(upbeat music) - Hello, early learners and welcome back to the Art Room.

This week, we've been celebrating International Dot Day and I tried to think of artists that use dots in their artwork and today and yesterday, we're talking about Yayoi Kusama.

Let's do our "Hello, Nice to See You, Everyone" song and then get right into our lesson, ready?

♪ Hello, nice to see you everyone ♪ ♪ Hello, nice to see you everyone ♪ ♪ Hello to you, hello to you ♪ ♪ Hello to you, hello to me ♪ ♪ Hello, nice to see you everyone.

♪ Alrighty, so International Dot Day started out with Peter Reynold's book called "The Dot" and we found out that Vashti didn't think she was an artist but she stabbed a dot in the middle of her paper and called it art and the teachers told her to sign it.

And that started telling people have confidence in what you do.

Don't give up.

Don't ever say you can't do something before you've even tried and own it.

Just say, this is my work and this is what it looks like.

And that tells us a little something about our artist today.

Yayoi Kusama, when we were reading this book, "Yayoi Kusama From Here to Infinity," it talks about her using the word infinity.

She made those webs on the back of most of her art that's drawings and paintings.

And it means that just goes on forever.

And this book has it in there, "From Here to Infinity."

And I started reading you the story, and I'm just going to paraphrase what we found out already for people who didn't get to hear the book yesterday, that Yayoi lived in Japan and was born there and lived there with her mother and father.

And they were farmers who farmed pumpkins and they owned nurseries and Yayoi loved going out and using her ink and paper and drawing things.

And she saw so many things as dots.

And we know that she saw it on the flowers.

She thought about things that were all polka dotted.

And you'll see, when we do our art today, that it's about a flower with polka dots.

When she went outside, she saw the pebbles in the stream that looked like dots to her and she recreated that in her artwork.

And she talked about that she wanted to go to art school, but to the art school she went to, no one thought dots were good enough.

They thought that the dots were just a shape and she shouldn't be using them, but she packed up everything, her kimonos, stuffed her money in her shoe and got on the airplane to go to the United States of America where she thought other artists would understand her work.

And while she was in New York, she was up high and she's looked down below and everything looked like dots to her.

And that inspired her to do more dot work.

And here she did, in the back of the book as a real photograph of this chair that she made tubes and stuffed them with soft cotton, like that's inside pillows.

And so when you'd sit on that, all of those little soft snakes would wrap around you Then she did her artwork and she loved it.

And she got to be friends with a lot of other artists but she was poor at that time because no one was buying her art.

But when she went to the Modern Museum of Art in New York City, she saw other artists and nobody's work look the same, but nobody's looked like hers either.

So then she took her art to a gallery and had it displayed there and she told her friends about it.

And her friends told other friends and those friends told others.

And this is where we left off that she... word about her artwork spread quickly and her friends told their friends and newspapers about her work and the reporters clamored to interview her about her dot work.

Now, she began to show them in other cities all over the United States and Europe and look, pictures of her all over the newsstand.

People are buying her work and taking it out and taking it home and hanging it in their homes.

And this, she put all these silver balls in a park and people came and she would, she stood out there herself and her dots were covering that entire park.

And then they said in Venice, there were thousands of dot shaped mirrors scattered all over this big green lawn.

And here's the sculpture I was telling you about that was in Japan.

And it was near the edge of the water.

And just last month, the water came too close and it picked it up 'cause it was hollow inside and it was plastic and it was giant, but it fell.

And with the ocean waves crashing on it, it broke apart and no one was able to save it, but I'm going to look and see what they did with the pieces.

And here's where we're starting.

Then dots started appearing everywhere on people's dresses and their shirts, on people walking down their street and in mirrored rooms, that was something Yayoi was famous for.

She covered the inside walls of rooms and she put lights in there and they were her infinity lights and it reflected and reflected again, an infinity of dots.

And she would often wear red and white polka dot clothes when she would go out.

And here's a picture of her inside that room.

So the mirror shows her here and here and here, but she's only there one time, but mirrors make it look like there's more than one.

After she had visited many countries all over the world, she returned to Japan and the country had changed in the years she had left with many different artists challenging the old ways.

So where everyone thought she should have a certain kind of art, now, people were all doing things differently.

Look, she even painted her dog red.

Now, here is something I want you to notice.

These are eyes flying around, but they have a dot in the middle.

And that was another thing she started doing a lot of, eyes, eyes flying.

She still lives in Japan and she continues to paint her dots every day.

And here are the photographs.

They're too small to show you, but I wanted you to see that chair and what it looks like in real life, not just a drawing.

But all of her work has polka dots.

And here is a photograph of her infinity room.

This isn't a night sky.

This is inside a room that is covered with mirrors and little tiny lights flickering everywhere.

And you can stand and see what that looks like.

And it looks like a starry night.

Then she has this one that she put paint, polka dots on everything, the walls and the couches and the chairs and the kitchen appliances and the tea pot.

And that is the story of "Yayoi Kusama, From Here to Infinity."

Now the project I thought would be fun to do is to take a look at this print that we're looking at today.

And I have to remember the name of it.

It's called "Eyes Flying in the Sky" and she painted it in 2006.

Let's look at it.

You can see she drew the eyes first and put the eyelashes on.

Then she came in and made all the polka dots and colored all the dots red.

And I know she had to take a long time to do this.

This is not something that just takes a short amount of time.

All of her work, and she works all day long on it, she doesn't just work a tiny bit and then just say it's finished.

So she first drew all the eyes on and left white around where the eyelashes are and put the dot in the middle for the pupil.

And we were going to do one like this, but I thought we did something similar with a dotted background before so I thought about what Yayoi Kusama does with flowers.

She makes them out of clay, paints them with a kind of liquid clay and puts them into a hot oven and it makes them hard like dishes.

And we're going to make some out of some paper plates.

So I hope you brought a paper plate today and we're going to cut them.

And I wanted to make sure you know that some of the paper plates that we have at the store are very, very hard.

And they're too hard for me to cut with my scissors and I am a grownup.

So I hope that the paper plate you have isn't the kind that holds up and you could put a lot of spaghetti on here and it doesn't fall off, but this one isn't good for the project for me today.

It's too hard to cut in and in, 'cause what we're going to do is make a flower and I have this kind of paper plate that's very flimsy and you wouldn't want to put your food on it and have it fall off.

But I like to make sure that I know where the center is and I am going to just put a little dot in the center.

And I'm using a permanent black pen.

So, do you see mine?

It's just a dot.

I'm going to move my table up to my lap.

So I'll have something to press down on.

There.

And here it is.

Can you see the dot?

Maybe if I hold it up like this.

I am going to make a circle with my black pen around that dot and make it as concentric as I can.

Remember, concentric is where the one in the middle is right in the middle, eccentric means off to the edge a little bit.

Now, I'm also thinking I'm going to make this look like an eyeball.

So I'm going to make a curve line above, just like that.

I'm gonna give you a second for you to catch up for that.

And then I'm going to put one underneath, touching the bottom and going up and meeting that one.

So do you see how it looks like an eyeball?

Now, like Yayoi did, I'm going to put eyelashes on the top and the bottom.

You can make them as long as you like, but I like them to keep them close to the eye like a real eye would do.

Then I'll put the bottom ones.

Have you noticed on your own eyelashes, they have shorter hairs on the bottom lashes than on the top?

At least for mine, they do.

And then around this, I'm going to make some zigzags.

You can make any kind of shape around yours, however you would like.

Some of them might be cut off when I cut my petals but I'm doing this on here like that.

So now when I cut my petals, I won't go any farther in than what I've drawn.

And if you want to and feel better about it, you could just use your pencil to draw some petals.

And it's just like a, a circle that goes to the edge, I'll cut one and show you what it looks like.

I thought, oh dear, did I move my scissors?

And I did, to my lap.

So I'm going to cut a curve and stop when I come to the ink at the middle.

And I'll curve on this side and stop when I come to the ink in the middle.

Now I'm going to cut this one, a petal next to it.

And I'll take that piece out.

I'll go in from this side and stop.

Do you see there's one of the flower petals?

And I'll curve it around.

Maybe I do like using my pencil 'cause I want it to be about the same size so if I use my fingers and measure and measure here, I could go around and get it and stop there.

And go around.

And how far is it?

Measure.

Measure.

Make a little line.

Let's see how I do with my cutting on this one.

I always start on the edge and go to the center.

It's too hard for me to turn my scissors once I get to the middle.

So I just come from the back on the outside and go in and meet it.

See how much easier that is than to get in there and try and turn it around and scoot it around?

I find it's easier just to go from the outside and meet it again.

So I'm going to go around and stop and go around and stop.

Go around.

If you want your petals to be bigger, you can, you don't need to make them the same size I'm doing.

You decide what you think looks good.

And see I'm getting down to the end and that one's going to be kind of skinny, but that's okay.

So, I go around and when I touch the ink, I stop.

I start on the outside again.

Go around and meet that little cut.

Go around and stop where the ink is.

Stop.

Start on the edge again, go in and meet it.

Go around.

Stop where the ink is.

Go around and stop where the ink is.

Go around, stop where the ink is.

Come to the edge again and go in.

And there is my flower.

Now, the idea for this is to color it in with just red, blue, and yellow.

If you want other colors, that's okay, and I'm using these permanent colors and I'm going to make my zigzags yellow.

So I'm going to go on there and color it in.

I have to stay away from the black ink 'cause even if you have a permanent pen, if it touches a permanent pen with a permanent pen, it sometimes will make the color bleed into each other, which means mix into each other.

And then once I do this, I think I'm going to put some polka dots in these zigzags so they look more like Yayoi's infinity web.

Do you need to use the yellow?

No, you can use any color.

Now if you're using watercolor pens, they may smear.

So just be careful and just keep your hands off of that area.

Notice how I'm just putting down my pen and picking it up.

We did this when we made our pumpkins, we touched and pick up, touched and pick up when we were studying Yayoi long ago a year ago, when it was time for pumpkin time, which is right about now.

Do you notice how I'm taking my time and putting the dots there and making it more interesting?

I'm not going up into the eyelashes very much though.

I want it to keep the eyelashes where you can see them.

Remember how she left white around her eyelashes?

I kind of did that.

I did some closer to the eyelashes but then I stayed away from them 'cause I had started making it smear and I didn't like that very much.

I think I'll do inside this part of the eyeball red.

And just get close to the black without smearing it.

And I'm doing little strokes so that it won't leave a lot of white between, but what these permanent pens on this slick kind of paper, the paper plates have a kind of a waxy finish so that when you put your food on it, the waxy part makes it so it doesn't soak in and make it all floppy.

So I'm putting this into the eyeball, my flying eyeball, flying into this flower.

Get that part all colored in.

I think I'll make the inside of my eye blue, but I'm going to make a circle, like a concentric circle around so you can still see the pupil.

So I'll do the blue and color it in.

I brought a light blue too, in case I wanted to do that.

I'm getting near the edge, close so that I don't leave any white.

And then I'll get near the edge and pull out.

Near the edge and pull out.

I made my background.

I explained to you yesterday, when I said please bring a dotted background because when you frame your art, if you sign it like Vashti did, if you frame your art, it gives it more importance.

And it makes people think, oh, this is a real art piece if they framed it.

And I think that same thing.

There.

Now, the thing I want to do is to make it look like Yayoi and her red polka dots, so I'm going to draw a circle and color it in.

Now it's a dot.

Draw a circle and color it in.

And now it's a dot, that's right.

Circle and color it in.

Do you see how it's looking more and more like Yayoi's work?

So I make a circle and color it in.

Maybe I'll make this dot a little bigger.

I should make it go off the edge, kind of like how Georgia O'Keeffe would do her work and make it get to the edge and fall off.

I'm wondering about if I will ever see your work, boys and girls.

you know how much I like to think about when we're in the classroom together, I can see children's artwork, but when I do it from the studio, I just have to depend on you sending me a letter and have your family, maybe, take a picture of you doing the work because I really do enjoy it.

And on my Facebook page, I can put your picture on there.

I know teachers are now part of my Facebook group and they post your pictures and I get to see them that way.

