Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist that is great to invite children to learn about during Asian American and Pacific Islander month. Her work primarily consisted in sculpture and installation, but she also has been active in painting, performance, film, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts.
The book Yayoi Kusama Covered Everything in Dots and Wasn't Sorry by Fuasto Gilberti is a great way to learn more about the artist. It explores how Yayoi Kusama covers everything in dots which is what she is known for. A great way to integrate the book while giving the opportunity to recreate art just like Yayoi is through a simple sticker filled invitation.
To set the invitation to you will need sticker dots (primary, neon, foam), recycled boxes/tubes/containers or to make it more interesting Mondo Llama paper mâché animals (triceratops, unicorn, tiger) as the child's canvas. Simply invite the child to cover these materials in dots just like Yayoi Kusama.
Creating or playing with stickers can help kids with so many developmental areas. Children don’t even realize they are working on the following skills: pincer grasp, sensory exploration, hand strength, gross motor development, visual scanning, two step direction, bilateral hand coordination, separation of the two sides of the hand, color and shape recognition, and most of all creativity.
