Category: We Be Arting!

Peace In Action- Action Art For Peace

Make It Happen!, We Be Arting!

My favorite student project of 2023 was the 800-student collaborative Action Art painting we created for Peace One Day. The school’s art room was transformed into an art factory where students stood and worked in small groups over a large canvas that was laying on the floor. Each group was given a minute to action paint and then the next group would come forward to work. This took place, non-stop for over 3 hours. Our 6th Grade leaders assisted with the process, crowd control, and even gave the instructions to each group. The resulting work is layers thick with latex paint and includes 9 images of famous activists MLK Jr, Harvey Milk, Mahatma Gandhi, Malala Youfsafzai, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Rigoberta Menchu, Wangari Mathaaland Nelson Mandela. What I loved about this project other then it’s scale and the fact that each and every student participated, was the joy of seeing the students using their entire being and bodies to actively do something in the name of Peace. The world is not at peace and it is frustrating to watch. There is a sense of helplessness and inability to do anything about it, but through the creation of this art work we were all in the moment doing what we could to bring Peace and Beauty to this world.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy” MLK Jr.

2nd- 6th Student Showcase at the San Diego County Fair!

Art Teachering Experience, Make It Happen!, We Be Arting!

The 2021-2022 school year was incredibly challenging. The measures and policies put in place in order to protect the public during the Covid 19 Pandemic have very much affected the growth mindset, behavior, and social emotional development of Elementary school aged children. Furthermore, protocols put in place by the schools and in the classrooms, have significantly hindered the learning and teaching experience for both students and teachers. This is not a criticism of policy or policy makers, merely a testament to the Action- Consequence Consideration Matrix. However, though this year has been daunting; a year of assessment, adjustment and catch- up, I am very proud of my students (all 800 of them!). I am currently building a Visual Art program at a duel language TK-6 Elementary school, and despite all the hurdles and hardships this year, my students created some amazing art! I was able to enter 49 works of art into the San Diego County Fair – 48 individual works and one collaborative piece created by the entire 6th grade class, all 91 of them! Each student received the honor of having their work on display, but also a ticket to the fair. I look forward to continuing to build this program and seeing my students grow as artists and as humans! Enjoy!

Bilateral Symmetry Bugs 2nd Grade

FISH! 3rd Grade

Crazy Cacti- 3rd Grade

Pet Portraits – 4th Grade

Tribute to Wayne Thiebaud- CAKES! 4th and 5th Grade

Watercolor Desert Landscapes – 5th Grade

I Am… We Are– 6th Grade Collaborative Art

Summer 2020 Covid 19 Isolation Arting Pod

Art Club, We Be Arting!

Last summer I worked with 3 students during the Covid 19 Insolation. My Pod consisted of 3 girls aged 7, 11, and 14. Though, I usually teach in a classroom and to a group of students of a similar age and skill level, this pod consisted of students with significant developmental differences. However, even though I taught the same lesson, I adjusted the criteria for the projects according to each student’s skill set and understanding. All three girls produced amazing art and a substaintial body of work. Here are just a few highlights from our creative time together.

Mark Rothko

Art Classic, Arting Media, We Be Arting!

Mark Rothko was an American abstract painter, working from the early 1930s until his death in 1970 (Abstract Art is art that does not attempt to represent an accurate description of a visual “reality”, i.e. a person, place, or thing).

Rothko primarily painted using the color schemes (arrangements or groupings); Complimentary, Monochromatic and Analogous.

Complimentary Colors are two colors that are on opposite sides of the color wheel and when combined or mixed together, they cancel each other out, making brown or gray. The Complimentary sets are red/green, yellow/purple, orange/blue.

Monochromatic Color schemes are created from a single base color and extended using shades (adding black to a color), and tints (adding white to a color).

Analogous Color are any 3 colors that are next to each other on the color wheel for example, green, blue, and purple or orange, red, and yellow.

Rothko is famous for his Multiform paintings. However, he didn’t begin his painting career painting only pure color and shape. As he matured as an artist, he became uninterested in depicting reality, instead, he wanted to use “color to express/ evoke emotion”.

Children Paint the Masters’ -Hans Holbein

Arting Media, Children Paint the Masters, We Be Arting!

I am a fierce supporter and advocate for Visual Art education in the classroom– K- 12th ( please don’t make those already over-burdened Elementary Teachers teach Visual Art along with all their other subjects…)  Seriously! Visual Art class is an active, noisy and messy learning environment, where the right -brain gets into the action!  Sadly, Visual Art  is almost always the first class to go during budget shortfalls. I hope that with the aid of educational technology tools,  Visual Art education will get the attention and funding it deserves. Now sit back and be prepared to be deeply amused and yet, completely embarrassed for me- this is my first teaching self produced video- ever!