This Teens at Home activity is developed by Dublin based artist Kathryn Maguire. Inspired by Mary Bauermeister‘s art work ‘Sketch for Tanglewood’ from the IMMA Collection, Kathryn invites us to explore the world through the lens of the Circle.

Explore

Have a look around any room and see all the circles. Look at their size, their shape, and their colour. Are they grouped together? Are some circles rounder than others?
If we lived in a circular world would it be nice? Would it be funny? What would it look like? Do circles feel different to other shapes? Can you make a game noting all the circular shapes in the room around you? Can you imagine if Minecraft was circular? Imagine if pixels were circle-shaped and not square….

Get Creative

Gather all the circular objects you can find. Using old magazines and papers, draw small-to-big sized circles and start to cut them out of your papers. Trace around the various coloured paper with the circular shapes, cut as many out as possible.

Start to create a pattern, whether it is a circle of circles or a spiral. Perhaps put one circle down and leave a gap, and then another. Do some circles sizes fit better together? Overlap them. Layer them. Maybe draw some pictures around the circles. Did you look a the giant circle on the IMMA website? Maybe make a giant sculptural circle for your bedroom that will be sparkly like a Bindi. Do you know what a Bindi is?

Draw a picture of a Minecraft world but make its pixels circular not square. Maybe cut out circles and make a circle based grid system out of coloured paper, can you make a grid with circles?

Materials Needed

• Old unwanted magazines, comics, newspapers, books – make sure to check first that its ok to use them for cutting up
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• A3 paper or A4 paper. You could stick the paper on your bedroom wall with bluetack – make sure to check first that its ok to do this.
• Circular objects around the house like jam jar lids, saucers, bottle tops
• Paints, crayons and coloured markers

Links for Inspiration

• You could also create spirograph shapes with pens and old cardboard. Maybe you can put this into your drawing too. Click here (Source: youtube.com)
• Make a mandala. Click here. (Source: youtube.com)
• Damien Hirst’s dot painting was chopped up and sold. Click here. (Source: news.artnet.com)
• Listen to music of the spheres. Click here. (Source: system.sounds.com)
• Watch this incredible optical illusion by Marcel Duchamp. Click here. (Source: youtube.com)

This Teens at Home art activity was developed by Kathryn Maguire.

IMAGE: Mary Bauermeister, Sketch for Tanglewood Press, 1966, Mixed media print, 43 x 55.5 cm Framed: 68.5 x 79 x 5.5 cm, Collection Irish Museum of Modern Art, Gordon Lambert Trust, 1992.