Squiggle party

Hello, 

My name is Magali and I'm a new volunteer from France. 

I studied art therapy in Switzerland and I'm very happy to come here and share my passion for arts and human beings. 

I love photography - to look through my camera at the world with a new perspective. 

Close-ups, portraits or landscapes,  they are all subjects to let my imagination go "over the rainbow".





Yesterday, the Young Lions joined the house garden for an unusual game...
First they made a "squiggle" - a twisted or wriggly line spontaneously drawn on a piece of paper - then they had to give their drawing to their neighbor on the right. The kids drew some new element on the drawing they just received and the same process applied again and again...


We are all unique and try to work together as a group!

Concentration for Valentine

Colors can help imagination and creativity

Dehlia is as curious as the children

But this game can make Poni become strange...

Or peaceful...

But the most important is that it's a game!

Enjoying sharing creativity!

Enjoying just being there!

Birds Of A Feather

Hello All


This morning was my second encounter with Hope Home, the first being the fundraiser last Saturday.  I have since then found out that Hope Home is a foster-care home for special needs children who are referred from the local government orphanage in Chiang Mai.


Today was an amazing morning meeting the children properly and getting to know them better one-on-one.  They love bright colours and are stimulated by sound and touch. So while listening to pre-recorded bird sounds, we started the workshop off by giving the children feathers to feel and play with for as long as they enjoyed the sensation.

Boonrat loving his feathers

In preparation for this workshop we pre-cut bird bodies and left the wings blank for the children to glue feathers to.  Once the children were ready, we attached the bird bodies to boards and spread glue on the wings for them.

Phil and Joy waiting in anticipation

Now for the excitement of attaching the brightly coloured feathers!

.
Once the wings were feathered it was time to paint the sky using watercolour paints.

Phil loves using his feet

And while we were waiting for the paint to dry, we enjoyed music and love and attention.

Poni and Namchok (who was too young to join in the workshop, but still got showered with attention)

Boonrat and Magali

Joy en-JOY-ing herself

And then of course showing off the wonderful artworks!

Phil

Joy

Boonrat still loving those feathers!

I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop.  It is moments like these that I am reminded to slow down and appreciate the wonders of the human body and re-discover my different senses.

Till next time.

Kerry

Colourful Inhabitants of the Sea

Last week we went to Wat Pa Pao to work with the students of this beautiful Buddhist Temple. The school at the temple promotes the education of Shan people and provides the students with new skills and heightens their sense of belonging to society. We were enthusiastic about the contrast between the quite and peaceful atmosphere at the temple and the loud laughter of the children. As we had so much fun last week we couldn't wait for the next workshop!

These week we worked with a group of 25 students around the age of six. and we showed them how to create a piece of art out of everyday objects. 

Who wants to make one?

Look at those eyes!

The students liked the idea of paper plate fish. They used crayon and wax resist painting techniques to decorate the fish colourfully and create unique artworks out of simple and boring paper plates.

A new ARI artist

Our new volunteer, Magali (left)

The students worked very focused on their projects.....

but over time the concentration of our students declined more...

 ….and more......

….and more....

 ….and it ended with breakdance performance at the back of the classroom :-)

Very impressive!

I can’t do that!

Nonethless, everyone could finish at least one colourful inhabitant of the sea

and proudly post it at the wall of the classroom.

'' I made this one''

'' and this is mine''

''and these are all mine''

We had sooo much fun with the students of Wat Pa Pao and at the end of our workshop there is only to say:

We'll see you next Tuesday!
Goodbye, everyone.

- Alena 

Face-2-Face @ Mplus+

Hello Everyone!

It's another beautiful week here in Chiang Mai!

ARI started it off with a trip to Mplus+, a non-profit organization that works primarily to promote the sexual health of men in the LGBTQ community, transwomen, and male sex workers. It serves as a gathering place and resource center for a community of vibrant individuals here in Chiang Mai. We were very excited to pay them a visit!

See how excited I was?!

We came up with a project to explore our inward and outward identities, and express them through art-making. We helped the members of Mplus+ create two-sided self-portraits with paper collage. (And we made our own, too.) One side of the image represented how you see yourself (this was on the left for most of us), while the other side represented how you think other people see you.

Cee proudly displays her example project

A piece by one of the Mplus+ artists

We started by passing out pieces of paper with lines drawn down the center. Everyone drew pencil sketches of their faces (or other images to represent themselves). Then, we cut and tore pieces of colored paper and glued them on to create the finished pieces.

                           


More friends came by to join us during the workshop, and everyone had a great time talking and laughing with each other while we worked on our self-portraits. Everyone seemed to truly enjoy creating their artwork.

                               

             

We were blown away by how creative the members of Mplus+ are! Each person created a unique and expressive piece of art. When everyone was finished, we took turns sharing our self-portraits and talking about their meanings.

                       

After our discussion, the members of Mplus+ were very excited to put their beautiful pieces up on the wall.

We said goodbye and left feeling happy and satisfied that we had created a forum for such beautiful, meaningful expression. And we were glad to connect with some wonderful new friends. Another successful adventure here at ARI!

LOVE!
Poni