Kids get creative with monster art

Children were getting spooky with their art creations as part of the Arts Village holiday programme yesterday.

Children between the ages of 8 to 12 years took a Monster Making art class where they could use a range of materials such as straws, string and paper mache to make their creations.

Class tutor Maria Marshall said the children made a monster design, laid down straws over the top and then started to paper mache.

She said some children had designed "really gruesome" monsters, with scars and eyeballs falling down their cheeks.

Ms Marshall said it was a new class for The Arts Village programme, but she had already had great success with it on Monday in Whakatane.

Charlotte Rose, 8, said the class was hard but fun.

She wanted to do the class because she loved arts and crafts because you could make fun things.

Charlotte said she had also been to some of the art classes in the programme last week, including Wild Wire Faces, Pasta Sculptures and Marvellous Matariki Mobiles.

Zac Richardson, 8, said the class was the first he been to in the programme these holidays and it was "very fun".

"I really, really like art and mostly every chance I get to do art I do it."

He said what he liked about art was "you can do whatever you want and it doesn't matter if you mess up because you can still make something cool".

Zac said the hardest part was keeping up with everybody.

The children were able to take their artwork home after the class.

They often felt "fantastic" taking a finished product home, Ms Marshall said.

"They get a real sense of ownership of the project and with these sorts of things they can transfer the skills to school."

Last week The Arts Village also ran school holiday classes for children aged 5 to 7 years, with classes such as Fabulous Fabric Creations, Magical Puppet Making and Tissue Monster Challenge.