We kicked off the first EVER session at Two Keys Creative Studios on a sweet note.  All forty weekly art students created original mosaic’s out of, what else, Skittles!  This project was a great lesson on so many levels.  Kids learned about scale and proportion, used math to estimate the number of Skittles used, calculated their material cost, artist wage, and sale price.  On top of that, we had discussions about the value of temporary art and the use of nontraditional materials to create artwork.

To kick things off we looked at artists like portrait painter, Chuck Close, and instillation artist, Devorah Sperber.  Both artists create their work by using small pieces that make up a whole.  Close, who uses small splotches of paint to create huge and detailed portraits.  Sperber, who recreates familiar images from popular culture using every day objects like spools of thread or pipe cleaners.  The artist uses each tiny object as an individual pixel of the entire image.  (Side note: Devorah Sperber saw a post about our Skittle project on Two Keys’ Facebook page and commented, “Fantastic project.” Wow!  So cool!).

Once students brainstormed and sketched out their designs, they set to work ‘Skittling.’  Yep, we turned Skittle into a verb.  Maybe we went a little crazy after four weeks of gluing skittles.  Oh, and if you’re wondering how many Skittles were eaten throughout this process, I estimated somewhere around 1,000.  Kids were allowed to eat six Skittles per class time on the honor system.  That adds up to roughly 960.  Assuming there were some miscounts, accidental of course, I rounded up.

Care to see all of the Skittle projects in one place?  You’re in luck!  The LaVista Public Library has kindly offered to display them during the month of November.  Stop by and check them out.  A closing reception will be held in the libraries meeting room Sunday December 4th from 2:00-3:00.  Artists will take their pieces home with them after the reception.