Peter Pan was right.....don't grow up

Once in awhile you come across something that makes you think and smile at the same time. Like this:

"When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college - that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?" ~Howard Ikemoto"


The Pirate Bunny by Ben age 6



 Yes grown ups forget many things. Like how to look at the world through the eyes of a child. At least three or four times a week I get an adult in the studio asking me if I teach lessons to adults. My answer is always no. I used to work with adults but I just can't do it anymore. Adults are so wrapped up in all that grown up baggage that they are very difficult for me to work with.  Many adults go through their adult life with blinders on-too busy to stop and notice little things like the color of the sky as the sun is setting on a winter day. Or how brilliantly red a cluster of tulips can be on a sunny day in spring.

Too often I hear a child show a grown up their latest drawing and the adult says "That's wonderful! What is it?"  Art doesn't always have to be something you recognize right away. You want total realism take a photograph. Art should make you think. Art should connect on so many levels with you. Even art done by a child. So the next time a young person comes up to you to proudly show you what they have drawn. Please, take a moment and really look at it. Give it some thought instead of an absent minded "....that's very nice" and say something constructive and real about it.  You might miss a delightful drawing of a  "Pirate Bunny"!


"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."  Pablo Picasso

I will not let a bunch of 6 year olds get the best of me...

...not today anyway. So I mis-read this group of kids but then it's hard to get a handle on 6 year olds right away. Last week it was like herding cats. This group runs towards the silly. They like to tell stories while they work.

I spent most of yesterday trying to figure out a way to connect with all 9 of these highly creative kids. Last week one of the girls started talking about monsters. She wove this wonderful, magical story about this monster she was drawing.  He was a friendly monster with these big bug eyes. That got me to thinking....



monsters from make your own monster

 Today we are going to make monsters. We are going to use my super cool construction paper crayons on black paper and draw a monster.  You see I saw this wonderful website where kid's illustrations were turned into a plush stuffed creature. The cost was $250! But the "plushies" or "stuffies" as they are called were wonderful- it made me want some of my own. 



Zombie Katz by Laura



I like to sew and I make  "stuffies".  Those are my "Zombie Katz" on the right. I think I am going to surprise my students by creating a stuffie for each one of them from the picture they draw.  I came up with a list of questions to ask my students about their monster before they draw them. After they are done with their drawing I am going to interview each child and ask them about their monster. This could work out wonderfully OR it could result in barely controlled chaos. Either way I think it'll be a lot of fun and the creative juices should be flooding across the room!

A is for....

 WHAT IF...

everyone knows A is for Apple and B is for Banana ...  SoI had this great idea last week. You see I have always enjoyed alphabet books.

What if I came up with a list of words for each letter of the alphabet and had my art students illustrate them? Then what if  I got a grant from the Iowa Arts Council and got the book published?

 And then- what if I sold copies of the book to raise money for the new children's library?

For some reason Alphabet Salad popped into my head. Alphabet Soup is such a cliche that I didn't want to do that. Besides there are some great words out there that are so fun to say  like- Arugula ,Artichoke, Brussels Sprouts and Asparagus.  Kohlrabia, chicory and Collard Greens....I could keep going but you see where I am headed with this? ( I keep hearing The Major Generals song from the Pirates of Penzance as I write this!)

Tell me what you think about my idea and if you can think of any fruits or vegetables for my Alphabet Salad let me know. You just might end up in our book!

I think I created a monster

This is a good thing. You know not all monsters are scary. My students catch on fairly quickly that there are some words and phrases in my classes that are not acceptable.

"I can't"

"That's too hard"

"I'm bored"

.............................................are the biggies

I'm bored are two words that make me crazy. Maybe it's because I knew when I was a kid if I said I was bored my  mother would have a list as long as my arm of things for me to do before I could even finish saying it. Oh, and it usually contained housework. So I learned real fast to occupy my time on my own.

Sometimes in class kids will reach a stopping point on their piece and there is about 15 minutes of class left or less. I usually would let them do what I call free drawing. They could draw anything they wanted. This year I have a different plan. The week before classes began I set up the table in the gallery with papers, glues, rubber stamps, and some random ephemera. I didn't say a word about it to the kids. Yesterday two of the kids showed up to class early and were wandering through the gallery. When they saw the table they asked what all this stuff was for. I explained to them it was for making an ATC.

ATC's or Artists Trading Cards are little  original pieces of art that are the same size as a deck of playing cards. They are meant to be traded only and not bought or sold. I then told the kids that if they made a card they could keep it OR they could trade it for one of the cards on my board. I had about a dozen cards that I had made on the board for just this purpose. As the kids started working two more students showed up and the next thing I knew the entire class was gathered around my little table making ATC's. It cut into class time by 10 minutes they were so focused on what they were doing. I finally got them to finish their cards so we could get to the art project. By the end of class cards had been traded on the board several times.

I am going to keep the table supplied all year and see what happens. I'd like to see each one of my students collect at least 24 cards by the end of the year. I am also encouraging people who wander into the studio to create an ATC to trade too.  I would say that I have "perfectly captured" their interest with this activity!

Art is Girlie????

Seriously? I was confronted with that statement yesterday by a 12 year old boy who was pretty hostile when he said it. At first I didn't know what to say. I mean I'm an artist and I'm a girl but that doesn't mean it's girlie. I'd just as soon as create a creepy Gothic type piece as I would a happy  little sunflower. In fact the collage class I recently took in Chicago made me a bit uncomfortable because everyone was making these happy little birds and flowers on their collages and I was seeing Nightmare Before Christmas type figures in my piece.

So I had to think about it for a minute and explain to him and I hope I got my message across to him because his mom registered him for my after school art classes and I don't think he's happy about it. I would have cleaned my room and done dishes every day without complaining as a kid if my mom had signed me up for art classes.

Where does this kind of thinking come from? Is it because there are too many female teachers in the lower grades in school? Is it because kids don't get exposed to cultural experiences? Is it girlie to write music? sing opera? act or dance? Please don't tell Mikhail Baryshnikov that he's second rate because he dances and "girls" dance. 

I guess it was the way he said it with this sneer and hostility that really took me by surprise. I felt this need to defend the female gender. Art is the one place where you can relax and just be. In math there is one answer and either you are right or you are wrong- and believe me I have experienced the humiliation of coming up with the wrong answer in math too many times to count. In art I was on equal footing with my peers because no matter what I produced it was truly mine. Freedom of expression! I know what it's like to be different and not fit into the crowd. I know what it's like to be on the outside looking in. From what his mom told me he's standing there too. So I have until Monday to come up with the best way to approach this boy and get him to relax and enjoy being creative. In the meantime I need to work on my skeletons...they are way too happy!