Ziggle! is an accessible and fun book of art activities put together by Rebecca Fawkner. Rebecca was able to take the knowledge and skills of the team at New Plymouth’s Len Lye Centre to create a book of art activities. What makes this book stand out from similar books is the strength of learning running throughout, and the bold, clear link with Len Lye’s inspirational work.
Unlike similar productions, this book cleverly weaves information about Len Lye, his approach to art, and unpacks artistic concepts. While trialling some of the activities with my children I noticed a similarity between these exercises and the activities I do during art classes. Len Lye as an artist is a natural subject for a book looking to encourage artistic knowledge and creativity. He was inquisitive and had a strong curiosity. Ziggle! seeks to encouraged and develop artistic curiosity.
For the activity around painting shadows you could see that the artistic element of shape was being explored. On a rare late winter sunny day we played with drawing the shadows of interesting plants from the garden. We learned that when we held the object further from the paper it created a larger shadow. The children also seemed to find it easier to see the bumps and variations in branches when drawing their shadow than when drawing by observation.
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