CRE8 Visits Catalonia, Spain
A whole day of collaborative drawing – The Most Realistic Alien and Ping-Pong Painting in the valley of Can Masdeu
Get out at the last metro station, follow the stony path that leads into the mountains of Barcelona, and hear the murmurs of the city slowly vanish away. Welcome to the valley of Can Masdeu. Read More
DAS Phase 2: Animation in Los Angeles
In deciding where to work with kids to conduct the Animation phase of Drawing Animation Sound (“DAS”)—our worldwide project that connects kids from three continents to create one animated film—we thought: “Where’s the best place in the world to make a movie?” We all unanimously agreed: Hollywood!
Realistic Aliens Spotted In Bogotá, Colombia
What’s worldwide AND out-of-this-world?!?
If you guessed CRE8’s The Most Realistic Alien drawing workshop, you guessed right!
First in Europe, then Australia, now in South America, our Realistic Aliens continue to enjoy their worldwide tour of planet Earth. Just yesterday, CRE8 team member, Sofia Cabo, CRE8 friend and volunteer, Sergio Andres Castro, and photographer Gustavo Osorio visited a lively group of kids in Bogota, Colombia, at the Fundacion Coprogreso—a child-care center just north of the city in the beautiful foothills of the Andes Mountains.
D.A.S. project started in Thailand
Kids at the studio of Ole Ukena at Thaillywood artist residency
The DRAWING phase of our very first DRAWING /// ANIMATION /// SOUNDTRACK (“D.A.S.”) project is now complete ! The students of the Nongyetjai school here in Nongplalai, Thailand did a fantastic job shedding their preconceived notions of realism and beauty and truly let their imaginations run wild ! During our two-day workshop at the school, the kids created hundreds of out-of-this-world characters, accessories, and backgrounds that will now serve as the initial building blocks for what will become a one-of-a-kind animated movie: the ultimate goal of all our D.A.S. efforts (though, we must admit, with the kids it often feels much more like play).
CRE8 owes a great deal of gratitude to Lek Yomkwang –a local Thai artist, translator, CRE8 volunteer, and all around wonderful person–for helping make our days with the kids such a great success. Through her previous experience working at youth camps in Thailand, Lek was able to fully engage the kids with fun interactive games and ice-breaking activities that enabled Ole and the rest of the CRE8 team to more completely communicate some of the more complex ideas surrounding the creation of abstract art. Before the drawing began, we asked the kids to set aside their traditional ideas of art and follow their creative intuition. We encouraged them to try to think about things in a different way, to trust their pencil and draw from their hearts. To get the creative juices flowing, Ole asked the room:
“What if instead of houses, the characters you create live in balloons? …. What if instead of cars that drive on the streets, the streets drive on the cars?”
After listening to Lek’s Thai translation, the kids’ eyes lit-up and “Oo’s” and “Ah’s” filled the room as the kids’ imaginations began to realize all the possibilities. Hours later, when the workshop ended, it was hard to believe how many drawings had been completed ! Read More
Ready…Set…Draw !
The portraits begin!
We are thrilled to share that we have recently added a new location and school to the CRE8 network ! For the past month, CRE8 has been working closely with the school of Nongyetjai in the city of Nongplalai, about two hours outside of Bangkok. Each day, over 500 students attend the beautiful two-floor, wood-paneled schoolhouse here in Nongplalai, located next to a towering wat—a sacred monastery temple for Buddhist worship. In collaboration with Thaillywood—an Artist Residency that seeks to bridge cultural divides through collaborative art (just like us!)—CRE8 recently launched the first in a series of workshops planned for the kids of Nongyetjai. To start things off, we wanted to avoid using too much technology such as cameras or computers, so instead we chose something less intimidating, something easy and fun that everyone could enjoy: Drawing !
Circling up for a ping pong painting
And rather than be overly concerned with various techniques to draw more “beautifully” or more “realistically”, we focused more on encouraging the kids to embrace the beauty of uncertainty within the creative process. Read More