Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Kids' Art - Seen in Passing, And A FUN upcoming event!


There are days when I could just kick myself for not having a camera with me. Yesterday was one of those. I was stalled out on work projects waiting for an upload to finish, and it was a spectacular day outside, so I decided to cut out a little early (well, 5:30 is very good for me). I got in a 4-mile walk from the office to a subway station in Park Slope; got to my local station to find that a couple of local kids had completely gone to town (ha ha!) with some sidewalk chalk in a less-traveled pass-through in Newkirk Plaza. They'd drawn this huge mural of all sorts of places in New York City - I can't remember everything but they had Newkirk Plaza, and there was a train, and the Brooklyn Bridge, and skyscrapers, and the Statue of Liberty. I just loved it, I swear I stood there gawking at it for at least five minutes (which is a long time to stop and look at something when you're hungry and carrying a bag of Serrano ham and fresh mozzarella). I brought my camera this morning on the off chance any of it was left -  the work was definitely smudged from being walked on but the Statue of Liberty had mostly been spared. This is just a fraction of the whole thing!

Cool seeing kids playing with sidewalk chalk instead of Nintendos.

And speaking of cool art by kids, the Waterfront Museum has an event coming up that sounds just fantastic. Live in the area? Got a kid, or kids, or access to kid or kids who are at least 5 years old and might have fun making and sailing a nifty model ship like this one?

Model ship by Eva Melas

They can try it this April! Ms. Melas will be participating in a FREE Shipbuilding Workshop at Brooklyn's own Waterfront Museum. From the Museum's Event Page: "This family workshop is being organized in cooperation with Proteus Gowanus as part of their Battle Pass project, a series of exhibitions and events that pay homage to the Battle of Brooklyn. Workshop participants ages 5 and up will make miniature boats from found objects and will learn about the important role ships played in the Battle of Brooklyn. April 6 from 1-4pm." For more information, click here to visit the event page.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it? H
mmm. 5 and up? I do technically fit that category, now don't I? 

4 comments:

Harry said...

Nice to see,I did not think kids did that anymore...thanks for posting the photos,I am going to show the little ones next door.Have a good day!

bonnie said...

I do see a fair amount of sidewalk chalk in my neighborhood, which has freestanding family homes with yards and walkways to the front doors, conducive to outdoor drawing fun.

Usually those are hopscotch boards and smaller individual drawings - these kids at Newkirk Plaza were working on a whole different scale. Terrific!

Harry said...

Yes terrific Bonnie,when I was young growing up in N.Y there was always sidewalk art all over.I haven't been down there since I retired (forced oh well)Here in the mountains all to often young ones are more inclined to drive around their golf carts with a I pad attached.Anyway thanks again for the post!!!I do have several pictures of some very fine sidewalk art,that was done in competition.If you would like I can send them over to you,just tell me how.

bonnie said...

Sure, although if they're very big maybe just a couple of favorites (my email is quite full right now, I need to do some spring cleaning!). If you leave a comment with just your email address, I can get that out of the moderation file without posting it online & use that to send you mine.