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.

As a part of my internship with CRE8 in Barcelona, this weekend photographer Luis Montero and I visited the residence and community garden in the Collserola Park on the outskirts of Barcelona to conduct a Most Realistic Alien drawing workshop with the locals of Catalonia. On this sunny, wintery Sunday, the social centre of the residence know as the Punt d’Interracció de Collserola (or “PIC”) opened its doors to offer music therapy and auto hypnosis, and of course…to let some Realistic Aliens in!

The children and parents of Can Masdeu welcomed the CRE8 team with an energetic Sunday morning dance and then started the day of collaborative creation with an imaginary journey through space. The kids were quickly inspired to use their colored pencils and paper to capture the fantastic things they encountered along the way (in the most realistic way possible, of course). Beautiful freezing, bubbling and sparkling aliens emerged out of all kinds of colors and forms. Throughout the day, more and more aliens found their way from the galaxy of imagination to our workshop table as the intergalactic exposition grew bigger and bigger.

After having a healthy lunch in the sunny mountain garden, it was time for some “sportier” activities. Well, artistically sporty at least. CRE8 engaged the visitors of PIC with a friendly match of Ping-Pong Painting, CRE8′s collaborative drawing workshop. Four teams of kids and adults worked together with a growing creative passion that made them forget the time. After one and a half hours, the match was finally over, and all participants were left surprised and delighted about their spontaneous manifestation of artistic sportiness.

Thanks to all who helped CRE8 bring our workshops to the Catalonia community. We look forward to sharing your Aliens with the rest of the world as The Most Realistic Alien drawing workshop continues its very realistic journey around Earth. Thank you Catalonia!

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!

So we packed up the drawings from Thailand and sent them off to sunny Los Angles, California where CRE8 friend and filmmaker, Joshua Ballinger, worked with the awesome students from Marine View Middle School in Huntington Beach, California. With help of Lily Sellig, Marine View’s fantastic art teacher who made CRE8′s visit possible, Josh taught the students the basics of stop motion animation and storytelling and helped the kids transform the drawings of outrageous characters, accessories, and backgrounds into short animated sequences that will soon become a cinematic masterpiece.

The students brought a lot of enthusiasm to the project. They were interested to know everything about the process, and were full of questions about the kids in Thailand and Colombia, where the soundtrack will be recorded. You could almost feel their world getting smaller as the students learned about creative kids just like them below the equator and all the way on the other side of the world.

When it came time to open the box of drawings from Thailand, their eyes lit up. Like kids on Christmas, they all started going through the pictures one-by-one, laying them out for all to see. They picked their favorites, started cutting them out, and created stick puppets to use as characters and hung the backgrounds for the various “scenes” of the movie.

In addition to teaching the students about Thai and Colombian culture, Joshua encouraged the kids to contribute to the film in a way that was representative of local American culture and of them as individuals. All the students were eager to include two themes that are near and dear to their hearts: the beach and surfing!

The students had a strong grasp on technology, and Joshua helped them utilize their technical talents to further their individual self-expression. The story was crafted one scene at a time using spaceship wrecks, visitors from outer space, and the occasional tidal waves (for surfing). At the end of the workshop, the students had so much fun they even suggested Skyping with their new creative collaborators in Thailand (something that’s in the works for the premier of the film!).

Now it’s off to Colombia for Phase III: the Soundtrack. Viva la DAS!

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.

It was a rainy day, but it didn’t matter…it was time to draw! The workshop began with what we like to call “ping pong”: our collaborative drawing exercise that allows the kids to work with partners to draw single works of art (“ping pong paintings”, as we like to call them). Afterwards, we worked as a group to transform specific drawings into entirely new works of art by adding only a few new lines and shapes. This exercise revealed to the kids that although one person may see something a certain way, another person might see it quite differently. Each perspective is unique and infinitely valuable.

Then came the aliens! With their creative juices flowing, the kids pushed the limits of their imaginations, grabbed their pencils and paper, and drew the most realistic aliens they could. All sorts of new aliens soon touched down. The boys gravitated towards delightfully scary-monster-type aliens (including fire swords and lightning bolts), while the girls stuck to sweeter looking aliens with many eyes and long, beautiful eyelashes. These aliens were unlike any we have seen before, and each was VERY realistic (well, realistic somewhere in the universe at least).

