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Blog @ Spokane Public Library

Simple Self-Care | Library @ Home

Librarian Clara shares some tips for simple self-care in this presentation.

Read some of the tips below and even more ideas for parents and families in the link above.

“While the suggestions I’ve given here are not for everyone, SELF-CARE IS FOR EVERYONE.

• Create your own list and don’t forget to do them.

• Take a deep breath.

• Call a friend. Yes, call them, don’t text.

• Keep your mind open and look for those 5-minute increments where you can focus on the thing you are grateful for.”

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Continuous Line Drawings | Opening Act(ivity)

 

Hi, my name is Lisa. I usually host the Opening Act(ivity) program at the Northtown Branch on Wednesday mornings.

For today’s activity, you will need paper and something to draw with. Continuous Line Drawing is when you use a single unbroken line to draw an image or images.

If you would like to see more examples, search for Continuous Line Drawings or watch this instruction video from YouTube.

This is a great drawing technique that develops hand-eye coordination and observation skills.

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Art Break | Rock Painting

painted-rocksHey all, it’s Eva. I’m the Arts Education Specialist at the Downtown Library. Normally, I arrange for all the art shows at the Downtown Library and lead Crafternoon sessions, but I’m working from home right now, so I’ve incorporated Crafternoon into my at-home work. We’re calling these “Art Breaks” because it’s nice to take a break for art every day!

The past few weeks, I’ve been painting rocks and leaving them at the end of my driveway for the neighborhood kids to take or admire (along with a pile of blank rocks). It’s been a lot of fun and I’ve experimented with several techniques. When I’ve done rock painting programs at the library, I’ve mostly used acrylic paint with brushes and wooden skewers, pencil erasers, or chopsticks to make dots. I recognize that not everyone has acrylic paint at home, so I tried out colored pencils and paint pens as well. I really like all three techniques and you can see the results a quite varied. Butterfly = colored pencil, sunflower = acrylic paint, dots and lines = paint pens.

Check out the YouTube tutorial to learn more. In the meantime, I’m going to hide some decorative rocks at some of the libraries. 😊

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Art Break | Marker Floral Design

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This week, I practiced drawing flowers and leaves with markers. I don’t have a lot of markers at home, just a pack of Crayolas and some old markers from the Martha Stewart craft line. I used a lightweight watercolor paper, but printer paper is fine. Use what you have! This would also work in any other medium too.

With this project I focused on using just a few colors to create a balanced composition. I went straight in with the markers, not bothering with drawing first in pencil. One thing I struggle with is letting go the idea of perfection and going straight in with markers really confronts those feelings. Nature isn’t perfect so why does my drawing need to be perfect? Flowers are not all the same nor perfect looking, neither are leaves.

When finished I thought this could be turned into an adorable card to send- so that’s what I did. Great for Mother’s Day coming up or as something to send to someone you haven’t seen in a while! Head over to our YouTube channel to watch how I drew my floral motif.

Watch the tutorial video here!

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Play-Doh Sculptures | Opening Act(ivity)

Hi, my name is Lisa.  I host the Opening Act(ivity) program at the Northtown Branch.

For today’s activity, I hope that you can locate some Play-Doh or clay.

This is a sculpting by hand exercise with a twist. You cannot look at what you are making. Here are some objects you can make: person, animal, bird, dinosaur, shapes, numbers, letters, etc. Put a timer on for 10 minutes per object and sculpt away.

If there is more than one person sculpting, did you make different things or were they the same?

Have fun.

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Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2020

Spokane Public Library is excited to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month this May with a variety of virtual offerings! 

Register to participate in our virtual events and you will receive an email with a link with instructions on how to participate prior to the event. You will need a device/computer with an internet connection and the Chrome browser, microphone, and speakers.

 

Virtual Events

May 5 @ 3pm | #InlandStrong Virtual Book Club for Teens – The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (Registration Required)

May 7 @ 10am | #InlandStrong Virtual Book Club (Adults) – The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (Registration Required)

May 12 @ 3pm | #InlandStrong Virtual Film Club – Pather Panchali (Registration Required)

May 14 @ 7pm | #InlandStrong Virtual Book Club – The Leavers by Lisa Ko (Registration Required)

May 27 @ 12pm | #InlandStrong Virtual Book Club – Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah (Registration Required)

 

Ongoing Exhibits, Prerecorded Presentations, and Responses

Profiles of Notable Asian Americans | Asian Pacific Islander Coalition – Spokane Chapter

Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute Extension Program 2019 – Student Responses

Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute Extension Program 2018 – Student Presentations

Chinese Watercolor Paintings by Local Artist Ling Luo Bower

Birth story of Lord Ganesha – How Did He Get His Elephant Head? Fifth grader Sindhu explains this aspect of Hindu faith

Storytime: The Name Jar | Asian Pacific Islander Coalition and Reimagine Spokane

The Ant and the Elephant | A Hmong story

500 Years of Filipina Fashion by Charity Bagatsing Doyl

Philippines Independence Day – June 12

Buffalo Soldiers in the Philippines

What Happened to Corporal David Fagen

 

Indian Youth Club of Spokane

The Story of Ganesha

Traditional Indian Bharathanatyam Dance to Gajavadana Beduvae Praising Lord Ganesha

A Brief Play About “OM ” from the Indian Youth Club of Spokane

Namaskar and Universal Peace Mantra – Asatoma Sadgamaya by Sindhu Surapaneni Indian Youth Club of Spokane

Learn About AUM and How to Draw a 3D AUM

Learn How to Draw a Portrait of an Indian Lady and Learn About the Importance of Bindhi

 The Hinduism Interpretation

 

Book & Film Suggestions

Check out hoopla, RBDigital, OverDrive, and Kanopy to stream many of these books or films.

