Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Gorilla Art





guerilla art: also referred to as "street art", is a method of art making where the artist leaves anonymous art pieces in public places. It is often an installation in an unauthorized location. It is a way for an artist to express their views and opinions to a large audience in an anonymous way. In contrast to popular belief, guerilla art does not have to be done with spray paint. Other popular forms include videos and projections. There is no one motivation for making guerilla art. However, popular reasons include statement making, the sharing of ideas, the desire to send out good karma, and plain fun.

The BraveGirls and I made guerilla art for plain fun and good karma. We spent the morning writing our "I AM" Poems and then learning the *joys* of spray paint and had a blast painting our picture frames, some pages in our book, and our secret message tags we made to leave in the park.


Spray paint is fun (my favorite). It’s so amazing to see how the project looks when you lift up that stencil and get a look at what is underneath. Ooohs and aaaahs every single time!


After a small medical emergency (Abigail cut her toe on the steps and required some TLC and a bandaid--thanks Mrs. Halligan!) and a snack, we left the studio for our field trip. Our destination was The Mudhole, Nutley’s prettiest park, where we would leave some guerilla art. We wrote postcards, filled jars with treasures (secret message tags, Polaroids of our hands and feet and Girl Power 2 Cure flowers) and put them in strategic locations for passersby to find and take, and left trails of Post-it notes on benches and bridges. We tied our secret message tags on to trees with rainbow yarn and on to the playground equipment. Then we went for a “hike” in the “forest” to leave another jar in the hollow tree behind the pond.


Later we made chalk drawings on the sidewalk and made a chalkboard for others to draw on (of course, we left them a few pieces of chalk!). We had a blast swinging on the swings, eating our lunch in the park, and jumping on the silly bridge. Giggles and squeals were in full force today. Every time they spied someone looking

at their jars they screamed and scared them away. So Ava and Lindsey went back and wrote “Take Me” on the lids so someone would know they could take it home with them and not just leave it behind.


Then we made our way back to the studio leaving one last jar and a postcard (thanks, Jenica) on the sidewalk as we walked. I asked the girls to prepare for tomorrow by sketching their self-portraits and cutting out words from magazines that they felt represented each of them. Hayleigh had my favorite word of the day: Pinch yourself. And I do, every day to remember how lucky I am to be with these amazing girls who teach me as much as I teach them.


Funniest moment of the day:

Me: I used to be able to do the monkey bars back and forth without touching the ground.

Girls: Why can’t you now?

Mary: You’re too old?

Me: No, I’m just not as strong anymore.

Mary: How old are you?

Me: 42
Mary: Ohhhhhh, I though you were so much . . . . older than that.

Me: Huh? Wow.

Mary: But you have a really nice tan.


Well, there’s that....oh my gosh! Hilarious!


2 comments :

  1. Amy, I am so impressed with the many ideas you have for inspiring your young brave girls. I especially liked the guerilla art. I'd like to steal the idea and use it in It's OK program some how. Thanks for sharing everything on your blog. Enjoy your last day. Laraine

    ReplyDelete
  2. Some good ideas on this blog. It is great to see young people make art.

    ReplyDelete