Art in the Park: Lighthouses

It's my 7th summer of Art in the Park and we're having a fun time.

This week, the other two guest artists are Mrs. Schlette and Mrs. G. Johnson.

My unofficial name this week is "Ms. JJ" which they got a kick out of. What else are we to do with two Mrs. Johnsons in Kunkle Park?!

Great group. This first week is for 5-7 year olds. Next week we go from ages 7-12.

My first project for the week is this lighthouse painting.

We talked about the history of lighthouses for a bit and the kids impressed me with their knowledge and creative thinking.

On Monday, we set to drawing a lighthouse and used watercolors for the backgrounds.

Today, we added some of the details in and started our second project. 

Tomorrow will be more details and work on the background of the second project (giraffe painting).

I am enjoying being outside in the mornings and seeing all of the art in progress. We have all sorts of projects happening and I look forward to sharing the art show images with you later in the week.

So far, I've seen two Bear Tavern students this week (yay!). Gavin is in the camp with me and Aldo happened to be biking by with his family and stopped to say hello and chat for a bit.

Over and out until later in the week.

Art in the Park 2015

It's registration time for Art in the Park- one of the most amazing local art camps!

Held in Kunkle Park, Pennington, campers can take a week of morning art and leave with a TON of fantastic projects taught by guest artists. 

This is my 8th year as a guest artist.... Goodness time flies! Email me if you would like to know which weeks I am teaching this year. 

Here's the link for registration. Get it in ASAP, Art in the Park always sells out!

http://www.hopewelltwp.org/recreation/ART_IN_THE_PARK_REG_COVER_LTR.pdf

Grade 5 (and Art in the Park) Candy Paintings

Fifth graders are finishing up candy wrapper paintings right now. The focus on these has been...sweet! 

I will post the images as they are finished but wanted to share photographs from this past summer when I taught a similar lesson during Art in the Park.

We began by selecting a wrapper that had a composition that appealed to each student and had awesome colors. 

This summer at Art in the Park, we did not have access to computers so the kids worked from real wrappers vs. my 5th graders had time to use online resources to find a wrapper from present day or decades ago.

My 5th graders cropped their wrapper down and enlarged the image onto to their paper. 

We spent a full class period observing and drawing the enlarged design followed by fun times painting in the wrapper as realistically as possible. 

Yummy, candy wrappers drying in the summer air

Students hard at work carefully painting in their drawings

Stay tuned for more delicious results!

Summer Moments I Appreciated the Most

I have to say, this summer was one of the shortest on record. Naturally, I enjoyed spending extra time with my family and friends but as an art teacher, there were a few moments this summer that I really needed to have.

Last school year I burned myself out. Not literally but I did feel so exhausted from having such an incredibly busy/wonderful school year. It was my own fault because our school had so many wonderful events that I couldn't help but be a part of. We celebrated our 50th anniversary and really went all out,
a   l   l     y  e  a  r     l  o  n  g with exhaustive preparation. Outside of the classroom, I worked on 16 different projects. Yes, I was crazy....in love with each project.

Mural after mural, field trips, art contests, art shows and exhibitions, technology projects, Earth Day, fundraisers. It went on and on all year.

Feeling exhausted for most of July, I decided that I would have to be a stronger person immediately. My weakness is that I am easily inspired by amazing art, concepts and ideas. I like to figure out how to make things work and I like to do it in the company of others.  It will be a forever challenge but while feeling "burned out" you start to wonder if the energy, time, effort and sweat is worth it.

I took a workshop at Grounds for Sculpture at the very end of July and literally scared the instructor with my creation...he could not look at it for long it's that hideous. What can I say, I was thinking about Halloween art projects! I think this scary face that I created out of clay was a reflective piece. The other adults were sculpting friendly faces and animals and then there was this thing I made.....












The moments that I experienced in the month of August came unexpectedly

While at Art in the Park, a camp of guest artists, a Bear Tavern parent said to me "I am so glad you're here this week..."
For those of you fellow teachers reading, you may or may not appreciate the value of those words to a recently recovered burned out teacher but the value in such a candid comment caught me by surprise.
I actually had to digest and process the words. When I did finish my processing (hours later) those words became engraved in my heart for the timing and sincerity of them.

Then I led my groups through creating self-portraits and felt my heart swell as these students did an incredible job.




Again, unexpectedly, I felt myself feeling energized by the art and by the kids enjoying the process of creating. Many of the kids I had taught before and had not seen in a few years so it was great to see how wonderfully they were maturing.

notice the vintage Bear Tavern t-shirt

Art in the Park was a phenomenal week. I met some great people and reconnected with many. I went off to Florida and when I came back to Bear Tavern, another unexpected moment came to be. While giving a tour to some new teachers, my Principal says something along the lines of "And there's the Art Teacher, every staff member finds their inner artist (or becomes an artist) after stepping foot in this building".

feather project found on pinterest

Maybe I'm being mushy but how nice!
So all in all, I learned from these moments that I don't necessarily need to be a stronger person. I have all the strength I need and any bit that's missing I find in the support and company of the many around me.
Besides seeing my students in a couple of weeks, I am looking forward to seeing my colleagues and the parents that have been such a tremendous support.