Happy birthday Faith Ringgold!

 This is one of those rare times where we get to celebrate a really cool, deserving, award-winning famous artist who is still alive! So Happy 86th Birthday Mrs. Ringgold! She was born in New York October 8th, 1930. She got her degree in art education, taught art in public schools and then went back to get her MA all while raising her two daughters and developing her own art. So naturally, she's a hero to me. She was also a big civil rights activist and women's rights activist, ideals she promoted through her art! Over the years she has painted, sculpted, made masks, designed posters, created dolls, produced textile arts, and written books. This children's book, which you should be able to find in your local library or buy it here on Amazon, based on one of her narrative quilts is fantastic:

It's so imaginative and whimsical. Really resonates with kids. She has a great website here where you can learn more about her, sing her song, and read a story. And here's a great video where the artist herself explains the making of the Tar Beach story quilt. Such a treat to get to see a real artist explaining her work! And here's a recent article on her art career where she tells most of the story herself.

And finally, a painting/quilting project to honor and celebrate Faith Ringgold! We had a blast with it! I first spent the night before cutting out little 1 inch x 1 inch squares of a variety of scrap fabric. We of course started out by reading the book and talking about the artist. Then we talked about places that we would like to fly over to make our own. I gave each of the kids a piece of construction paper and had them paint themselves flying over the place they would most like to have be theirs and then we wrote the words, "If I could fly..." at the top. Then the younger kids gathered fabric squares and glued them around the edges of their paper to make it look more like a quilt. The older kids who wanted to, took the time to then add some stitching with embroidery thread on top of the fabric to give it an extra authentic look.

Here's two examples:

Artist age 4

Artist age 8

It would be great to follow this up with a writing assignment titled, "If I could fly..." She would also make a great person to learn more about for a biography report, which would pair well with all sorts of history lessons. Anyway, I've never had the privilege of seeing any of her art in person, but when I make it to the Guggenheim someday, I'll be certain to look her up! Happy Birthday Mrs. Ringgold!