopted into the Swahili word for a journey.
A Safari [a journey] then need only be limited by ones lack of imagination. You can make of it just whatever you will, be it into the wilds of Africa, India, South America; or into the vastness of the prairies of North America; the rugged majesty of the Himalayas; or, … the possibilities are endless.”
I could not have said it better myself! Please, let your imagination go beyond the every day, as you explore your art at home, and get to know your true self a bit better through the animal world!
This past Friday, my three teens and I went planned a trip to a local Metro Park, called Stony Creek, for a stick-collecting safari. We had an unexpected spring snow, so we didn’t have any other students join us that day, however it was beautiful in the woods in the newly fallen snow. We did get a good start on collecting sticks for an upcoming art project on April 11th. We had an unexpectedly wonderful time tossing snowballs into the icy river, and visiting the Nature Center’s resident Red-tailed Hawk and Crow. Crow is especially inspiring, as when you walk up to his home, he almost sings to you, “I want to fly!” Crow has an injured wing and can no longer fly; however, I imagine that the love and attention he receives feels a lot like flying! Will keep you posted on our stick collecting progress!
On Saturday morning, I taught my YMCA Youth Art class, as usual. We had a great adventure, another safari into the animal realm. We first explored animals we can relate to, or that we enjoy, or with whom we feel we have something in common. We looked through books and flipped through animal cards for inspiration. Each one of us connected to particular animal. One student learned the meaning of the word, “connection” from our class on Saturday morning! It was magical. We then did water color paintings/sketches of our animals, trying to think about the animal’s special features, his habitat, what kind of food he might eat. After completing our water color paintings, we had a lot more information and enthusiasm about our animals. We then created finger puppets out of clay (Model Magic Clay), stiff paper as a base (rolled and glued to fit around a finger), animal print felts, googly eyes, yarn, and other goodies. All the decorations just stick into the clay without glue and the items air dry which is perfect! It was a lot of fun. One child created a cheetah who ate hot dogs, one created a rabbit complete with a food dish filled with carrots, and I created a purple wolf!
The funniest story about the purple wolf is that I introduced him to my Golden Retriever, Comet yesterday. Comet immediately tried to interact with my puppet. He sat right in front of him and began to “speak” to him as if having a conversation. It was quite funny. This inspired me to name my new purple wolf puppet, “Comet.”
There is more to come, in our animal safari. Tonight, I plan to try out a very simple version of our finger puppets in our family yoga class this evening and see what happens!
So I am off on another animal art safari, more soon….
In the meantime, be creative! Namaste! Lisa Calice
