(Jonathan Zettel)
Steve Cober leads me up a small set of stairs from the Magic Pony retail space and through a glass door into Narwhal Art Projects. It’s a narrow room which usually houses art exhibitions. Usually, but not today. Today — and most of this week — there’s an entire army of children keen to learn, experience, engage and invent. Basically Cober has handed over the gallery to these kids.
“I think they’re making wands,” he says.
He’s right: some of them are making wands. But that’s not all they are making. The entire room sparkles and glitters with nearly every weapon a hero might wield. Two girls are waving sticks covered in what looks like tin foil, paint and feathers. There are bows and arrows fashioned from sticks covered in bark, and white cord painted green. One boy, about 10 years old, proudly waves a blood-covered butcher knife, handily crafted from cardboard. One of the instructors is handing him a thin stick to help reinforce the shaft.
This is not your average Summer Camp. This is Magic Pony Super Camp. Macaroni artists need not apply.
Magic Pony — if you’ve never been — is a designer toy shop on Queen Street West, handsomely curated with rare or limited production collectables from around the world. Co-founder Cober says that at Magic Pony, “the toy is a vessel for you to discover art.” And it’s precisely through these toys, which are first and foremost works of art, that Magic Pony Super Camp was born.
On day one of the camp, brown kraft paper was rolled out on the floor and each super camper was asked to lie down on the paper to be traced. With the bounty of art supplies at hand, each camper filled in their own silhouettes with artistic interpretations of their inner character. By day two, these freshly-made self-portraits are taped to the walls and stand like guardians all around the campers. One in particular stands out: this artist has abandoned the limitations of their own silhouette and drawn a picture of a tiny colourful ghost (no more than a foot or two tall) with a paper plate floating over its head.
Character, says Cober, is at the core of Magic Pony Super Camp. But this is not a heavy handed philosophical lesson. Like everything Magic Pony seems to touch, the camp is merely a natural extension of their community. “Do you like Spongebob?” Cober asks one of the kids. “You like characters, so let’s make some characters.”
Over the past few years, Cober has watched a growing contingent of budding young artists come through Magic Pony, and he’s tried his best to foster their creative growth. The kids, he says, are “really well visually educated.” Some of them have decided to self-publish their work in the form of zines. He likes to remind the children that the artists and designers behind the toys and images in his shop where made by someone who was once a child too.
Back inside Narwhal Projects, the kids of Magic Pony Super Camp have turned their attention to the creation of masks. Under the tender guidance of the instructors from the art group Wowee Zonk, mask creation is the perfect vehicle for further exploration and development of heroes and character. Decorative balls of fluff are super glued around the edges. Vibrant neon paint is applied with brushes and fingers. Suddenly, characters abound.
Give them the space, and “kids will just naturally make it,” Cober says.
Magic Pony Super Camp was originally scheduled to run until July 8. It’s now been extended another week, until July 13. You can sign up on the Magic Pony webpage.
