The Boys and Girls Club Visit

The Boys and Girls club have been coming to the COLORS studio on Mondays. This is a very enthusiastic group that I look forward to working with every week. We spent our time this Monday creating Valentines Day cards and crafts, making heart shaped clay boxes, and drawing. There is usually about 10 students, whom are mostly young girls around the age of 7. They are always excited to learn to draw different things, especially popular icons. I secretly have been teaching them figure drawing with Barbie and Ken! If I told them to draw a person they would look at me like I was crazy, but give them a Barbie to draw and they suddenly get very excited. I taught them how to use guidelines and plan out where all the features of the body and face will go. They caught the hang of it very quickly and turned those stick figures into more realistic drawings of Barbie, her boyfriend Ken and all her friends!  



A quick snapshot of the Boys and Girls Club
 and other students at work in the studio!



Planning and Progress

When filing paperwork this week, I found about 20 samples of wood flooring. They are just one of the many miscellaneous items that people and companies have donated to the studio. The question is, do we just toss them in the junk closet or find something to do with them. I decided to think of this a training for my future career as an art teacher. I will be teaching in public schools and may not be blessed with a generous budget. Therefore, I need to learn to reuse and recycle! I came up with a project that allows the students to repurpose the wood blocks into a quilt like design. As you can see in th photograph, I found an arangement to create depth and variety, while still allowing the blocks to fit together in a neat rectangle. I numbered the back of the blocks to make it easie to reasemble them when creating the finished piece. I prepe the blocks by painting them white white gesso. I want the students to paint the block like it was a quilt piece. The students will paint their personal block to decribe themselves and what COLORS means to them without using words. I plan to glue or nail the blocks in place and find a frame at GoodWill so that it can be hung somewhere in the studio! Look for picture updates on the progress of this "wood quilt" project!

Going Great!

Lesson one is well underway now and the kids are surprisingly very excited about it. I wish the weather wasn't do gloomy and cold so we could take a walk out side and practice drawing buildings like the BB&T building, and Papa's Breakfast Nook. Hopefully the weather will warm up soon so I can get the class out of the classroom. They are sitting down all day at school, a change in environment will be really refreshing for them. While we are stuck in the classroom, we have two lessons going on. The students took turns making clay Valentines with Ms. Cathy and "drawing Spartanburg" with myself and Ms. Mary. We will continue to work on the drawings in the background of other lessons. The COLORS program will participate in an art exhibition the last week in April at the HUB-BUB showroom and gallery so we need to get to work!

Week 2

Lesson 1:
I am going to have the students being a drawing lesson in disguise this week. We have been asked to get the kids to draw various landmarks from around Spartanburg to spruce up dreary office space downtown (actual location will be specified in later blog). I have printed a large variety of photographs for the students to use as references, as well has how to draw guides to help supplement my instruction on perspective. The age group has a large range, so the older students will need less assistance with this project and the youngest will obviously need more. I have set up a tracing station on the window (a window can be used as a makeshift light box) for the younger and least experienced artist ONLY. I don't want the talented students to be lazy and trace! I strong hate the phrase "i can't" and plan to show the students that they actually can. I will motivate the students by showing them my example (below) and telling them that if they put extra effort into the drawing that I will frame it, and it will be displayed. The kids love for their work to be displayed, so I have faith that this will really inspire them to make these beautiful.

The end of Week One

I have settled into the routine at the CCC (Chapman Cultural Center) and SAM. I have briefly met the staff and most of the students that routinely come to the program and have toured the entire facility in downtown Spartanburg. I look forward to meeting the instructors and students at the outreach locations and am excited to get to know the everyone on a personal level.  My first week with them was extremely enjoyable and I cannot wait for what is to come. I also had the chance to personally speak with Karl Hollander, the executive director and Scott Cunningham, the associate director. I briefly got to pick Karl's brain about the museum, its programs, and the Post Secret exhibition (more information below). 

The Post Secret Exhibition  

http://www.postsecret.com

In 2004, Frank Warren handed out postcards to strangers. He invited people to write down a secret anonymously and mail it to him. Each secret had to be true and something that had never been shared with another person. After the first exhibition closed, word of the project spread. People began crafting their own homemade postcards and the artful secrets began arriving from every continent. Today, Warren has received more than 150,000 postcards and they continue to come at a rate of about 1,000 per week. The PostSecret exhibition features more than 400 postcards that bring together the most powerful, poignant, and beautifully intimate secrets Warren has received. (http://www.spartanburgartmuseum.org/Exhibitions/Calendar/2010.htm#postsecret)





What is COLORS

What is COLORS?

The mission of COLORS is to improve the lives and opportunities of Spartanburg's youth. We provide a safe and creative environment for children to come to after school. The hours after school are a critical time to help young students be successful and productive. The COLORS studio is upstairs in the Chapman Cultural Center in partnership with the Spartanburg Art Museum. The program also travels to Carver Junior High, the Boiling Springs Resource Center, TK Gregg Recreation Center, and Abner Creek Elementary.

My First Week with COLORS:

During the first week working at the COLORS studio, a wide variety of children came to work and be creative in the studio. Different organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club brought groups to take advantage of the facility. Each one brought something unique to the studio. Their ages varied from age 6 to 13 and their talent level was equally spaced. There were always at least two instructors and two stations in the studio, a clay station and a drawing/painting station. No two kids were ever working on the same project. They're talent level is so different, that many variations of the lesson must be available at all times.

The advanced students usually work with clay and create bowls, boxes, animals, and a lot more. Experienced instructors teach proper clay procedures. The young and less advanced students begin by drawing. We encourage them to use the various book available to find a subject that really interests them. I found that if they draw something that they can relate to, they put a lot more effort into it. After the students draw, they are allowed to finish the piece with tempera paint or color pencils.