Paper Mache Thoughts

Tomasito and Papier Mache Masked Friends.

A few days ago I had the good fun of demonstrating the art and science of papier mache at a Grape Day Park Community Festival here in Escondido.

Everyone remembers having fun with papier mache when they were kids in school and for most of them that was their only experience with this very nice, recycled paper art form.

I mentioned to the people that stopped by our booth that one of my first arty memories was when I was one of a kids team making a papier mache diorama representing the Grand Canyon in the second grade. It was ART! And I was hooked!

Years later I took a good course in "Teaching Art to Elementary Children" and I had a very good teacher who mentioned in passing that "You can make anything with papier mache." which is almost true--though I havn't made much money with it.

I have made some cool things for theatrical productions though like Macbeth's head (to show that the tyrant was indeed dead!) and a big mammoth's head for an actor to wear in a "Skin of our Teeth" production.

And now with my old friends at the Palomar Care Center I can help make all kinds of stuff and it is good creative fun for all of us.

You can probably BUY most of the things we make for a couple of dollars at Wal Mart, but why should we let the Chinese have all the fun of making them?

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Party Time

Al and a Friend at a Birthday Party (Tomasito photo 2009)

The photo above shows a party in progress at the Palomar Heights Care Center.

I plan to have a party there myself pretty soon, but not a birthday party!

Peace Pilgrim suggested that instead of celebrating birthdays we should celebrate "Getting Better" Days--and only WE would know when to celebrate--and I feel a celebration coming on!

I'll let you know the date when I decide on it!

Tomasito, 2009


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Bea's Dream Tent

Bea's Dream Tent
(Click empty space above for surprise tent!)

Bea (now 91 years old) told me--as she drew this picture--that when she was young she always wanted a tent to play in but never had one--so this is a picture of her "Dream Tent", fulfilling in imagination an early remembered desire.

Tomasito 2009


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Recycled Art

First Exhibition

We made our first exhibition on a table at Palomar Care facility, showing the above finished projects.

The masks were built on plastic "kitty litter" jugs--the tray and the jars were built on plastic forms from the grocery store--the forms were recycled and the 12-25 layer papier mache sturdy objects can now be used around the house.

The most expensive part of the projects is the acrylic paint which adds gloss and a little bit of waterproofing to the articles.

Tomasito, 2009


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Workshop Environment

Al and Zaccai (tomasito photo)

The above photo shows Al and Zak working on papier mache projects.

Most of our projects are done by different willing hands--a real workshop environment.

Al is adding layers of paper to a formed large bowl. We used the beach ball shown in the photo as our original form--so it is a good sized bowl. From start to finish--drying time and painting time-- the bowl project took about three weeks. It was a very satisfying project!

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Sad Dog

Bea Befriends a Sad Dog

The other day Bea was looking through some old newspapers to find interesting images for her collage projects and came across this photo of a captured and imprisoned dog.

She studied the photo for a longish time and then said: "This dog hasn't got a friend in the world."

She cut out the dog photo and then cut out a layer cake and a sun symbol from the daily weather page--she pasted the cake and the sun where the dog image could "see" them and painted the sun yellow. She asked me if I had anything glittery to make the sun brighter and I added the glitter tape to her collage.

The dog had a friend.

Tomasito


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Creative Growth

Bea and Helen at Work.

I believe that most people have a lot of creativity--even artistic creativity--bottled up in them.

But not many people are encouraged to express their creativity since it does not translate directly into more money. And since it has no outlet--instead of growing and developing it just dries up and disappears.

Our workshop gives a good opportunity to express our creativity in art and that little encouragement makes life more interesting, enjoyable and happy.

Tomasito


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