1. RECREATE AN ARTWORK FROM LBMA’S ONLINE COLLECTION
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-X6ko5p1ft/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Well, that escalated quickly. When the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam came up with the idea of recreating great art with objects found around the home, people jumped in enthusiastically, all around the world, rules (above).
Now, the Long Beach Museum of Art is offering up its online collection to give you ideas about what you want to replicate. Click here to access it. We have a feeling that more than a few parents, sequestered at home with their kids during this time, may bypass the LBMA and go directly to…
2. LET THE MCBRIDES TEACH YOU HOW TO DRAW CLOUDS
The clouds in Long Beach have been nothing short of spectacular lately, so maybe you’d like to learn how to capture them in all their glorious fluffiness. McBride Arts, made up of couple Kenny McBride and Anna Schoendorfer McBride, has stepped up to offer daily art lessons for kids and parents stuck at home. All it takes is a box of crayons. (Asia Morris)
3. RIVERS AND TIDES
“Rivers and Tides” is not only our favorite art documentary, it’s probably our favorite documentary about any creative endeavor.
In fact, this may be our favorite documentary, period.
Dammit, it may be our favorite film.
Why?
It dares to show what virtually no other film has ever dared show: the creative process in all its incremental missteps, glory and, ultimately, impermanence.
The film follows British artist Andy Goldsworthy on what seems to be daily journeys to create ephemeral sculptures from the environment around his Scottish home, using natural materials such as rocks, leaves, flowers and icicles.
It’s fascinating to watch Goldsworthy as he slowly, methodically, quietly creates amazing work destined to be destroyed by the environment from where it comes. But it is just as fascinating to watch Goldsworthy’s efforts go absolutely nowhere, his works imploding, sometimes on him.
“Rivers and Tides” is one of cinema’s great meditations on art, deftly transporting the viewer to a different plane, an opportunity get out of your place and this time.
4. SUBMIT YOUR ART TO THE KLEEFELD’S STAY-AT-HOME CHALLENGE
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-L7qUOFNOo/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
An interesting and fun way to share your artwork, The Kleefeld Contemporary—Cal State Long Beach’s campus museum—is offering artists the opportunity to share their work, made at home, with its Kleefeld Connect campaign.
To participate, post your artwork on Instagram with the hashtag #kleefeldconnect and tag the Kleefeld’s Instagram @thekleefeld.
5. SKETCH WITH ARTIST JOSE LOZA
https://www.instagram.com/p/B90qb5AJsZd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Artist Jose Loza made this zine originally for students of his beginning painting class but posted it more recently for anyone to use from in their homes. Inside are drawing fundamentals and easy ways to approach sketching, how to tackle such basic concepts as compositions and perspective.
6. MEDITATE WITH BELGIAN-CARRIBEAN ARTIST CHARLOTTE ADIGERY
Any video, song or podcast that begins with “First of all, I would like you to thank yourself for taking a time out” gets five stars in our book. Belgian-Caribbean artist Charlotte Adigéry’s “Yin Yang Self-Meditation” is a gem from 2019 as it highlights the loneliness and isolation already a side effect of our technologically advanced world, followed by encouragement to let those feelings go.
At several points throughout the 17-plus minute track, Adigéry dives deeply into her own concerns—ending up like her divorced parents, deflecting racist comments, social weariness—and while you’d think that listening to someone else’s voices in their head would only fan the flames of your own anxieties, the opposite is more likely to happen, as it did with us. We felt relaxed and strengthened to bring our own fears to the surface and let them float away with the soothing breathing exercises that followed:
“Let go of this mental interpretation, you exist with or without it, thank the fears and say goodbye, let it go, your body knows what to do, breath in for 1, 2, 3, 4, hold 6…”
Another great thing, if you would prefer to meditate solely with your own thoughts, sans the beautifully haunting vocals of Adigéry, there’s also an instrumental version you can sway to on Spotify, just click here.
7. BOB ROSS
Ross inhabits such an interesting niche in American culture that is home to the likes of Fred Rogers and that’s about it. Each performs so earnestly, with such kindness and forbearance as to make them easily caricatured.
And yet their consistency and authenticity ultimately has won them fans and devotees who might have little interest in painting or puppet shows.
Of course, the conceit of Ross’s program, Joy of Painting, is that you can create an entire painting right along with him in less than a half hour. That’s nice, but we imagine most people are like us who simply enjoy watching Ross—either on Hulu or his YouTube channel that has nearly four million subscribers—for the pure pleasure of watching someone doing something they absolutely love and believe in.
That’s an art all its own.