Amanda White is the perfect artist to round out week three of our three-part series on artists your children should know.  We love her for many reasons, but here are just a few:

1) She is Toronto-based!;

2) She’s all about exploring the link between man-made things (like cities) and the natural world; and

3) Her current projects help humans communicate with plants and animals!

Best of all, her work is super kid-friendly and out-of-the-box.  Amanda’s projects make you think of the world we saunter through each day in a completely different way, which is just the kind of thing we love to see.  Take Tell the Birds, for example.  This interactive project gives regular folk like us the opportunity to talk to the birds in our neighbourhood: since birds can see a wider range of the UV spectrum than humans, there is special paint that can be used for birds’ eyes only (humans can’t see it).  By going online, you can submit a sign to the project, and Amanda and her partner, Lydia Burggraaf, will make your sign using the special UV paint.  They’ll send it to you in the mail so you can post it on your lawn (or wherever you like) and literally tell it to the birds!

This is just one awesome example of Amanda’s work.  There’s also  FARMY (tiny toy parachute troopers made by copying children’s toys are composed of clay, seed and compost and then dropped around the city) and EAT WORDS, which uses food patterns to communicate with crows in Chatham, Ontario.

Amanda’s drawings and paintings can also be viewed online – don’t forget to check out Circles and Animal Skins, gorgeous ink renditions of botanical and zoological forms re-imagined as “amorphous shapes”.

Let us know what you and your kids think of Amanda’s work by posting a comment – or, better yet, tell it to the birds!

xo Alicia & Leanne