Creativity Coming Through... On the Dot: Yayoi Kusama

I've set myself a challenge to create a new post (or repost a blend of past ones) that will spotlight creativity and imagination while we are all self-isolating and/or finding ways to keep kids engaged without burning out brains on screens.

Phaidon Books has released several titles in a continuing series of kid-friendly picture book biographies about contemporary artists who look, think, and work "outside the box". I've featured some of them HERE, and other artists HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Their most recent title gives me joy on many levels, because I have always adored DOTS! 

Dots in fabrics, dots in art, even patterns from raindrops on hot pavement. Dots with texture? Woo-hoo! 
Bring on the dotted SWISS fabric! 
Something about dots sparks my inner giggles.

Yayoi Kusama figured out that art makes her happy early in her life. Her family directly informed her that art was not something to pursue- not suited to her future as a wife to rich man.

Phaidon, 2020

Author/artist Fausto Gilberti celebrates the creative results of that awareness, dictate, and resistance in this latest title: YAYOI KUSAMA Covered Everything in DOTS and Wasn't Sorry. In this title the author adopts a first person voice to increase readers' insights into Kusama's journey as a person and as a creator. 
In that voice we learn about her talent and determination, including writing a letter to the amazing Georgia O'Keefe, who then paid her an unannounced visit IN PERSON! 
With O'Keefe's support and her own astonishingly original view of the world, she explored, expanded, and used her creations to open eyes, open hearts, and make political statements. She developed performance art pieces, involving herself within the final products.

Gilberti relies on small trim size and black-and-white images, combining line art with expansive interpretations of Kusama and her  work. These pages share the welcoming and whimsical tone of her work. As with Gilberti's earlier titles in the series, simple back matter provides specific details. But it is the book, itself a piece of art, that invites readers to return to it, page after page, and to learn more about the featured artist and her works.

In earlier posts I celebrated  picture book by Liz Garton Scanlon, THINK BIG! It's a lively celebration of the out-of-the-box potential of young people (the younger the better) to find joy and creative expression with an easy recipe of brains, heart, and random surrounding objects. 

You don't need loads of art supplies at home to create art. Use backs of junk mail, shopping bags, waste paper, insides of empty cereal boxes, etc. For media, try collage (No glue? Here's a link for  recipes for homemade glues and paste.) 

Despite my warnings about overdoing screen time, here's a link to a profile of Kusama with her won reflections on the palce of art in her young life, her family, and her eventual career. And here's a link to the retrospective of signature works of her LONG LIFE and many creations.

Meanwhile, use a few minutes (hours) of this gift of time to reconnect with the simple things that cause you to giggle, and use that positive energy to create something for yourselves.