The Path I Am On...

I am an artist......

....and I have been blessed to be able to share art with the children at an awesome Lutheran school in Iowa.

I have traveled with my family for years, adrift in the world, looking for my path.  He has always guided me.  There has always been a reason for all of the places we have lived.  God has always sent us with a purpose.

We can fight it and try to go our own way, but HE always knows which direction we should turn and what path we should take.

A man sat at my kitchen table one day and said, "Hey! TLS needs and art teacher! You should go apply."  I had just finished a retail management gig and just wanted some me time. Me. My art. Find myself.....

I said no.

The air conditioner quit.

Three hundred dollars later, I received a phone call from the principal.  Really....I really want some ME time.  I am not a teacher, just an artist.  I don't think this is a great fit.  No, thank you.

Does the house feel hot to you again?  Yup....you guessed it.  This time it was another part altogether and a five hundred dollar bill.

Are you kidding me Lord?

I don't know why the principal called again.  He said he was getting desperate and just wanted to see if I would come in a talk a bit.

Yes.  Sure.  I can come talk.  I think I am being nudged a little in that direction anyway.

That was eight years ago.

I am on HIS path.

Feeling Blessed

What a day!  I am still full of excitement as I attempt to settle down for the night.  I presented two classes today for the Lutheran Educators Association Convocation in beautiful Milwaukee.

What.....A.....Day!

Thank you to all that stopped me in the hall to thank me.....

Thank you for the words of encouragement.
Thank you for the warm wishes.
Thank you for the prayers.
Thank you for the love.

You are all fabulous!

I plan to begin posting the slides from each session in small sections.  Please - don't forget to send me questions or if you need help adjusting or adapting a lesson.

I am so grateful for all of you and give thanks and praise to Him for putting me on this path.

Julie

The Bones of a Tree

4th Grade looks at trees each year.

We look at the bones. The structure.

The kids are very quick to realize that, as a tree grows,

the branches get smaller.

 Each time the tree splits into branches, it creates a "V".  Makes perfect sense to them ..... until they try it.  Every time a branch splits, it remains the same thickness, but gets shorter.  The pictures resemble brier patches that never end.  They are beautiful designs in themselves, but not the idea of the lesson.  I really wish I had a picture of these shrubbery, but this year in my frustration of the lesson, I whipped out my favorite thing in the world.....

......a strip of paper.

I folded it into quarters and began to cut long strips into it, stopping at folds. 
I cut in half down the middle (I cut about 2/3 of the way down).
I cut those halves in half to the halfway fold in the paper.
I cut the four strips in half again to the 3/4 fold.

It looked like a strange strip of paper until.....

I folded the branches out...... and it is a tree.  Each branch getting smaller, until I am not able to cut it in half anymore.  The kids decided this was worth a try.

Each branch is folded back to glue one section at a time.

I can't wait until the trees are finished. We began to add color with markers, but scraps of paper was pulled out, and now the collage is beginning on top.  I loved when they asked for "just one more class" to finish adding some paper piecing and collage materials to make them look just right!

We have to wait a couple of weeks for the final outcome.  I will be off to the 2013 Lutheran Educators Association Convocation this week to present two classes.  I am just a tad bit excited about going, but I can't wait to see how the kids finish their trees when I get back....

Were You Born In A Barn?

Portraits.

I think portraits are every kid's nightmare.  
My kids breathe a very heavy groan when I announce 
we will be working on portraits or self portraits.  

I asked them this year - why do you have this fear?

"It is just scary!  Our pictures never look right!"

So this year I proposed a twist on our first grade portrait unit.

I found some incredible photos to share with the kids.  Check them out here http://vectroave.com/2013/04/animal-portraits-by-yago-partal/

I asked the kids to imaging they were from a family of animals!  
What animal would you imagine to be from?

Hands went up and they all knew immediately what kind of animals they would be!

The sketches were fun!  All new shape was realized with snouts and beaks!  
No scary people noses here!

....and then the painting began.

Check out that awesome sketch!

We laid in the background first so we didn't have to paint around anything later.  That is the cool thing about paint - you can paint on top of the background for a clean line!

Then we moved on to the outside frame.

Then our "person" is painted.

Finally some details. Some chose to add details around the frame and others chose to add details inside the frame.  Isn't art awesome?  So many individual choices!

This project took two 45 minute classes to paint.  

I will show the finished portraits in another post.

Klee Complete

To finish up our Klee project with the First Grade classes, we did a color wash.

This is really simple to do...
I pop out some black watercolor ovals from the Prang sets, place them in a dish and pour some water over them.  I do this so there is NO temptation of mixing other colors into the black paint....saves me some clean up in the long run.

I only let 6 to 8 students paint at a time.  It helps keep a little control of the black paint.  As they finish covering their picture with the watercolor wash, I use a rag to wipe the puddles off and then into the drying rack.

Check out the awesome art!

Hot Days - Cool Klee

I love the beginning of the year with First Grade classes.  We get to look at the art of a very cool artist named Paul Klee (pronounced Klay.....do you get the reference now of Hot Days - Cool Klay?)

He used the greatest shapes and awesome colors in his art.

Learn more about Paul Klee here.

We started in class with an idea of Continuous Squares.  I forgot to snap a picture of this, so bear with me..... I made a little jpeg image.

Once the crayon starts moving.....

Keep it moving until the squares are complete.

We use a black crayon to start.

No mistakes - remember?  

......no erasing either.

I do remind the kids to fill the space of the paper.
We don't touch the edge or let the lines run off the edge.

Then the students start to add color.  We talk about color and color choices. Bright colors are a great choice for this project, but I don't want to give them too many clues about what is next.  I just try to steer them away from coloring with black crayon.  I use an excuse that I really LOVE to see the black line of the squares.  We also talk about trying to color some of the squares white....we just have to remember WHICH squares we choose for the white crayon.

