School Holiday Recycled Art Project at Perth City Farm

January 2012 the school holiday project at Perth City Farm for a week. The Children involved were aged 4-9 years. My project was Recycled Art which involved making hand puppets from plastic yoghurt cartons, masks from recycled cardboard and other works of art.

The work produced by the kids was diverse and colourful. The value of art and creative crafts is immense. It offers the opportunity to explore and develop many skills. These skills are soon lost if not nurtured.  Group/Community Arts projects are a vehicle for breaking down social barriers, giving everyone a voice and an opportunity to explore their creativity. 

Arts projects engender an atmosphere of collaboration, co-operation and respect for the views and ideas of all participants. This has been observed across all ages.

Recent Community Arts Projects

The Bentley Community Garden

Since July 2011 I have been working with the residents of Brownlie Towers Bentley to develop art works for the new Bentley Community Garden.

The garden had been the dream of the residents of Brownlie Towers since 2009. A temporary site was established at the Love Bentley Community Centre run by the Full Gospel Assembly, at Brownlie Towers, early in 2011. A more permanent site was established at Nyamup Way in September 2011. On land owned by the City of Canning.

A number of arts projects were undertaken for the the new site. Using recycled scrap wood and metal sheeting.

 The first project was to make a sign for the garden. This was made out of scrap wood which was cut into rectangles, sanded and the edges routed. Both sides were painted by the group.  each piece on its own is not particularly outstanding, but when all the pieces are put together the form a beautiful work , just as the pieces of a patchwork quilt may be insignificant individually but as a whole become a thing of beauty.

Two of my regular artists are Erica and Ben, they both enjoy painting and are very creative, this picture show the painting one of two large works on scrap sheet metal. These paintings have added colour and vibrancy to the garden.

The garden was officially launched on 19th November 2011. I designed an art project for the day which would offer the attendees the opportunity to be involved in the creation of a communal artwork for the Garden.  The project was inspired by the beautiful work of my dear cousin Ann Stephen, a very talented mosaic artist. it again involved the use of scrap wood cut into triangles to make wooden bunting, this was painted by participants on Launch Day the pieces were later varnished and strung along the fencing in the garden.

Following the Garden launch the group set to work designing some garden furniture, with the plan to submit for inclusion in the Rockingham Castaways Sculpture on the Beach Award. the first chair was completed in February, work will start on the second chair soon.

Mary & John's Staircase Project

The Brief: To design an entry statement for the staircase of Mary Del Casale & John Brescacin's home in South Fremantle. Much thought was put into the possible design options for this project, The final design was influenced by a work by artist Antoinetta Covino-Beehre  which was on show at the Fremantle Print Awards in 2010.

The Design Process: the clients' photographs of family, pets and items of personal significance were used as the basis for this digital project. The images were digitally manipulated to produce a number of artistic effects:

Selection of appropriate photographs was a critical part of the process, a number of different artistic effects were used on the 23 images selected for the project. These were then printed on canvas by  Mirage Digital Photo Lab, Subiaco. The printed images had a gallery wrap coloured to match the wall on which the pictures were to be hung.

The final works were professionally hung by The Hangman:  email:  the.hangman@eftel.com.au

The project was a great success and the clients were delighted with their completed artwork.

Another successful Digital Art Project by  Charlotte O'Shea  CAOS

Leela's Himalayan Wall

I was asked by my good friend Nila Chauhan if I would paint a mural on the wall of new Hindu Spiritual Healing and Meditation Centre in Leeming. Always up for a new challenge I had a chat to Leela about what she wanted and accepted! The theme for the wall was the Kullu Manali Valley in Himachal Pradesh (The Valley of the Gods) a sacred place in India.

A bit of research was required before drawing out the proposed design for the wall.

Once this was agreed upon it seemed that we had the ideal opportunity to involve people who would be involved with the Centre in the painting of the wall!

The first day of painting was an incredible event approximately 30 people took part in the painting of the first layer of the mural ranging in ages from 80's to single figures! This was a beautiful and very special day involving people from many cultural backgrounds and beliefs.

By the end of the first day of painting the wall was beginning to develop it's final appearance. 

The second Day was a solo effort and progressed the project to the next step. On the third day I had one participant and the project was progressed to the next stage.

The final day of painting was once again a solo affair.The work was completed and the Centre ready to be prepared for the Initiation Ceremony.

The Centre was now ready to be prepared for the Initiation Ceremony:

The Initiation Ceremony took place on Sunday the 1st of May it was a beautiful and very spiritual event attended by a group of over 30 people. The Centre offers Spiritual Healing and Meditation Sessions. 

Leela's Himalayan Wall from Kerotv on Vimeo.

The Big Coffee Cup Cappuccino Strip Street Club April 2011

2011 saw the advent of a series of community place making events in Fremantle. Four events took place in all one each month from January to April. The final event took place on the slightly chilly and breezy evening of the 8th April. South Terrace was closed to traffic and the party began!
Many colourful and entertaining events took place over the evening one being the decoration of a giant coffee cup constructed by yours truly out of polystyrene, cardboard and newspaper.

The cup was set up in the centre of the street with a number decorative options. People soon gathered and the process was underway! The cup was decorated with origami drawings cut outs stuck on etc.

Cappuccino Strip Fremantle - The Big Cup from Kerotv on Vimeo.

Harmony 2011 At Bentley

This year's Harmony Day school art project again involved the three local schools, Bentley Primary, Santa Clara Primary and Al Hidayah Islamic Schools.

The plan was to encourage recycling by getting the students to construct 15cm cubes from recycled cardboard, these were then decorated and mounted on poles for display in the park at our Harmony event.

The results were beautiful 3D structures brightly coloured with many special messages a number shown below.