Blog posts

September 2019 - Industrial Nature Sculpture
August 2019 - Abstract Mixed Media
June 2019 - Paper Tube Sculpture
April 2019 - Rock Painting Extravaganza
January 2019 - Mini Shelf Pole
November 2018 - Painted Gourd
October 2018 - Matryoshka Doll Wall Hanging
September 2018 - Garden Pole
August 2018 - Mosaic Garden Sphere
June 2018 - Rock Houses
January 2018 - Art Can Happen Anywhere
November 2017 - Negative Space Painting
August 2017 - Altered Books
May 2017 - Annoying Cat
March 2017 - Costumes and Props
February 2017 - T-shirt Mania
January 2017 - 52 Week Illustration Challenge
December 2016 - Wonder Woman Fleece Hat
September 2016 - Lonely Chair Stop Motion
August 2016 - Sponging Rocks
May 2016 - Creating art with kids
April 2016 - Pew pew pew
March 2016 - Garage Band
Febraury 2016 - Stikbots Videos
January 2016 - Cross stitching zombies
December 2015 - Monster Mobile
November 2015 - The Reversible Seal Hat
October 2015 - Hallowe'en Maker Month
May 2015 - Avatar, Harry Potter and Shopkins

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February 2016 : Stikbots

February was the launch of my first ever youtube channel. I have been using youtube for a long time. I mean, who hasn't. From watching videos on how to fix your dishwasher to tutorials on some new software you've always wanted to learn, to learning a guitar riff to your favourite rock song, to endless silly cat videos. It can be a wealth of information and one of the biggest time burglars of my day.

Stikbots were a toy that I found on a list of cool tech toys for 2016, when I was looking up Christmas ideas for kids. Unlike the various $300 robotic toys that made the list, these came in under $10, came in a variety of colours, had lots of moving limbs but no batteries. I went on a hunt to find them. After tracking down a few at Mastermind (the only retailer in Canada that currently sells them) I bought a few and the kids and I discovered our love of such a simple and yet fun toy (for those with a creative mind, a tablet or smart phone and a little know how with video and sound editing - thank you four years of film school)

And so burst forth our Stikbot Youtube channel. These little toys are perfect for making stop motion animation. Little known to most, but I was accepted into film school with my own home made VHS tape stop motion made video. One that I had hand drawn and recorded page by page. These days the technology is accessible for most people which is awesome because it really IS fun to make your own stop motion movies.

The videos I post on our channel are made from animation snippets done both by me and my children. Children tend to have random things happen in their videos which I love because the humour is in the absurdity of it all. It's like watching some of the stranger Adventure Time episodes when you laugh at the end because you are pretty sure you didn't understand what happened in the story and have never seen anything weirder in your life. My own videos tend to be a little less random.

My first video is KickBot! Our red stikbot was accidentally broken, a huge tragedy we thought at first because the red stikbots you can only get at Target in the USA. We acquired ours when it was brought back for us by my husband while he was visiting his parents in Florida for a week. However, as it turns out, the broken stikbot was perfect for making a video where his upper half gets a beating from his own lower half.



More stikbot videos are on my channel Cat Spitz's Animation and more will be posted as I get them done.