And then we start to color

HARD, 

HARD, 

HARD!

The shinier the crayon on your paper....the better.

Housekeeping!

I spend too much time cleaning up after projects.
It is the worst part of art...the craftermath!

UGH!

I have tried to get kids excited about cleaning up, I have tried lists, I have tried bribing, music, more time, less time, stickers.......

.....and now this:

The list is still there, just in a different way.

1. Where do I put my art? Right now the choices are in your table folder or in the drying rack.
    The kids reminded me of other places I sometimes have them put their art to rest....
    I need a few more pictures.
2. What tools do I have to put away? A few samples I put up were scissors, glue, paint brushes
    and trays, and the other is if they need to wash their brushes (younger kids place theirs in a cup
    or bowl for me to wash.)
3. Sinks are assigned to two tables to wipe and dry. NO PUDDLES!
4. Tables are assigned to be sprayed and wiped by two tables. LESS FIGHTING!
5. Floors are assigned to two tables and are SPOTLESS!

There will be other odd jobs now and then, otherwise two tables get a vacation as jobs are rotated.  YEAH! We all love vacations.

Week Two had a little confusion with younger kids because they still want to do it ALL!
Overall it was so much better.....

....and did I mention my floor?

So clean.  Even little pieces of paper swept up in the new little dust pans I bought in the
TOY section at the grocery store!  The kids love them!

(I am realizing a picture inserted here would be incredible, however,
I am blogging at home and the dust pans are at school. Maybe when I get
them hung in their spot, I will snap that picture and post it!)

Hope you love this idea and I wish a clean art room for everyone!

Gearing Up....

It's that time of year again.
New school year.
New blog.

Time to get this show on the road.

I get to paint on my formica faced cabinets!
I always put some artist rules up.

Entering another year....
.....an exciting year!

I have an awesome space to teach art to Kindergarten through Eighth grade students.  I still need to deal with my desk space and that bulletin board.

I was thinking about filling it with frames to hang student artwork that goes along with my other bulletin board featuring an Artist A Month...

Love the border?
They are Crayola paint chips from Dutch Boy.
The nice man at the hardware store let me take
one of each!  Thank you nice man!!

So - WELCOME!
My door is open to you.

School Supplies....

This blog is shared from my writings over at Rantings of a Blue Hair Wannabe. I think it is quite appropriate to copy and paste here too.  

Back to school.

This had a whole new meaning to me 8 years ago.

I had just been hired to teach art at a Lutheran school in town.

I was nervous…..I make art…..Teach?

"My princess has laser eyes!"

I wasn’t nervous about the techniques or WHAT I was going to teach.  It was the classroom management part of it.  I had those pictures in my head of kindergarten students running around with scissors….paint flying through the air….what was I thinking?

Things went smoothly the first couple of weeks.  It was all the rules and process of how we will make our art….the basics.

….and then….

I had the most excited kindergarten walk in and exclaim, “We are painting today!”

The joy in their brush strokes, the smiles on their faces…..

…..ahhhhh, watercolor…..

We painted color. 

We painted motion. 

We started clean-up. 

Directions were given and the excitement was still there. All the kids were so thrilled to share their paintings with me as they neared the drying rack.  “Look at mine! Look at mine!!”

I was carefully, but quickly, trying to load that rack with those wet, soggy papers, when the last couple of tables got up and set off in my direction.  Little did I know they had decided to add some more color to their paintings while I was loading the first groups.  They jumped up from their seats with their papers….dripping a rainbow on the way.

I am not quite sure how they managed to keep the lake of water on top of their papers, but I could feel that lake begin to drip….down my backside….. as I continued loading other papers in that drying rack.

I was soaked….down my backside.

I could feel the cold water running down the back of my legs.

Thank you GOD that this was my last class of the day!

I drove home, feeling a little damp and embarrassed, and only then did I realize the full impact of the class project……

As I peeled off my black pants to change, I saw my beautiful……

           ... newly designed...

                     …rainbow underwear!

With that memory in my mind last evening, I went school supply shopping to purchase my new canvas for the school year…..

……..my new pack of undies!  Clean, bright, and white…..ready for a new year of watercolor students.

Gracie - The Artist's Story

I had the opportunity to teach the coolest "student" at our school a couple of weeks ago.  Our school does a plant sale each year as a fundraiser.  As an additional event, and to get all classrooms creative and involved, we also have a flower pot auction.

Each classroom paints a flower pot or has a guest artist paint it for them.  

This year, I helped our K-9 Comfort Dog create a flower pot.  

Gracie

I hope she had as much fun as I did!

I also added a little photo album to share the experience of teaching a really awesome painter!  

It might become a real hobby for Gracie!

You can find more information about Gracie on her Facebook Page [click here]

and more about Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Comfort Dogs [here].

Learning to Share

Each year, I do a project with the second grade students based on the book "Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister.

We talk about SHAPE. What shapes can fish be?
We talk about SPACE.  The goal is to use the space of the paper to create our fish.
We talk about LINE.  Line quality  and space becomes important on this project because we are going to draw with GLUE!

The kids practice drawing a few fish and then I give them each a 9X12 piece of black construction paper and a bottle of glue.

Gloppy glue drying. The glue will dry clear on the black paper.

They draw.......there are NO mistakes in art!

Most of the drawings have to stay flat on the table to dry overnight.

At our next class, we talk about COLOR.

The kids are always excited when we pull out the oil pastels!

I have them choose one color for their fish.  We find every shade of blue, green, orange and purple we can find in the boxes and we work on blending.



The final treasure of this piece is pulling out the glitter to share a sparkly scale.

The art was great this year!
I hope you enjoy.....