Kids' art interests start in many ways

Chris Kobe

Kids at a St. Louis Art Museum summer camp developed their interest in art in many ways. One wanted to do something better than his sister while another got into art because his parents didn't let him watch TV.

Twelve-year-old Chris Kobe said he took an interest in art as a way to irritate his older sister, Caroline. "I didn't like her very much so I wanted to be better than her. She wants to be an art major or an architect," he said.

He thinks he's caught up to her in drawing but admits he's got a ways to go in painting and drafting.

For 11-year-old Henry Schneider, he was urged into doing art at a very early age. He said, "My mom didn't let us watch any TV when we were young. We were pushed to do something with art and I got to like it a lot."

Henry Schneider

Thirteen-year-old Ben Bailey of Belleville, Ill., said he picked art "because I wanted to do something with my free time."

Both Henry and Ben had been to Art Museum summer camps for several years. For Chris, this was his first time at the museum's Middle School Workshop, taught by Michael Lucas of the museum's education staff.

(If you'd like more information about art opportunities for kids at the St. Louis Art Museum, you can call (636) 655-5294.)

A main focus of last month's workshop was creating of etchings and embossed artwork.

In etchings, the kids carve figures into a plate, ink it and run it through a press so the design prints on moistened paper. In the embossing, the kids glue design pieces onto a board, cover with moistened paper and apply pressure so the design stand out on paper.

Ben Bailey

Then there was the "crushed can" artwork.

In that, the kids crushed aluminum soda cans until they were just about flat. Then, they put ink on the cans and put that through the printing press to get an abstract artwork.

Eleven-year-old Gretchen Benkendorf said the hardest part of this is getting just the right amount of ink before you run it through the press. She said, if you put on too little ink, the art image doesn't transfer to the paper.

But, she said, if you put on too much ink there's just a smear, rather than a design.

Gretchen will be a 6th grader at St. Norbert Catholic School this fall. She said she got interested in art "while watching my sister." This is Gretchen's first summer camp at the museum.

But, 13-year-old Christine Benkendorf was in her third museum camp. She said her etching and embossing is "much better" this summer.

Gretchen Benkendorf

However, she thinks the hardest thing to do is to create a "perfect" piece of artwork. "You can never make it perfect; there's always at least one mistake," she said.

She said the closest she came to what she considered was a "perfect" painting was an oil pastel copy of a painting by the famous French Impressionist painter Monet.

Chris Kobe is going to be a 7th grader at Our Lady of the Pillar School. He said the hardest thing for him in art is "trying to think up things." He said, "Creativity is probably my biggest roadblock."

"Most of the time I need some source material before I can create a work of art," he said.

Christine Benkendorf

Henry Schneider will be a 6th grader at St. Margaret of Scotland School. He said he toughest challenger is "drawing a person's face." He said he often uses live models for his artwork.

When asked if the models think he's done a good job on their face, he said, "Usually not."

Ben Bailey will be an 8th grader at Emge Middle School in Belleville. He said his toughest art task is patience. He hates to take the time to do the detail work in a realistic painting.

"I'm not the most patient person. That's probably why I like to do cartoons," he said.

Bailey said he does animation at home. "Sometimes I'll write some comics," he said.

But, Ben also has interest in the art of music. He said he plays the bass guitar and has a neighborhood "garage band" that plays mostly "punk rock." The band is named "Finally Called Barbara."

Asked about the name, he said it was named after one of his grandmothers, who is named Barbara. He said, "She kinda likes to have it named after her. She's a big Elvis fan."