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This week was spent assistant teaching art workshops for children as part of the Parrish Art Museum's spring break events. Really young age group (4-6yrs old). Amazing how something can feel so natural and exhausting at the same time. Sweeeeet kids.(do not eat them)
This feels like an important time...a shift of sorts. I just have to be careful of what I want. I know for the past that teaching took just so much of my energy it was dangerous for my own art and I'm not ready for that. There will be a time in my life when I dedicate myself wholly to teaching...but that is not yet. But I do realize that I have something to give in this way, naturally and enthusiastically (I mean what could be better than getting kids inspired and making art?)...and so I will do it every once in a while. Of course this ties in with Peace Tiles and Center for Children's Happiness and so many other directions converging...:)
It also pays much better than the shop and I desperately need money to invest in materials ASAP (on top of reg bills).

My favorite project was a Louise Nevelson inspired sculpture (one of my early inspirations/favorite artists!)in shoebox lids. Oh the materials we had to play with were wonderful!! I was only sad because I knew these would fall apart after a little time with only glue to hold and how tall they all wanted to build, regardless of warnings;). but they looked so beautiful and the children were delighted with the whole process:)

other projects (designed by the other teacher):
Claude Monet inspired waterlilies (wash and collage, construction paper and tissue paper flowers)
Peter Max inspired flourescent sunrise and outerspace scene (wax resist)
Mary Cassat inspired family block-printed 'quilt' and self-portrait (pastels)

At the museum itself, the entire exhibit is of Student Art and is so overwhelmingly colorful and fantastic...like a visionary environment...

Parrish School Art Festival
more pics/see more )
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While looking into more artisan cooperatives I fell upon and was very moved by this volunteer blog post from Kendra Curry:

"Last month, I taught a group of young Honduran kids how to paint. For most, it was the first time they had ever grasped a paintbrush in their hands and made it move across paper. Knowing that the mere sight of paint, in a place where even a pencil nub is hard to come by, would cause a small riot, I took this introduction in strides. By first handing out the paper, then the brushes, I tried to prepare them for the phenomenon of paint and water. However, before passing out the paint, after handing each excited kid a big wooden brush, I heard a strange sound, a sort of charged hush, that I will never forget. The kids halted their conversations. Each one held their brushes like they might dissolve if every ounce of their attention and admiration wasn’t paid to its bristles, its odd shape, how soft it felt on the arm and the cheek. Eyes were wide. The air was electric, and for those few short moments, the cinderblock school floated in the sky, above the poor, rural Cangrejal River Valley. The humble classroom filled with the sound of kids looking at the brushes in their hands, the sound of kids trying their dry brushes on skin for the first time, the sound of waiting for paint. This sound is what motivates me."

Dan Keane and Kendra Curry volunteered with Un Mundo in Honduras November 2004-April 2005

February 2017

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