The day ended with drinks, cake, and a whole lot of jumping around. We attributed the energy surge to the power and wonder of collaborative art. But it could have been the sugar. Either way, we had a blast in Bogota!

If you would like to bring CRE8’s The Most Realistic Alien drawing workshop to your local community, contact us by clicking that little green “Contact” thing on the left of your screen. Let’s create!

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 !

After our time at the school, Thaillywood—the local artist residency and CRE8’s partner organization here in Nongplalai—opened its doors to the kids for a post-workshop pool-party celebration ! After enjoying a pizza lunch and a tour of the house that allowed Ole to show the kids the art that he has been working on while in Thailand, the kids went right for the pool for some outdoor fun and a much-needed break from the heat. Later, as the day came to a close, the kids gathered in the house art gallery where Marie, the host and founder of the Thaillywood Artist Residency, presented each of the kids with a sketchbook and colored pencil set—a gift that Thaillywood and CRE8 hopes will encourage the kids to further explore the lessons they’ve learned and continue expressing their own individual creativity. We can’t thank these kids enough; they produced such great artwork during our time together and were so fun to work with !

Also, with the help of Los Angeles filmmaker Josh Ballinger, CRE8 is filming the entire D.A.S. process in order to create a documentary film about the experience.  Once it’s completed, we intend to share the film far and wide in hopes that it will encourage the formation of future D.A.S. projects and simply reveal to others the amazing potential that lies in any type of  cross-cultural creative collaboration.  We’re working on a teaser for the film now, and it should be up shortly !

In the coming months, the CRE8 team will begin working with kids in Germany and Spain to add ANIMATION and—you guessed it—a SOUNDTRACK to all these fabulous original drawings.  We hope for this to be just the first of many D.A.S projects to come. With anticipation, CRE8 has already begun planning for stops in Colombia, Bali, and Los Angeles. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as all the intercultural collaboration continues. For now, please enjoy all the photos from Phase 1 – Thailand !

First set of handdrawn character that will later become animated

Interview about the process

A successful collaboration

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.  The workshop began with a collaborative drawing session where two or more students took turns working

You draw a line, then I draw one; you, then me again...

both realistically and in the abstract. First, on one side of a piece of paper, each student was asked to draw a traditional portrait of his or her partner, as realistically as possible.  Next, on the other side of the paper, we asked the students to again do the same thing, but this time a bit differently…with their eyes closed !  With one hand firmly over their eyes and the other free to draw, the students did their best to capture the image of their partners that remained faintly etched in their minds. Each student tentatively explored this new and unorthodox method, giggling all the while.  Despite the students’ best efforts (and much to their surprise), their two drawings always looked wildly different.  That’s the beauty of it !  As the kids viewed their two drawings with wonder and amazement, the room quickly filled with energy and excitement.

Eagerly, we tried to gauge their emotions about the experience: “How was the second process different? How did it feel? Which style was more exciting, which was scarier, which was more fun…?”

Believe it or not, almost all the kids preferred drawing with their eyes closed !  As artists, we know how exhilarating and liberating it can feel to be released from the confines of conformity, from traditional styles and the “normal” ways of doing things.  The kids fully (and, well, blindly) committed themselves to the creative process, and—just as we suspected—were thrilled with their results !   This was the beginning of trusting uncertainty, of seeing art not just as something that needs technical skill, but also as a pursuit that begs for the courage to take risks, a worthwhile endeavor that requires an ability and willingness to explore the unknown.  The students did a fantastic job, and we are already looking forward to the upcoming workshops that we plan to hold here in June.

Displaying the day's work

In the coming weeks, we plan to conduct a second workshop with the kids of Nong Get Jai that will mark the first of three phases of our very first Drawing /// Animation /// Sound collaboration project, or “D.A.S.” as we like to say for short.  After our drawing workshops with the kids here in Nongplalai, Thailand comes to a close, the CRE8 team will hit the road again and soon begin working with kids in Germany and Spain who will use these drawings to create a truly one-of-a-kind animated movie and a soundtrack to go along with it !  We are confident that the film will be nothing less than spectacular, and we look forward to sharing it with all of the kids as well as the larger CRE8 network when it’s completed! For now, please enjoy the pictures from our drawing workshop with the kids here at Nong Get Jai !

