They also listened to music while rubbing, printing etc. Towards the end of the term a new exhibition, “Holiday + Memory”, about holidaying in Australia in the summer, was installed. To introduce my students to the concept of memory in art, we discussed how layered artworks leave a trace, a memory. The kids got each a research project about a different extinct animal for homework, and in class we made a layered work and “hid” clues about their animal. They also listened to music while rubbing, printing etc. November 2013: More art adventures!

Students were encouraged to find various ways of printing and layering, and physically move around their work.

We went outside to do rubbing. The students enjoyed the project very much. Unlike the previous project, this was very quick (only one lesson), but they did a lot of research beforehand (using a worksheet that sent them to find out the animal’s footprint, reason of extinction, etc).

At the end of the lesson we had a little exhibition of their completed works and invited the parents inside for the “critique”. I cut each student a piece of foam in the shape of their animal’s foot and most of them used it in their works. They had to do all the decisions about materials, colours, composition, which clues to include etc.

The Tasmanian Tiger The T-Rex dinosaur (you can see its trademark black stripes on the bottom right, done beautifully with pieces of cloth) The T-Rex dinosaur (The pink feathers are the trademark of the little girl who created the work...)

The Baiji White Dolphin The Passenger Pigeon (a highly common American bird that was surprisingly extinct quite recently due to human hunting in masses ) The Baiji White Dolphin (another recently extinct animal, a native of China)

The Saber-toothed Tiger The Dodo (this one is one of my favourites: the student did a great job with a chaotic but well balanced composition all on her own, and thoughtfully hid the clues about the animal) The Saber-toothed Tiger (unlike the student above, this person just stuck as many materials as possible, with little thought...)

The Woolly Mammoth The Steller's Sea Cow (despite struggling with technical difficulties, the student managed to create an interesting tactile representation of the massive animal, focusing on the woolly aspect and the fur colour) The Steller's Sea Cow (this student had a challenging subject and limited technical ability due to her young age, but worked enthusiastically and seriously while concentrating on the idea of layering and leaving a trace in a wide range of ways, while have a lot of fun!)

The Golden Toad (This is another lovely work, beautiful attention to rhythm and composition and a delicate balance between all the elements and the colours – all on her own, with minimal input from me) Barak and the girls patiently waited for me after the lesson while I cleaned up the mess. Barak took the time to do a Hebrew lesson in the next door studio space...

Amanda, who teaches the Wednesday “Art Box” class, put up the works I did with her students (left) The “Holiday + Memory” exhibition had a fun opening evening, including a short talk by famous Aussie artist Ken Done (right) and a roaming barbershop quartet (below)

My friend Helen joined me for the opening and tried to relax a bit into the holiday mode

My activities in the gallery are possible every week thanks to Barak’s dedication in caring for the girls on Saturdays (here you can see him in action, teaching Alma about the benefits of sleeping in...) He takes them to Gymbaroo in the morning and usually spends time with them in the afternoons as well, as I usually collapse to sleep for a couple of hours.

Barak has been very busy at work, but has managed to find time for some fun too: here he is enjoying Melbourne Cup Day

In our next presentation: Chanukah celebrations! With smiley co-workers at various functions and the NASDAQ-OMX company’s Christmas party at the Australian Museum. In our next presentation: Chanukah celebrations!