(bright upbeat music) - Hi.

I'm Miss Penny from KidVision PreK and I am thrilled to be here at the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden.

It's such a special place - I want to welcome you Miss Penny.

My name is Nancy Jones and I work here at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens.

I am an expert at this sculpture and the plant life that grows around it.

- I love being here too Miss Penny.

My name is Lisa MacNamara.

I'm an artist and a teacher and the kids around here call me Mrs. Mac.

- So tell us a little bit about the gardens.

- The Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens is a green oasis in the city of West Palm Beach.

Planted in this garden are palms, very rare palms and cycads from all over the world.

This was the dream of sculptor and weaver Norton.

- That's a lovely idea and how wonderful for her to make that dream come true.

For you as an artist, how does this garden inspire you?

- What's so inspiring about being here at the gardens is the plant life.

You will see all different kinds of patterns in every plant that's here.

- So you started as an artist and then you morphed into teaching art?

- Yes.

- What made you take that step?

- The inspiration of making mistakes.

I see kids that get so frustrated about they think they're messing up on their paper and they really aren't.

It's just another way to look at something.

- Mrs. Mac, it's so amazing to hear you talk about mess ups.

You would think an artist with Ann Norton's background that there would be no mess ups but this sculpture beings was supposed to be an entirely different sculpture.

A sculpture of just three standing beings.

Well you can say today that it's not three by any means.

There are seven beings almost watching over this garden.

You'll see their faces are each viewing in a different direction.

You see them almost as sentinels guarding this beautiful spot.

- I do see it.

(bright upbeat music) (playful music) We're here at the reflection in the garden and it's just lovely.

- Yes, it is.

- It's amazing how the sculpture is so beautiful and strong and big and then when it reflects in the water, it becomes a whole nother piece of art.

- I agree.

With it reflecting in the water and the water moving, it almost makes it look like a whole nother sculpture.

It in itself is a very linear which means a lot of lines in it.

And then the water softens those lines out.

- Like you said it's tall, it's straight and it's three-dimensional because you can go on all three sides and look at it.

- You can walk around it and it has mass to it and volume.

A person, we are three-dimensional because we're round.

2D is something flat where it stays on the plane and it's a piece of paper.

- Okay.

- So as an artist, I usually always start 2D and that I'm sketching something out and I might even do a watercolor rendering.

And then I'll start building like a maquette like a little minature.

I'm very inspired by nature.

There's so many things here that I could kind of take apart and sketch out and make into clay.

Would you like to build something that is inspiring you with Legos?

- I would love to.

- I like Legos too.

- It sounds like fun.

- Great.

(playful music) (bright upbeat music) - I love your shirt.

- Oh, thank you Miss Penny.

The kids call me Mrs. Mac and this is my idea shirt.

I love it because art is all about ideas.

Isn't it?

- So I was thinking that we could start with what you were talking about with the two-dimensional picture and then make it into a three-dimensional piece of art.

- Great idea.

You got these leaves and they're beautiful leaves and it's a very simple thing.

You just do a quick sketch.

It doesn't have to be exact.

(bright upbeat music) And when we touch something, sometimes that helps us to go ahead and draw it.

And this is a beautiful, simple leaf.

If you're trying this at home what you might do is make one triangle and then make another triangle and you pretty much have a leaf.

And since this leaf is very flat, we wanna go ahead and give it more volume so it will kind of blossom up a little bit.

- Okay.

- I think I'm gonna start mine out into kind of like a worm, so it has some volume to it.

And then you're pressing you're looking at the little triangle at the top and what's so great about clay is it molds to pretty much whatever you want it to do.

- Look at that.

- Yeah.

That looks great to me.

- It does.

Our leaves are very different and it's been so wonderful working with clay.

It's amazing how we're both looking at the same leaf but we both have different interpretations of it.

- Exactly.

That's what makes art so cool.

You see something one way and develop it.

And I see something another way and develop - When we were by the reflection pool and we saw Ann Norton's structure and it was so beautiful and well done and you were talking about that we could play with that idea and use Legos.

- Yes we can.

We have Legos right here.

Let's do it.

Make a 3D structure.

- One of the things I liked about the structure besides the reflection in the pond, is I liked that it went up and there was an empty space in the middle.

- Yes.

So that empty space is called negative space where you can see through something.

If you open up your fingers right here this is negative space and any kind of sculpture an artist is always looking for a negative space because that, it's almost two-sculptures-in-one.

The negative space and then the solid stuff.

- Very interesting.

I never thought of it like that.

(bright upbeat music) Well, I'm very happy with my structure and I love the negative space.

Thank you for telling me about it.

And now when I'm building, I'll think about that.

- I think it's wonderful and it definitely shows the flavor of Ann Norton's piece looking at the reflection pond.

- And let's look at your structure.

- So mine has a little bit more solidness to it.

It does have some negative space here and there was another piece in the garden that I had that flavor from that this was the center point because that's what you kind of look at is that negative space in there.

- I wanna thank you so much.

It was wonderful to spend the day with an artist and to take art apart and really be in a beautiful sculpture garden and be inspired by Ann Norton's work.

And then you doubly inspired me.

- Oh thank you.

- And taught me so much.

- Oh Miss Penny that was very kind of you.

Thank you.

It was wonderful.

And this surrounding is just absolutely amazing.

Thank you.

(bright upbeat music) (playful music) - Hi boys and girls.

It's Miss Penny.

Put on your thinking caps.

It's time to learn a new word.

(playful music) Art studio.

An art studio is a room where an artist does his or her work.

It is a place where an artist works and creates.

(playful music) What was that word?

- [Students] Art studio.

- Good job.

Artist.

An artist is a person who works doing creative arts like drawing, painting or sculpture.

(playful music) What was that word?

- [Students] Artist.

- Good job.

Sculpture.

A sculpture is a work of art that is made by carving or shaping clay, stone or other materials into a three-dimensional figure.

(playful music) What was that word?

- [Students] Sculpture.

- Good job.

Sculpture garden.

A sculpture garden is an outdoor garden dedicated to the presentation of sculptures.

(playful music) What was that word?

- [Students] Sculpture garden.

- Good job.

See you next time.

(playful music)