a work in progress

Summer has flown by and I’m working on my plans for this fall as I add more teaching to my schedule. I will be offering three paper making workshops at the Ozark Folk Center and the first one is in November during their Make It a Handmade Christmas event. I am developing ideas for classes at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts this summer, and since they are week long sessions I am leaning toward polymer clay, which is a lot of fun to work with a very forgiving medium.

I am also going to be teaching some art classes at Clear Spring School and I will be meeting with the teachers next week. Some of the home schooled children in my art class at the studio will be attending the World Geography blocks and I am excited that my godson will be in the same class with them. I am also excited that in that unit I will begin to do some work I have always wanted to do, putting that old anthropology degree to work as we explore artisans and craftsmanship in far off places. You may like to know that it is one of my goals to travel to new places and meet with people who make all sorts of things with their hands and to share what I learn with others. Picture me on the Discovery Channel! Book to follow!

Back to present day concerns and the classes we have going. I was thrilled to find out that all the kids want to continue to come to my studio for art class. They have done a great job with color theory, are in the midst of working with the expressive qualities of shapes, and beginning to consider the work surface as integral to the work. I think they are getting a really solid foundation in art and I am working to make it something tangible and applicable to their daily lives. Whether they continue to create as artists or not, they are developing a level of sophistication about visual imagery that helps them process all sorts of things in their daily lives. I’d like to think they will not only know how color can be used to create a mood but also be able to discern how advertising is constructed of shapes and colors designed to manipulate them!

I’ll post more info about my upcoming classes at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, AR and at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts as the time draws near.