In the Classroom

The second graders are weaving!!! I personally love to weave. Teaching weaving is a difficult task, but so rewarding when the light bulb finally turns on.

On Day 1 of the project, I do an introduction of all the different types of weavings, weaving materials, and terms. The students then paint one piece of paper with the warm colors, and the second with the cool colors. The watercolors dry very quickly. So, when the pages are dry we trace around all the different colors and values of color with sharpie.

On Day 2, I demonstrate weaving students together. The kids love it!!! We then create our loom out of one of the papers. And the second piece of paper we cut into strips for the weft. Next, we weave them together. And lastly, glue the weaving down on a square white paper. If there are strips left students gut them up and glue around the weaving.

Next, time we will create a frame for the weavings out of brown paper, construction paper crayons, and metallic markers.



 



Heartwork

"In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you."
                                                                                              - Buddha

Revisiting Brave, Intuititve YOU

Over the summer, I took Flora Bowley's online class Brave, Intuitive You. The class was rich with luscious exercises in connecting with the painting process. My main goal of taking the class was to help ignite a creative habit. The very unexpected result of the class was the spiritual practice that I've incorporated in my day to day life through painting. I adore her paintings. After a few months of processing the info from the class, I realized there are a two things I really love about her paintings that I need to practice. First, I love how her colors almost melt into each other. Even when she's using contrasting colors it's as if they all just flow together. Secondly, her edging is phenomenal, crisp with character.

Above is my attempt to figure out melting colors and work on my edging. I treated it much like any artist study, observing her work. Therefore, the imagery is very Flora. But, I did figure out the blending colors a little bit, and will be experimenting with incorporating it into my own work. Now for the edging I think it's just going to take lots of practice.

In the Classroom...

A staple in my first grade curriculum is 'Super Hero Family Portrait's!!!" The students get a kick out of developing ideas for each family members super powers. Then, they get to decorate each members costume including capes, masks, boots, and dare I say "underwear on the outside of their clothes!!!" The kids eat this project up like candy.

My objective is to have kids drawing "shape people" rather than the dreaded "stick people." I always have the students draw in sharpie rather than pencil at this age. Because if I give them pencils they erase non-stop. Eventually, tear their paper up or you have half erased figures everywhere. But, when they use sharpie they are forced to go for it. If they make a mistake, they transform it into a "happy accident." And this is what they look like in the beginning.

My Painting Playlist

My third graders are painting to music right now. I was talking to the kids about my personal experiences with painting to music. And I realized it really is a part of my creative practice. Plugging into my Pandora. Ear buds nestled securely into ears. Scrolling through my list of channels, trying a few to see if they fit my mood. Then, once I've found the one... I can begin preparing my palette, and finally paint.

I paint to music for a variety of reasons, but the top one is to quiet the voices in my head. To quiet those voices, I like it loud and typically upbeat, that's just me. But, I can't deny some days I'm feeling more zen and like something a little softer. So here is my top ten list of Pandora channels for painting in no particular order.

1. Gin Wigmore

2. The Black Keys

3. Florence and the Machine

4. Old Crow Medicine Show

5. The Rolling Stones

6. Michael Franti

7. Van Morisson

8. Bob Marley

9. One Republic

10. The 2 Cellos

Pretty funny now that I see it written down, because this is a lot like my workout playlist.

What do you listen to when creating?

What I want more of in 2014...

Lifebook 2014