♪ Good morning to a brand new day ♪ ♪ Time to learn and games to play ♪ ♪ Learning things is so much fun ♪ ♪ Learning is good for everyone ♪ (upbeat music) - Hello early learners.

Welcome back to the art room where we are doing the ABC's of art.

And we did a is for artist, b is for bridge, c is for cat.

And today, a, b, c, d. D we're doing dance.

And it is William Johnson, who was an American artist.

He was born in South Carolina and then he lived there for until he was only 16 and then he moved over to Harlem.

While in Harlem, he wanted to be a cartoonist and he went to an art school and then he went to Europe where all the people from the United States seem to be going to learn about art.

And when he went there he lived for 13 years but then he really heard his hometown calling him back home.

He wanted to come back to the United States and paint everyday lives of African-Americans who were living in the United States.

So when he came back he started going to nightclubs, where people were doing the dance called the Jitterbug.

And I saw five of his Jitterbug dance pieces of art and I had a hard time choosing.

But let's start off with our hello song and then move right into the art.

How about that?

Alright.

♪ 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 ♪ So here is the art.

These are two people dancing in a nightclub and this is to look like a piano and the floorboards are put on after they've made this painting.

And here's our artist, William Henry Johnson.

And he was an African-American artist, and he was one of the artists that president Obama, was allowed to bring in any kind of art he wanted to to the white house hen he lived there with his family.

And William H Johnson's art, he took three of his pieces of art to the White house, and hung them there, so he could enjoy them day after day.

And an interesting thing too recently they have released a greeting stamp, a stamp for your postage, and you can put it on there.

And it's one of William Johnson's flower vases with all these beautiful flowers.

I thought about using that for the letter F, but we have something else exciting for letter F. Let's sing the alphabet song.

And it goes like this.

I wish I brought my rhythm sticks 'cause you could even clap to it.

You could be doing this.

(clapping) ♪ a, b, c, d, e of art ♪ ♪ That's the way that we will start ♪ ♪ A is for artist ♪ ♪ B is for bridge ♪ ♪ C is for cat walking on a ridge ♪ ♪ D is for dance ♪ ♪ Earring starts with E ♪ ♪ Art and the alphabet, a, b, c ♪ So these people dancing, you can see he is dancing.

He has her arm up in the air, he has his feet on the floor, and her legs.

He's lifting her up.

They can throw them over their shoulder.

They put them between their legs.

They put them around their waist and dance around.

You have to see people doing the Jitterbug.

I saw a movie of a man who was 90, and his wife is 89, and they're still doing the Jitterbug.

It's a great dance.

Try and see if you can see it.

So we're going to cut and paste.

Now look, one hand is up here holding her hand so she can dance up high.

And the other one is around her waist so she doesn't fall backwards when he tips her back.

And she has on super high heels with red on the bottom.

And he has his bright orange shoes that are triangles, put on a little rectangle.

So when we make this I chose a gray background, and I also brought my little mannequin.

So that when I am making him ready to go, I can set him up to look like that.

So he has his arm up high, he has his arm around her waist, he has one leg kind of forward and one leg kind of back, and he's ready to dance.

So I'm gonna look at that as I cut and paste my paper.

So let me set it here.

I have my box of scraps, so I can make my people any color, any paper I want.

Let me set this over here.

Get my little table.

Oh I should show you this while they're right here.

Remember if you're doing artwork, and you would like to send the picture of you working on your art or the picture of you with your art maybe under your chin saying, "Oh, here's what I made."

If you send it here with your home address we can send you one of these books and it'll come to your mailbox.

I think you'd like that.

Let me put it here so I remember to tell you about it again tomorrow.

So I got my gray paper, I have my working board.

Oh it's getting heavier as the days go by.

And I'm gonna make my paper up and down, so I can make them dance.

I think I'm gonna make my people brown, and... Oh do I wanna make one brown and one browner?

Maybe.

You can make your people any color you'd like.

If you want it to be you, make it your skin color.

If you want it to be like the African-Americans that William Johnson did, you make them brown.

I have my scissors here, ready to go.

You know I don't ever draw anything because I just don't like to spend the time doing it.

But I brought a pencil in case you think, oh I can't I don't know how big.

Oh what should I do?

You have to decide how big the face will be, by how big your paper is.

So if I'm going to do two people dancing, and I want their heads here, and their torso here, and their legs here, I'm gonna have to make them about the size that my fingers make a circle.

That would be good.

And they're facing one another.

But that's not necessary that you follow that but I'm gonna start out by cutting out one head, and put it here and see if it looks like a good size.

You know what, it really does.

So I might make the other head about the same size.

And here I am, using my pencil very lightly.

So you can see oh, so even teachers sometimes draw things.

And the reason I show you this is to show you different techniques or ways to do your art.

Because art should never make you feel bad.

You should never think, oh, this isn't good enough.

Well if you're trying to do it like a grownup, it makes you feel like, oh, I can't do it like a grownup.

Well that's because you're not a grownup.

So, just think every year I have gotten better and better at my art.

And I'm still not a great artist, but I do like it a lot.

And on my art that I like to do, I have a pottery studio.

And when I was in college, I made money making dinnerware for people.

And it went in a big hot oven, which I now still have but it's staying in a friend's garage 'cause I have too many books in my garage.

I want her nose to stand up 'cause I think she is just having a time of her life.

I like to put there a nice white teeth And their nice white eyes on here, so they show up.

And you remember how I taught you to make the eyes?

You get your scrap paper.

I think I'll make them have some brown eyes.

But not that color it's the same color as their skin.

Alright so, you first cut out your color of your eyes, which I'm doing and since I'm doing four eyes, I cut it did it in half, and in half again.

So I make my circles, and see if they're the right size before I glue it on the white paper.

Let me dry fit it.

I've told you I dry fit things.

Good at that part you.

Yeah, that looks good.

Maybe a little smaller.

I think it's fine.

Alright glue stick come down here.

So I'm going to put my...

I think I have two of them here I better take them apart.

They stuck together when the scissors mush them together.

Glue put it on the glue stick, put it on the white paper.

Glue put it on the glue stick, put it on the white paper.

Move it over a little bit 'cause you have to cut around it.

Put it on there.

Come to me... Oh look even when I had a little glue on my finger it picked it up.

There we go, four eyes.

Her nose kept her hand standing up.

Like that.

Alright now, his is such a big piece of paper.

I'm gonna teach you what I do because it's too hard.

And just like I saw Miss Laura teaching people, it's the thumb and the top hole and the fingers underneath so that you can do.

♪ Open shut them ♪ ♪ Open shut them ♪ ♪ Cut around the eye ♪ ♪ Open shut them ♪ ♪ Open shut them ♪ My other hand is moving the paper, so I can cut real skinny next to that.

Oh, I think that William Johnson had them close their eyes.

The roll of that eyeball is too big.

I'm gonna cut it in half, and have them kinda sleepy dancing.

That would make their eyes not look good.

Alright and I just have to cut around the other one.

Can we see his eyes?

No his arm is covering up his sideways.

I think I will make him sideways, and just have one eye show.

Maybe I'll make it in half.

Boys and girls if the eyeballs' too big it makes people look like they're scared.

I don't think they're scared of dancing.

So I'm gonna have him looking at his girl.

This is gonna take so long.

I'm not going to hurry though, but I'm going to put the head on just so I can get going on it.

So she's dancing with her head back, he's dancing without looking at her.

Now I will get some colors, and I also wanna put his nose.

And since he's standing sideways I have to find which was his color, and put his nose on so we all know that he's facing sideways.

I will put his colorful clothes.

They were dressed like dandies, they called people that dressed fancy.

Oh, what a dandy.

So he is dancing this way, I can get out of color.

I think I'll give him some purple.

I'll give him a purple shirt.

Remember he's gonna need a neck, but I hold it up to his head to see how big to make it.

Put this on here, give him a little bit of a neck.

Boys and girls what will happen if we don't finish this today?

Will you ever see it again?

Yes I'll bring it back, 'cause you know how to do the people.

We've cut out people before.

But the idea is where to put the arms and legs and all of that is kind of the thing that people get a question about.

So if you have something that is your inspiration, then what you do is you look at it like I looked over there and he was kind of bent over a little bit so I should move his body kind of bent backwards a little bit.

I'm gonna put his arm up.

I'm going to do two arms.

So I'm gonna cut the sleeve like this, and cut two out of it.

Oh, that'll be perfect.

And I might cut it in half so that I can have him bending one arm around her waist.

Boys and girls tomorrow do you know what we're going to be doing?

I wore a Pearl earring today because, I am going to talk about the girl with the Pearl earring.

And I wore her white shirt, and I also wore her golden jacket.

So you can think about the artist who does that.

Now look, this is so far from being done but I'm really happy what I've done so far.

I hope you like yours too.

Tomorrow if you will bring... Oh, black background papers, skin colored paper, scissors, glue stick.

I'm using blue tissue paper and white tissue paper and my scraps.

So bring what you can.

If you don't have those things, you'll use crayons, pastels, whatever materials you have.

But tomorrow I'm going to be cutting and pasting again kind of like this.

And I will bring this back for you to see, because I think he needs to be dancing and having his own... Oh wouldn't he love a pair of turquoise pants.

I will see you tomorrow boys and girls.

Thanks for joining me today.

Goodbye.

(upbeat music) ♪ Good morning to a brand new day ♪ ♪ Time to learn and games to play ♪ ♪ Learning things is so much fun ♪ ♪ Learning is good for everyone ♪ (upbeat music)