The laughter is big when the final works are displayed

Now who is who ?

Q & A Videos is a 5-7 minute documentary film format starring kids from around the globe.
Filmmakers team up with kids and answer questions asked by other kids. For example: Tanja from Germany wants to know: “What kind of animals do you live with in India?” Together with the kids from Ramana´s Garden this question is answered and they are allowed to ask a question back.

Then this questions gets answered by another group of kids who then at the end are again allowed to ask a question back. An ongoing audiovisual dialogue is created…

//CRE8 Foundation
“Inspiring and uniting global youth through art”
cre8foundation.org

The Photo Rally has come to a close, and the photos are awesome!  Kishan (14) and Anrurag (17) of Rishikesh, India did a phenomenal job taking amazing photos for each of the eleven categories we gave them, and we are very excited to share the experience with you.

With the help of CRE8 collaborator, friend, filmmaker and photographer, Carlos Lopez of Columbia, visiting us from his home in Berlin, Germany, the boys viewed all the photos on the computer and quickly learned that, often, the editing process can be even more challenging than taking the photo itself!   We encouraged them to ask themselves a number of thought-provoking questions to help hone their editing skills: “How does this shot show my own viewpoint?”; “Why does this photo look slightly better than this one?”; and “What is it that really interest me in this picture?”

Our favorite moment in the process came when both Kishan and Anrurag saw the final, edited versions of their photos that sought to capture something seemingly ‘normal’ or ‘ordinary’ in a way that made it look interesting.  The look of awe in their eyes was enough to show us that the results were indeed “interesting”, and gave us a beautiful reminder of why it is we do what we do.

At the Photo Rally exhibition, held for children of all ages from Ramana’s Garden orphanage in Rishikesh, we showcased Kishan’s and Anrurug’s final photos alongside those of Thailand’s Meowadee (16), the winner of our first Photo Rally event in Chiang Mai.  Standing back and viewing the final exhibition, Kishan shared with us that, “Seeing the photos printed big like this changes everything.”  Smiling with pride, he added, “It makes you feel them in a completely different way.”  We couldn’t agree more!

As always, the cross-cultural feature of the exhibit was visually stunning not to mention fun and engaging.  It gave all the children from the orphanage a chance to look, compare the results, and ask questions.  First we challenged the kids to guess which of Meowadee’s photos belonged to which category.  After learning that Meowadee’s photo of a portrait of the King of Thailand (who also happens to be a photographer by hobby, truthfully!), one of the kids in attendance asked, “Does India have a King?!?”  A little disappointed in hearing the answer was no, he then asked, “Well, did India ever have a King?”  Unsure of how to (succinctly) respond, we quickly diverted the group’s attention to Meowadee’s photo of a scorpion—an insect the kids have never seen here in Rishikesh (they were really excited about it, but a little scared too!).   We will have to save the discussion of monarchies and colonialism for another time—perhaps when they are a little older.

Overall, the Photo Rally was a rousing success!  Motivation is high for future events, and we are excited to bring the Photo Rally to new countries in the near future.  Each event will continue to inspire budding photographers around the world, further enriching the overall photo collection as well as the cross-cultural discussions to be had.

Last but not least, you will be happy to hear that the photography at Ramana’s Garden does not have to stop here.  Inspired by our Photo Rally event, a kind CRE8 supporter recently donated a digital SLR camera and a MacBook to the orphanage!  The CRE8 team is truly touched by this heart-warming gesture, as are the kids and staff at Ramana’s (well, maybe “ecstatic” is the word for the kids’ reaction).  Kishan and Anrurag are eager to share their new talents with the other children, and they will all enjoy the use of the equipment for years to come.

But enough talk.  We are thrilled to share with you the results below!

