TOAD-ally Awesome

With Justin Ek of Bellissimo Paint & 108 Alchemy

Justin Ek spent multiple days at Cultivate Mankato engaging the students in a collaborative art piece inspired by Justin’s Frog Project and the picture book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.

Each classroom had the opportunity to add color to the frogs you see today. From our youngest babies to our oldest preschoolers, everyone had the opportunity to work with Justin and bring these frogs to life!

Myartinstallation,featuringgiantfrogspaintedon paper,isaplayfulandwhimsicalexplorationofthe relationshipbetweennatureandtheimagination.By invitingchildrenatCultivateMankatoChildDevelopment &ResourceCentertocollaboratewithmebydabbing ontopofthefrogs,Iaimedtocreateaspacewhere creativityandcommunitycouldcometogether.My intentionwiththisinstallationwastoinspirewonderand sparkaloveforthenaturalworldinchildrenofallages I'mhonoredtohavethisinstallationfeaturedatthe CarnegieArtCenterandhopethatitbringsjoytoall whoviewit

Sam Brown

My work is about the interest of communication and visual storytelling through the mediums of drawing and painting. This comes from my earliest artistic education through comics. My exposure to comics has informed my decisions on composition and visual language

The reason why I chose to work with this in mind is because I see a general lack of this sort of visual storytelling in contemporary art. The process of telling stories through visual media is something that had been done for millennia. Through my work I wish to take this issue and utilize it to a contemporary viewer.

The process of making my works comes about in small moments with a sketchbook and some form of pencil or crayon. From here I work these thoughts into a multitude of drawings made with colored pencils on toned paper.

LocalArtistSamBrownspentthreedayswiththestudentsatCultivate Mankato.

PreschoolDayOne- Sam shared his creative process with the students. That process includes carrying a sketchbook for when inspiration strikes. Each of the children got their own sketchbook and got to work on filling their books with the things that inspired them.

PreschoolDayTwo- Sam returned to the preschool classrooms where he talked about taking a sketch from their sketchbook and creating a drawing on paper. The children set out to create the pictures you see today.

Toddlers - Sam spent an afternoon with the toddler classes. With each class, he talked about different colors and created a color wheel right before their eyes! Then the entire class gathered around the paper to explore with different colors.