INSIDER: Must-read books for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Kanopy: Film Selection for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

 

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Blackout Poetry | Opening Act(ivity) for April 29

Today’s topic is Blackout Poetry.

What is Blackout Poetry? Revive the text in an old book, magazine, or newspaper by scanning the page for words or phrases you want and coloring over text you may not want to use. String these words together to form a new poem. Check out more detailed instructions from Scholastic! 

With the stay at home order, you may have been cleaning out your magazines and books. Consider keeping one item to use for this activity. You may want to bring out the art supplies to turn this poem into a personal masterpiece.

Need inspiration, do a google search for Blackout Poetry Images or learn from Scholastic.

Lisa

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Making Bread | Library @ Home

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We are doing things during the Stay Home, Stay Healthy order that we might not do as often. Some people are watching Netflix, some are reading their favorite books…again. Then there is the trending “things-to-do at home” that are industrious, like cleaning your house or fixing up the yard. Those are all well and good, but I am caught up in one trend that is a lot easier: bread making.

I saw this recipe in the Spokesman Review and have since made it every week. Thankfully, I had a big bag of flour in the pantry. It is so easy! Flour, yeast, salt, water, bowl, Dutch oven, and time are really all you need. No kneading for 10 minutes, no fancy rolling it out into baguettes – unless you want to! Just mix all the dry ingredients in the bowl, mix in the water, wait approximately 24 hours, and then bake it in a hot Dutch oven. While the dough may look a bit odd after 24 hours, don’t worry, it is supposed to look like that. It’s the baked part that counts, right? Looks like a round loaf from the bakery and tastes amazing!

Picture 1: the dry ingredients before mixing.

Picture 2: the dough after 24 hours.

Picture 3: the finished product.

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Picture 4: cut bread. Try it out and let us know what you made!

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Art Break | Create Your Couch

couch

This week’s inspiration comes from my couch. Okay, this isn’t exactly how my couch looks, but the shape is my couch! I decided to switch it up and try a different color and pattern for my couch.

Drawing furniture is a great way to practice perspective drawing and coloring shadows. One tip for perspective drawing is to make sure your horizontal lines are parallel to each other and the same with the vertical lines. You’ll notice in my drawing the horizontal lines that make up my couch cushions are parallel. The slanted lines that make up the top sides of the cushions are parallel to the slanted lines on the top of the arms. Don’t worry if your couch is a little wonky at first, it takes practice!

Start with your easiest shapes (mine was the bottom long rectangles of the couch) and work from there. Feel free to omit or add pillows and blankets. Imagine your couch as a different color or pattern. This week I used colored pencils, which I haven’t used in quite a while. Head over to YouTube to see me draw my couch and do a little coloring!

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Storytime Tips for Kids

Need some advice on how to make storytime work in your household? Librarian Clara Strom provides some tips on how to make storytime enjoyable for the whole family. See all her tips here.

Clara’s Tips:

  1. Pick books you like! If you are excited about reading, they will be too.
  2. Make sure the illustrations are clear and not muddled.
  3. Make sure there isn’t too much text, especially when reading to a toddler or young preschooler.
  4. Stop and ask questions about the book. Explain a new word. This is called “dialogic reading”.
  5. Discuss the book when you are done.

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Reading/Drawing Between the Lines | Opening Act(ivity) for April 22

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Hello, my name is Lisa. I host the Opening Act(ivity) program at the Northtown location every Wednesday morning. This week’s activity is Reading (and/or Drawing) between the lines.

Grab a piece of lined notebook paper. Please consider writing a special thank you or thinking of you note. You can add a cute picture.

There are a lot of people on the front lines working and volunteering to keep us safe. Many people could use a lovely note!

 

 

Lisa

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Art Break | Watercolor Carrots

watercolor-carrotsI like to reserve a few minutes for something creative every day. Today’s inspiration comes from Spokane Public Library’s seed library. Hopefully some of you will start receiving your seed packets in the mail this week! I purchased these beautiful multi-colored carrot seeds originally for Indian Trail’s seed library. They are simple in shape and are very colorful. Don’t be afraid to change up your object, why not make your carrots purple with polka dots?

Use what you have, whether it’s pencils, pens, or paints, to create something. Focus on breaking down your object into simple shapes and don’t get lost in the details. You will be surprised by what you can do. Head over to the library’s YouTube channel to watch me paint some carrots!

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