And they don't even have to send them to me.

They can just put them on the page and then everyone gets to see what you were doing on the day we studied certain artists and you can see each other's work and see what, if you get any inspiration or ideas from your friends.

One thing about art, when you're working, you don't even have to talk.

You can sit there and just think about your circles or think about what kind of artist you are.

Kind of like Vashti, are you thinking I'm a great artist and I can help others see that their artwork is good too.

Can't wait to put this on my background and show you how it's going to look.

How I made my background, let me bring it over and I'll continue doing my dots in a minute.

I always put the lid on my pen, even if I'm taking a short break, 'cause these kind of pens dry out if you leave them open, plus they make the room smell.

Look, this was just a piece of blue paper.

And I stacked up some light green paper and made these dots.

So I cut them all out at the same time.

And this one was whole, but I cut it in half, put half on one side and another.

I put some medium sized dots because look, my artwork looks good like this, but look how much better it looks like this, when it has a frame.

All right, let me set this over here and continue my dots.

Now, if you like this project, paper plates don't cost that much money.

So you could do a whole garden and you could hang them up if your family lets you put your work in your room.

I know that was one thing I got recently.

One of the children sent me a picture of their bedroom and they had all of their artwork next to their bed, hanging on the wall.

Now, some families don't like to put tape on the wall, cause it does sometimes make the paint come off.

So you have to ask before you put your artwork up, is say, where can I put my artwork?

A lot of people will put it with a magnet on their refrigerator.

So every time you go to get a something out of the refrigerator, you can admire or show that you appreciate your work and look at it that way.

Let's put this on here.

I think it looks like it might be finished.

What do you think?

Think so?

I'll put some glue stick on the back of it and put it in the middle of my frame.

I wonder if it would look better if I outlined each of the petals with black.

I'm kind of afraid to do it.

That it doesn't look, won't look good.

but then I think it's kind of stylized.

I think maybe it will look super good.

Let me try it.

Oh, I hope it looks good.

Get close to the edge Mrs. Readwright.

Oh, I do like it, boys and girls.

Don't feel like you have to outline yours, but I think this is going to make it even stand out even better.

And I'll stop when I come to... What do you think?

When I come to one of the lines, I'll stop.

Start at the line, go around the petal, get around the corner, get here.

These paper plates have a little ruffly edge and it kind of makes my pen go up and down, up and down, up and down, but that's okay.

I want to tell you, while I'm doing this part, about tomorrow, our last day of the dot day celebration.

Tomorrow, we're going to look at pointillism, which is when the dots mix together to make certain colors and really the person who started it, isn't the artist that we're studying.

We are going to do Vincent van Gogh and it's one of his self portraits.

And he used dots.

And the book I brought is going to show you different kinds of dot art that is in a museum.

And you'll see a dotted dog.

Most of the time we think of a dotted dog, goes with the fire department, but in here it's in the museum.

Someone painted it.

So, if you want to do the art with me tomorrow, bring a piece of paper and a pencil.

I'm using Q-tips and I'm using red, yellow, and blue tempera paint.

But you can use whatever paint you have or if you don't have paint, bring color crayons and you can just do dots of color crayon.

And we will do that art tomorrow.

Oh, I'm really glad I did the, the line on the outside, boys and girls.

I think it makes it look even better.

So let me get my background.

I'll put glue all around the middle part and probably it, probably would need real glue, but I'm going to put it on here and hold it.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

Will it stay?

Oh, it did, good.

Let's do a quick goodbye to one another and then we'll see you tomorrow.

It goes... ♪ Goodbye, see you next time, everyone ♪ ♪ Goodbye, see you next time, everyone ♪ ♪ Goodbye to you, goodbye to you, ♪ ♪ Goodbye to you, goodbye to me ♪ ♪ Goodbye see you next time, everyone.

♪ This was "Eyes Flying in the Sky" by Yayoi Kusama, ♪ Yayoi, Yayoi Kusama ♪ ♪ The princess of polka dots ♪ Boys and girls, I'll see you tomorrow when we study Vincent van Gogh.

Bye-bye.

(upbeat music)