ANIMAL HOUSE Green Art Activity at Santa Monica Public Library

Thanks to all the hard work of ultra-organized Children's Librarian Christa Muscatine, the Santa Monica Public Library's Creative Kids' Club was a smashing success on February 16th!

Lots of wonderful folks donated "green" art materials so that kids could create their very own "furnimals" based on the ones in Animal House. Some extra-creative kids even dreamed up their own.

A pair of snailboxes.

A hampster and a refrigergator.

A hampster.

One cute furnimal!

Elepants before a trunk extension.

A toucan of soda complete with straw.

A cowch and a refrigergator.

A dragon + drum = dragum (imaginative kid creation)

A catstle (imaginative kid creation).

A salt snaker (imaginative kid creation).

A catstle (imaginative kid creation).

A caterpillow (imaginative kid creation).

A trio of critters, including a hampster in the center with an articulating mouth.

A kangaroom.

A hampster and unfinished sculpture. "Do I have to go home now?"

Green Art Activity: ANIMAL HOUSE Furnimals from Reusable Materials

Are you in a school, a library, or even at home? Are you eager to make your very own "furnimals" based on Nathan Hale's amazing Animal House illustrations? Then look no further than your nearest recycling bin or trash can.

Chances are that you have everything you need to turn the above pile of reusable materials into...


...these adorable and loving literary companions.

The toucan of soda, cowch, and refrigergator were made by 3-5 year olds in Victoria Howard's incredible "Art & Stories" class at Barnsdall Junior Art Center last winter.



Mix a Pringles-like container with some stray buttons, construction paper scraps, and a piece of cardboard, and presto-change-o........you get a toucan of soda.



Shake together some loose buttons, a sheet of styrofoam, an empty soap bar-like box, felt scraps, construction paper pieces, and four corks to get a ....................... brand new cowch!



Don't forget to add the udder underneath. You need some way to be able to milk your cowch.



Gently toss some cute buttons, an Altoids-like metal container, a couple of corks, scrap pieces of felt, and left-over construction paper to get a handy-dandy new..................refrigergator.



Don't forget to stock your new refrigergator with yummy "food" buttons of all shapes and sizes.



So, the next time you see this (Note the pen-drawn reptilian scales on the empty applesauce-like container. Yes, it does look like a proto-skink)........................

.............try and turn it into this.

And the next time you empty a strawberry basket, can you imagine turning it into a chandeldeer? If so, I'd love to see a picture.

In the L.A. area and excited about creating green art activities for large numbers of kids? Check out Trash for Teaching, reDiscover, and CReATE STUDIO.

Skirball Family Workshop: Art from Discarded Book and Magazine Pages

I've had a lot of fun this year discovering artists who repurpose discarded books, such as Lynn Klopfer of Brown Bag Books, Suzanne Keolker of Mugwump, and Tyler Bender of Tyler Bender Book Co. These artists primarily reuse the covers, which left me wondering about how the pages themselves could be repurposed......until now.

The owl, peacock, and flying bird are amazing papier mache/paper sculptures by artist Kate Burger. My family and I had the chance to participate in a Kate Burger and Milk + Bookies workshop event this past weekend at the Skirball Cultural Center. To my delight, Kate's paper of choice was discarded book and magazine pages.

(By the way, Michael Fritzen, Director of Family Programs at the Skirball, consistently cranks out incredibly creative programming. Check it out if you're in L.A. and have the chance.)


The brown and black tinting on the peacock's wing tips was achieved using spray paint.

The birds' beaks (except for the owl's) were fashioned from Model Magic.

At the workshop, we helped feather a papier mache owl that Kate had prepared ahead of time. This book page has been stenciled with the owl's soon-to-be wing feathers.

Expert owl-maker hard at work.

It takes a village to build an owl.

Every feather just so..........

Here's some fun effects that can result from the use of colored pages. From faces on feathers........

to a man offering grapes (the latter courtesy of my ever-imaginative hubby:).

The expert owl-maker surveys the evolving avian artwork.

Before leaving the workshop, we all had the chance to create bouquets from discarded book and magazine pages. The expert flower-maker invites me to sniff his creation. Ah, the smell of reincarnated books.