Hungry? Head to Art Club!

Many of you are already aware of the Main Teen Room‘s AWESOME Art Club which meets every Wednesday from 3 pm to 5 pm.  But did you know that beginning this month, on the second Wednesday of every month we’ll be offering a different food related craft at Art Club?  Instead of getting creative with [...]

Local Teen Origami Superstar Scott Stern

The first time I tried origami was in March at our Teen Summer Reading training at the spacious Penn Hills Library. I only made a peace crane, but it was still challenging.  Origami requires some seriously tricky creativity, all in the name of beauty. I respect things that are complicated and ultimately impractical, so I [...]

Now that’s what I call an altered book…

If you’ve ever been to one of the altered book craft programs at any of the CLP locations, you know the kinds of things you can do to your innocent, average looking book, right? However, this is on an entirely different level… I think the last one is the best one. Steve-Lawrenceville

In My Room

The decoration of personal space is very important, especially if you’re a teenager and you only get one room or part of a room in which you can express your personal likes and dislikes through art, bedclothes, paint, small totems, or a giant collection of something or other (makeup, art supplies, Nikes, who knows?) This [...]

Artistic Cures for Mid-winter Boredom

Seriously.  What is with all this new snow?  Ok, ok, I know we live in Pittsburgh and it’s only February but still… Well if you’re stuck at home AGAIN, maybe you could use a fun project that doesn’t require you to change out of your jammies and can be done with things you probably already [...]

New Year, New Inspiration

Most of us have resolutions for the New Year, and they can be pretty grim, and involve sticking to some sort of diet or exercise plan, or achieving some goal that will require time and effort.  These can all be well-intentioned and “good for you”, but I urge you to consider a resolution that just [...]

Creative Biology

Claude Monet’s exquisite sensitivity to light, color, and detail was central to his work. He once said, “I am pursuing the impossible. I want to paint the air.” If you are not familiar with Monet, he is commonly known as the father of impressionism (and is one of my all-time favorite artists, much to the [...]

Exit Through The Comment Section: A Banksy Post

Last weekend, I saw the film Exit Through the Gift Shop, a cinematic sleight of hand that at first seems to be about the saucy, enigmatic street artist Banksy before it substitutes him for the character Thierry Guetta (aka Mr. Brainwash). The movie’s gracious winking and good humor seems to belie its sarcastic faux-documentary style [...]

Staring is Art, Too

It seems appropriate with the 3 Rivers Arts Festival going on to explore my recent semi-obsessive interest in Marina Abramović, and her art.    Abramović is an artist from Belgrade. She recently had a retrospective show at the MOMA in New York City.  Her work is described as “interventions and sound pieces, video works, installations, photographs, [...]

Sharpen those paintbrushes…

If I could do anything, I would… That’s this year’s theme for the DOODLE 4 GOOGLE competition.  It’s open through March31st, but you have to get your school to register by March 17th!  Tell your favorite art teacher and point him or her to this site: http://services.google.com/doodle4google/register Then go to town on a 8.5″ x [...]