Tots! Activity: Yayoi Kusama Pumpkins
About the artist and their work:
Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist who lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. Like many artists, she finds ways to express herself through her art. Dots are almost always in her artwork because she feels like she is a small dot among all the other dots of people, stars, and planets.
Here’s what you’ll need:
• Pumpkin template *See template below
• Colored construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Black paint
• Q-tips or other round items
Directions:
1. Print out the pumpkin template onto a colored piece of construction paper.
2. Cut out the pumpkin leaving the black outline on the pumpkin.
3. Cover your pumpkin in polka dots by dipping your q-tip or any other round item into black paint and stamping it.
4. Once your pumpkin is dry, glue it down to an additional pie.
Try pairing the activity with one of these books:
From Here to Infinity by Sarah Suzuki
Yayoi Kusama Covered Everything in Dots and Wasn’t Sorry by Fausto Gilberti
Ask your artist:
• Kusama made sculptures of pumpkins and then covers them in dots. How did you make your pumpkin?
• Why do you think Kusama likes dots so much? What would you cover in dots?
• Do you ever make art to help express how you’re feeling? What kind?
