Shapes and Colors - So Much Fun!

Our second process art project was a collage using cardboard, glue, and paint. This was a two-day project that turned out amazing!

Salt Painting - Our First Process Art Experience!

My son's former preschool teacher has finally offered me the chance to teach at her family daycare/preschool! I love this place for too many reasons to list here. Suffice it to say that Mrs. Alma provides a loving and supportive environment for her "lambies" and I am honored and humbled to be a part of it!

We are going to be doing lots of Process Art and Sensory Play and you'd better believe I will be scouring the blogs to get ideas and inspiration! So far my favorite blog of all for this type of teaching approach is the one by Meri Cherry! She has so much experience working with the little ones and you can tell by her blog she is passionate about providing positive learning experiences for them. Thank you Meri!

Yay For Me! Foothill Country Day School, Here I Come!

I am thrilled to report that I will be starting a new art program at Foothill Country Day School in Claremont, CA this fall! I have been hired to work with the K-3 classes incorporating art history, field trips, and core curriculum into their already wonderful art program. The campus is beautiful - filled with lots of nature, water features, and green space. I am so looking forward to spending time on the campus and working with the K-3 teachers and staff. During the interview process I had the privilege of teaching a demo lesson to one of the kindergarten classes and the students were engaged, eager, and creative - it was such a joy! I'm looking forward to a fun year and am ready to meet this challenge head-on!

After School Sewing Class (and other classes too!)

I taught several after school classes this year to help make ends meet. I taught a clay class, messy mixed media, printmaking and sewing. All of the classes were a big hit with the elementary school kids - we had a great time!

Here are some of the projects we did:

Middle School Tessellations

Never having delved into the work of MC Escher as a source of inspiration for my art classes, I decided  it was high time. We viewed a video about his life and art over the course of two days. I learned a lot about him that I had never had the opportunity to find out.

Afterward the I gave the students coloring pages I found in this book of Escher's tessellations and the students each got to color one in to try to understand how the back and forth of the tessellations work.

Next they learned three different techniques for making tessellations: reflections, rotations, and …

Once they figured out what tessellations were all about and what made them tick, they made their own tessellations and then had to make them look like something - an object or person or animal, etc.

The kids seemed to struggle but enjoy the challenge. I loved so many of these!

Sewing Sewing Sewing - Kids Love Sewing!

What a crazy semester it has been! I wanted my elementary school kids to learn about Faith Ringgold. I just love her and her story. Through challenges and being told she can't be an artist to major success - and all along she believed in herself. Makes a great motivator for the kiddos and they love her painting style and children's books too!

So, that being said, I wanted to teach them about her and do a project based on her work. Yes, I could have had them make a drawing and surround it with paper squares for a quilted look and I know that would have been a great project. Instead, I thought, why not teach them how to hand sew? That won't be too hard. Was I wrong about that one! BIG challenge, but totally WORTH IT!

Floral Still Lifes a la Van Gogh

This project was my favorite from the past school year! We looked at a ton of Van Gogh's flower still lifes. The students in each grade level were directed to deconstruct the images to figure out what techniques Van Gogh used to make the vases with flowers looked like they occupy a real space. They determined the following:

1. The vases had an oval for the opening, and an arc that has the same shape for the bottom.
2. The line that defines the back of the table is somewhere between the top and the bottom of the vase.
3. The stems of the flowers cross through the oval and stop at the bottom to make the flowers appear to be sitting inside of the vase.

Next, the students chose a sheet of colored construction paper, 12 x 18, and started to draw out their still life using oil pastels.

The next meeting I showed them how to create volume using white and black oil pastels blended with the color they used for the vase. These are the stunning results: