While previewing Tuesday’s museum visit with exhibiting artist Ian MacMahon, several of the children remarked that they knew we were going to visit with a “real artist” today. Outside the museum, as our first group waited to be let in, the idea of “real artist” was brought up again, What makes someone a real artist?
“Practice.” -SYLVIE
“He learned as a kid.” -MADELINE R.
While meeting with Ian, who was covered with dried plaster he passed about pieces of the plaster for the children to touch and feel.
“That feels really, really hard.” -SPENCER
“Weird, right?! Like a weird piece of paper.” -NICO
“Yeah, a hard piece of paper.” -SPENCER
Ian explained to the children his process and the various ways he builds his structures, then layers on the plaster inside. Graeme from Studio Red remarked,
“So you’re trained, right?”
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The children were invited to walk around the perimeter of the piece, which has it’s own plastic barrier so to truly see the “piece” the children needed to peer into the milky plastic barrier. It felt somewhat difficult for us to imagine how the children were picturing Ian’s final piece. As we walked around, Madeline P.R. quietly said,
“I thought he was gonna be old but he’s actually young. I was thinking I would be scared but I’m not.”
(while peering through the plastic barrier) What do you notice?
“Remember that glitter cage?” -MADELINE P.R.
“Plastic. Metal. Those are metal pipes.” -SYLVIE
“The white is the plaster and the not white is the air.” -SPENCER
