April's student event was a pizza & paint night that brought a great crowd to the museum! For this event, we collaborated with Campus Activities Board (CAB) and they were very helpful with setting up and promoting the event. To host the art making activity, we brought in Amanda Lensing. Lensing did a great job leading this activity! To go along with the painting activity, we brought in pizzas, fruit, cookies, and various drinks. 

In case you couldn't make it to this month's event, here are some instructions and photos on how to make your own Kusama inspired work at home! It is such a relaxing activity and perfect for any artistic level. 

First, you'll want to gather some materials. 

For this activity you'll need: watercolor paints, oil pastels, watercolor paper, a sharpie, a cup of water, and maybe a larger brush. 

First, grab the sharpie and sketch out the outline of a pumpkin (or a mushroom). For this example, I did two different pumpkins. 

After drawing the outline, take the oil pastels and begin filling in the pumpkin with a variety of shapes and colors made with the pastels. 

Once the inside of the shape is filled in, take an oil pastel and fill out the background of the page too. I liked using a lighter color, so the lines aren't so obvious. You can fill this part in with lines like I did or even a lot of little circles. 

The next step is to use the watercolor paints and paint over the oil pastels and onto the paper. You'll soon see how the oil pastels deflect any absorption from the watercolors, which creates this cool affect! 

I like using a few different colors on the paper to add more depth to the piece. Also, I would recommend painting the inside of the object first, and then painting the background. It allows for the paint to dry a little, so the colors don't blend.