Mini-Room Design, a key component of Rare Hare F.A.I.R (Fostering Artistic Ingenuity w/Recycling) allows kids the opportunity to create with a wide variety of recycled and reclaimed items to make their own room, house, and in some cases multi-level mansions! Sky is the limit with mini-rooms, as students spend hours making furniture and designing their interiors with fabric, wood, tile, and plastic scraps. It is amazing to watch the project in action; with endless possibilities, the kids are intensely focused on putting their vision into concrete forms. There is someting innate in us all about nesting and making one’s own space reflect personality and to have it function effectively. This 3rd grade student’s ingenuity with the scrap materials was highly creative and imaginative. His idea of making stairs from tile scraps sent other students into a stair making frenzy!
ArtWalk On The Bay
It was a beautiful day just south of Seaport Village for ArtWalk’s annual ArtWalk on the Bay, featuring KidsWalk, an area designated for kids to create art. The Rare Hare F.A.I.R booth was in full effect, offering kids opportunities to make keychains and back pack ornaments from recycled materials. A second project included using scrap slide card tabs to “tesselate” designs. Similar to making mosaics or putting puzzles together, students used triangles and other shapes to create their own patterns.
Art and Social Commentary
During the Art and Social Commentary summer camp, middle school students discussed the work of Jasper Johns, specifically looking at his work Map from 1961. Added to the discussion were themes of how the U.S is a “melting pot” with both “red and blue” states on the electoral map. Students created their own interpretations of this symbolic and geographic form, using water color, collage and other mixed media to convey their ideas.
Inspired by Native American totem poles, students mixed influences of animals and social commentary, as well as allowing recycled cardboard forms to “shape” their own version of totem poles.
Impressionism and The Fauves (Wild Beasts)
Students studied Monet’s water lily paintings, taking note of his use of light and reflection and his variations on color. Students also practiced making tints (adding white to a color) and shades (adding black to a color) to add value and depth to their work. After several studies in different mediums, students created a 3-D water lily pond, mixing paint with recycled and reclaimed objects.
This proud 2nd grader gave her 3-D water lily pond to her Dad for his birthday!
Sample studies by a 5th grader and a 2nd grader
Creating like the Fauves (French for Wild Beasts) and influened by the work of Paul Gaugin, students used bright bold colors, line, and repeating forms to create their own landscapes.
This second grade student apply glue to scraps for her 3-D lily pond. The kids got “lost” in their lily ponds, having so much fun with the cool colors and reclaimed objects used for additional details.