Kishan´s results:

take a self portrait

take a picture of something you like

take a picture of something you don´t like

Take a picture of something funny

Take a picture of your friends

take a picture of a dream that you have

Take a picture of something boring and make it look interesting

Take a picture of colors that you like

And now Anurgags photoralley series:

take a self portrait

take a picture of something funny

take a picture of something that you see so often that you usually don´t notice it

take a picture that represents a dream that you have

Take a picture of a friend or a group of friends

A picture that represents something typical about your country

A picture that represents the place where you are at

take a picture of colors that you like

take a picture of something funny

take a picture of something you don´t like

Take a picture of something normal or even ugly and make it look interesting

Filmmaker and photographer Carlos Lopez walking around Rishikesh with the kids to find the right shots

Hello from India!  We are excited to share with you that we have just finished the photo-taking phase of CRE8’s second Photo Rally!  For this Photo Rally, held in the town of Rishikesh, India, CRE8 had the privilege of receiving creative assistance from long-time CRE8 collaborator, friend, filmmaker and photographer, Carlos Lopez of Columbia.  Visiting from his current home in Berlin, Germany, Carlos helped Ole conduct an engaging, hands-on workshop for Kishan (14) and Anrurag (17), our fantastic Photo Rally participants from Ramana’s Garden orphanage here in Rishikesh.  In addition to teaching the boys the ins and outs of operating a digital SLR camera, Carlos and Ole made a point to stress the often-overlooked, but all-too-important “secret” of creating compelling photography: the power to do so rests in the photographer’s imagination, not a high-end digital camera.

As we described the process in the results of our first Rally, the Photo Rally concept asks that the participants take certain pictures to satisfy a number of different categories that we provide—some simple, some thought-provoking.  For example, we asked the boys to, among other things, “take a picture of your friends”; and “take a picture of something that represents a dream you have”; and—our favorite—“take a picture of something ‘normal’ and make it looking interesting!”

With the concept well understood and eager to test their newly acquired skills, Kishan and Anrurag took to the streets and surrounding hills of Rishikesh and looked for anything and everything that caught their eyes leaving no stone unturned (sometimes literally).  We were truly amazed with their creative minds and inventive eyes.  Ole followed along to give encouraging advice and opinions where needed, and Carlos took tons of video of the entire process.   Soon, we plan to incorporate the video footage into an instructional video that will guide other Photo Rally participants through the process at future events that we hope to hold all over the world.

We are going through all of the photos now, and there are a lot of them!  We could not be more impressed.  Both Kishan and Anrurag did an incredible job and (as I write this) are currently sitting with Carlos, learning about the digital editing process while selecting the best of the best.  After printing the final photos, we will hold an exhibition to showcase them alongside those taken by Thailand’s Meowadee (16), the winner of our first Photo Rally event in Chiang Mai.  As always, we look forward to the cross-cultural element of the event, as it never disappoints in creating an engaging forum in which the budding photographers and their peers can appreciate the project’s creative results within a global context.

As soon as we can, we will be sure to post the final photos along with the highlights from the exhibition and the related discussions that will surely follow.

So long for now!

Checking out the pics

Anrurag directing his friend wher to put his hand...

...so it looks like he is holding the sun inside.

Our little editingroom in the orphanage

Learning how to edit: choosing between the monkey & the monkeymind

Anrurag, Carlos, Kishan & Ole celebrating happy about the results

Like many traditional Indian holy cities, Rishikesh is currently going through a great deal of change—most of which, unfortunately, is detrimental to the city’s beautiful natural environment.   Just north of Ramana’s Garden orphanage, a new apartment block is under construction that now partially blocks the kids’ views of Rishikesh’s surrounding green hills, as well as a section of the pristine Ganges River.

With this in mind, we came up with the Ideal City Project—a daylong workshop that encouraged the kids to explore their own ideas of an ideal living environment.  We watched the kids bring their ideas to life on a collaborative, mineral-based water-color and chalk mural on a rock formation on the shores of the Ganges.  With the new apartment complex just behind us, we worked together with the kids to build a rendering of a more ideal future: a city built (or drawn, rather) on a foundation of a greater appreciation for our natural environment.

The next rain will most likely wash it all away, but that is part of the beauty!