Want to make a Mondrian cake?  Rothko’s favorite pie? Dali’s salad? Check these out, just in time for Mother’s Day.

Mondrian Cake from Modern Art Desserts

Modern Art Desserts is a brand-new cookbook by Caitlin Freeman, pastry chef at San Francisco MOMA’s in-house cafe. She has the AWESOME job of creating desserts that look like the artworks in the museum.

Watch Caitlin make her Mondrian cake here:

This would make a fun Mother’s Day gift (or art club challenge!).

Rothko’s Pie from The Artist’s Palate

For a traditional (and easier) dessert, make Mom Mark Rothko’s Birthday Apple Pie. It was his favorite – his wife made it every year for his birthday. Click here for the recipe . The Artist’s Palate cookbook contains recipes and complete menus for lots of artist-inspired meals.

Dali’s Salad from MoMA Artists’ Cookbook

Back in the ’70s, New York’s MoMA published Museum of Modern Art Artists’ Cook Book. The cookbook is full of interviews, anecdotes and RECIPES from 30 modern artists of the day.

Click here for recipes by

• Louise Bourgeois
• Robert Motherwell
• Dali
• De Koonig

As cookbooks go, this one is the wild card. In truth, the artistic Mom in your life may prefer you DON’T make her the Dali salad for Mother’s Day brunch. But what did you expect from Dali? Cole slaw? Try De Koonig’s Dutch Breakfast instead.

(Thanks to ACraven blog for posting the recipes)

Hope you have a great Mother’s Day with the artistic lady in your life.

Enjoy!

I love Alexander Calder! I teach a Calder wire project each year, but I have never successfully made a Calder-inspired mobile. Until now!

I recently received this 1975 edition of Making Things: Hand Book of Creative Discovery, Book 2 by Ann Wiseman. Inside this gloriously illustrated book I found these  instructions for making Calder mobiles:

Making Things Book 2 – Handbook of Creative Discovery by Ann Wiseman. ISBN-10: 0316948519

Easy to follow step by step illustrations for a variety of mobiles

I decided to test it out with items I had on hand in the art room.

Materials for first mobile:

• 18-inch pre-cut Stem Wire (AKA floral wire) 20 gauge
• construction paper
• scissors
• hole punch
• pliers (note: I didn’t have any pliers so I just did this with my hands)
• AND A BALANCING FINGER

Materials for making a simple Calder-inspired mobile

Ms. Wiseman tells us mobiles are built from the bottom up. Aha!

Success! A 4-tier mobile!

Now for my second mobile. I made this mobile using Ann Wiseman’s illustrations and Peel & Stick Foam Sheets.

Calder-inspired mobile made with wire and self-adhesive craft foam.

To add interesting organic shapes, sandwich wires between matching pieces of self-adhesive craft foam.

If you choose to make these multiple tier wire mobiles, try it yourself first, be patient, and expect a lot trial and error. Balancing those wires is tricky and takes practice. I think these projects would be great for middle and high school students.

If you want to try this with a whole class of upper elementary students, I would keep it simple. Stick with one or two wires. Check out this project from Meet the Masters. I like how they have three degrees of difficulty and incorporate a stabile as a base.

Illustration from Meet the Masters website.

Here are some more ideas for Calder mobiles for kids:

• Babble’s fun-foam and wire mobile. Beautiful! Great step-by-step instructions.
• The Princess Artypants blog has a great Calder kinetic sculpture project, including video links.
• Salamander Art has a super fun-foam hanging mobile project that ties in with children’s mystery The Calder Game.

If you love Calder, you might like my previous Calder posts:

• Calder Wire Sculpture
• Calder’s Jewelry
• Calder Wire Portraits
• Calder books to read online for free 

Have you ever made a mobile with your students? 

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*****Thanks for visiting! Don’t forget to please vote for 2012 Art Ed Blog of the Year, which you can do by clicking this link and voting for K-6 Art! Voting open through December 14, 2012.******

I just learned about a fabulous free resource – the Digital Comic Museum. You can download complete vintage comic books for free! Most are from the comic book Golden Age (1930s-40s) and all are in the public domain and copyright free. Majority are US comics with a handful of Canadian and Australian/New Zealand titles.

This is a fabulous resource for SO MANY LESSON PLANS in art, art history, design, illustration, graphic arts, U.S. history, propaganda and communications at every level from upper elementary through college.

(Note: if you read Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay YOU MUST CHECK OUT THIS SITE! It is a like a visual companion to the novel).

I read about the DCM on Free Technology for Teachers. If you are a blogger or a teacher, please check out their site for lots of great resources.

Stop the presses!  I just discovered a FABULOUS source for online children’s picture books. TumbleBooks, available online for free through some Public Libraries in the U.S.

Some libraries require viewers to hold a library card, but some do not.

WANT TO TRY IT OUT? Google ‘Tumblebooks free’ or try my steps below.

STEP 1: 

Start by clicking  here and CLICK ON ‘Tumblebooks’ or this icon

STEP 2:

Select a book for computer or iPad

Here are three winners for young children.

1. Art’s Supplies by Chris Tougas.   Also available for iPad.

Art’s Supplies by Chris Tougas

2. Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

Ish

3. Purple, Green, Yellow by Robert Munsch and Helene Desputeaux

Purple, Green and Yellow

BONUS: SUB PLAN PLAYLIST FOR GRADES K-1

The three books are available as a ready-made playlist running 17 minutes. Project and go!

Go to your local library’s website and see if they offer Tumblebooks. Some school districts offer it as well – check out the school library’s website. Tumblebooks has some iPad books for kids as well (note: I was unable to read Tumblebooks on my iPhone).

Enjoy!! Leave a comment if this works for you. Do you have a favorite Tumblebook?

Want more? Check out these additional art books to read online for free.

p.s. Got an iPad? Our 4th grade photography lesson is now available as a free download from the iBookstore.

You need an iPad to view it.

iPad Alphabet Photography Rina Vinetz, Cara Spitzmiller & Angie Tremble Category: Education

Did you know there are a lot of art books you can read online for free? The Guggenheim Museum has 65 art books online, including a 1964 catalog from my favorite sculptor, Alexander Calder.

While we are on the topic of Alexander Calder, how about a book for kids?

This book from wegivebooks.org works great with a laptop or computer/projector.

Sandy’s Circus by Tanya Lee Stone is for primary grade students and is available in full color from wegivebooks.org.

Picasso and Matisse are lots of fun for kids. Storylineonline.net has lots of books for kids, all read out loud, including When Pigasso met Mootisse by Nina Laden.

How about a cool, retro how-to-draw book? You can read What to Draw and How to Draw It online.  The second graders loved drawing owls using the illustrations in this book.

Enjoy!

p.s. I heard about all four books via Pinterest.

Want more art books to read online for free? Check out this post.