I am a fan of NPR, so of course when I found out they were on Facebook, I connected with them and I now get great articles on my home page every day that have been posted by NPR. Today, the first thing I noticed was a headline entitled "NPR Picture Show: Balloon Art by William Lamson" and it had an interesting picture of several expaned balloons kind of squished between wooden pallets. I bookmarked it to check out later but all of the kids insisted on checking it out right away. So off we went.
 Balloon Art by William Lamson opened with "Your first reaction to this footage may be something like: "Huh?" And your second reaction: "Anyone can string bananas to a tree!" But let's be honest. Have you ever thought to do it? That's William Lamson's strength -- creating unlikely pairs in simple but surprising ways. He's a Brooklyn based artist, interested in photography, sculpture and performance. Using inexpensive materials and simple structures, he creates visuals that are mesmerizing and, in one word, playful."
He certainly is all that. The pictures are interesting, but nothing to really grab my interest and keep me there. It was the kids whose interest was caught and spent quite a while looking at the pictures and videos included with the article. The first video was simply of some balloons surfacing on water, floating around a bit and then floating off into the sky and out of view. I watched it the first time, enjoyed it but planned to move on. But the children saw more, and they stayed clustered around that little video for at least three repetitions! And then they wanted more. So we looked up more of his work and they found all of it fascinating. I admit that I've been taking pains to introduce them to all the great art and we got a lot of books on that subject. It never entered my head to show them this kind of stuff, or that they'd even like it so this has opened a whole new door.
More Of WIlliam Lamson's Work
This whole balloon theme has reminded about a short movie the children have seen in the past entitled Le ballon rouge (aka The Red Balloon) that was filmed in 1956 and is only 34 minutes long. A red balloon with a life of it's own follows a young boy around Paris. There is very little dialogue, and what there is is in French. This simple little thing has won an Oscar as well as several other assorted awards. We don't watch a lot of movies so they're a special treat and this is one that the children often requested last year. Those of you that have Netflix. this is available as a double feature along with White Mane on Instant View.
More Fun With Balloons
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