Melbourne Writers Festival – Tavi Gevinson

Tavi Gevinson is an American fashion blogger who started blogging at the age of eleven. She got discovered by The New York Times (that’s, like, the biggest news paper EVER!!)

So, Tavi came to the State Library of Victoria. There were five girls there who spoke about their motivation to become or do what they want to do. Some of them were told by lots of people (even their own PARENTS) that their ambition won’t make them any money or get them very far in life.

    But they persisted and they ended up succeeding!

    They and Tavi were all so inspiring!

After the girls  talked,  we went on and did some mind maps collages. We just took bits and pieces from lots of different magazines. Some people were lucky enough to find a Women’s Weekly from the 50’s! (I, however, was NOT one of those peopleboo – hoo!) I grabbed some random but awesome stuff, because it pretty much describes, well, me! Random but Awesome!

I got her signature somewhere on my notebook ()with the “special Pen” (Tayger’sgold pen that is called that because an internationally famous fashion blogger used it) but then it didn’t show up so we just used a blue pen.

The talk was more directed at teenagers, but it was appealing to the “tweens age 10-12”age category too.

This was attended on Saturday 24th August.

There are articles about Tavi online too – search via Google.

Her online site for teens –Rookie Magazine is at http://rookiemag.com

Here we are ArtPlay EArters with Tavi!

(Thanks to Tayger and her mum for group photo)

Here are some more links passed on from other E-Arters:
http://www.bust.com/blog/tavi-gevinson-dishes-on-anna-wintour-feminism-and-her-plans-for-world-domination.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/fashion/tavi-gevinson-the-oracle-of-girl-world.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Portraits

Mirrors, pencils, paper, mannequins, photo frames and a little bit of inspiration from The Amazing Bobby at ArtPlay… all you need to start a portrait gallery!

In December 2012, I went to ArtPlay for a portraits workshop. I learnt that all you would need to do this is a mirror , a pencil ,paper and patience and eventually…

         …( tick tock)    you end up with THIS! 

Even if you don’t have those materials, or you’re not the patient type,  you could use an iPad to create some art work like my brother is doing here…

From this…… to this… and then finally… THIS!

You can do more drawings of course! You can copy mannequins like my brother  Josh did…

… And after a while… THIS! was the final product!

And you can do more pencil drawings of people to add to Bobby’s “inspiration wall” like these that I did…

 

                                                                                                                                  

And plus, you get to frame them…

with the frame that Bobby gives you on your way in ()

or you can make your own one out of paper       ( )

Yup! A creative workshop deserves a creative review!

Here is Bobby’s Inspirational Wall

Age recommendation: Anyone who knows how to operate a pencil!

              

Hannah  

 

DJ Kids & Party

I went to this on the 13^th November 2011 (workshop) followed by a party on the 26^th November.

There was a DJ (Disc Jockey), VJ (Video Jockey) and a Producer. At the workshop, we split into groups.

My group stayed with the DJ’s and learnt about the special equipment that they used. We got to have turns at using the equipment.

When we were with the VJ, we learned how to combine pictures together, and attach cool borders to them. We also made some of our own art, while the other group put our artwork under the projector and mixed it to music.

2 weeks later we went with our families to the DJ Art Kids Party where we got to see our creations displayed on a big screen while we danced to cool music. There was even some Willy Wonka music mixed in – which was interesting!

I thought that this activity was fun and enjoyable, and I think that it was great 🙂

Recommended age: 7-13 yrs.

Art Play Big Draw

I went to this with my family on the 11^th September 2011.

This was the seventh annual ART PLAY BIG DRAW.

We had to use ‘rule base drawings’ – rules like game rules – where you need to learn the rules of the game in order to take part. Easy and simple directions were given for various activities.

Some of the things I took part in with my family were:

Projector Drawing

You have to stand in front of a projector, and someone else traces over your shadow.

Here my dad is tracing my brother’s shadow.

Electrical Tape Drawing

This was my favourite activity. All you have to do is draw anything you like using only tape.

This is my tape robot.

Basic shape draw

Just draw things using basic shapes.

I have drawn a caterpillar’s face.

3D type drawing

This one was a little hard. You have to make a picture look 3D by shading it in certain places. It was fun, even though I found it challenging.

Overall the activities were fun and creative.

Recommended age: 3-12yrs.

Little Big Shots 2011

Little Big Shots I went to on 12^th of June 2011 was a collection of ten short films for children from Australia and around the world. This was hosted by ACMI and ArtPlay.

This is about a load of mice having a party at the mill, and one young mouse longing to sneak into the party and have some fun! This film was from France. I liked this one. I thought it was a really clever idea.

This movie was a clay stop motion. The makers of this film sure must have done a lot of work here. This was my favourite movie. It shows a moral, that you should like who you are, no matter what!

Jilian Dillon -a cross between a hippo, and a platypus -so Jillian Dillon is called a hippoplatypus. Other animals make fun of the hippoplatypus. This one was creative too. They all are! This one also shows a moral. Don’t exclude people just because of the way they look. This film was also a sing-song.

A young boy is looking out of a window, trying to spot Little Man Dreamsy. Little Man Dreamsy is a little man who travels in a little flying contraption, from the moon. His job is to make all the little children and parents, grandparents, pets and so on and so forth, have wonderful dreams about the things they love.

This Little Big Shots film is about two best friends. The boy, Toby, is blind. Lucy tells us about Toby, and how he is able to see in a different way as a blind person. I think it’s a smart idea, teaching people to learn about people, not just to watch fun movies. But of course you’re allowed to watch fun movies!

Jazz Legend B.B King has got the blues because he has lost one shoe. He looks everywhere where his shoe could possibly be, and the places it certainly couldn’t be in. So then he thinks he should check himself out for some answers…I liked this one because of the music.

A group of friends, friendly creatures, meet up with each other and make some wonderful treats called “crepes”. Sounds delicious! This animation is made in Spain.

It is Splat the Cat’s first day of school, but Splat doesn’t want to go to school. His mum finally gets Splat into his class, struggling to get Splat to stop clinging onto her dress. Splat took his best friend, a mouse to school in his lunch box. Splat’s friend gets out of the box and the other cats see him and all the cats except for Splat keep chasing the poor mouse around the classroom. But it has a surprising ending which you will have to see for yourself! This was my brother’s favourite film out of the lot.

When a young girl’s prize possession gets stuck in a tree, she needs someone to get that toy, from that tall tree, and fetch it down for her. But who will fetch her possession for her? This wasn’t very amusing, but I still liked it. I liked her unique dancing.

Wizard Still embarks on a journey throughout a haunted house, when a loose paper, and how mysterious that paper was, lands in the wizard’s hands. This film was made with LEGO construction bricks and figures. It was also produced here in Australia, and was made by kids, under the age of ten years old. These kids did a really great job, and I liked the storyline.

Those are a group of ten short films worth seeing. Pictures are a collage of the films from images taken from the website of Little Big Shots.

Also we went to the ACMI Club afterwards and entered a colouring competition to see the film/stage play of The Gruffalo’s Child and here are our entries below:

My entry

My brother’s entry