Art, Theatre and Photography Camp 2016. Done!

I love Art, Theatre and Photography Camp. 

It is a hard four days, but so worth it! The kids have a great time and the parents are always amazed at what we are able to produce from the campers in such a short amount of time.

This year's theme was "Broadway Battle."

We had 116 campers spread out over a morning session and an afternoon session. That is a LOT of kids. Especially when close to 30 of those kids are 3 and 4 years old! 

We also have a dozen or more teenage volunteers. We couldn't run the program without them, but they add a level of "drama" to the camp as well. :)

Here is a panorama right before we started the production. All of those orange shirts... yeah, that's a lot of bodies to manage!

Over the four days, I probably took close to a thousand pictures. No kidding.

Below are a few of the highlights from the art portion of camp!

I LOVED working with the kids on their paintings. Given that they had only about 45 minutes total to work on them, I think they did great! Their paintings were done over three days.

(Sidenote.. Bleeding Tissue paper is the WAY TO GO if you want a really cool, cheap and easy background for a watercolor painting!)

We also screenprinted. Of course we did. I guess that's my signature event! It is messy and crazy and the kids LOVE it.

Look at Kylie's concentration. The memories.

And how can Lexi be this big? 

They also made scratch art. One of the workers mentioned that he couldn't believe that the kids were willingly without a fuss painting black over their drawings and "ruining" them. I explained that the kids have learned over the years to go with the flow! 

(Sidenote.. making your own scratch art is fun and messy. scratching off the black is REALLY messy..)

We also did weaving. I changed to weaving with pipe cleaners this year. Less mess. And they can create a 3d weaving project. It was really fun!

And there you have it.

Another year complete. My take away this year is the realization that one of my goals for the kids is the gift of artistic surprise and to be willing to experience new things. My goal each year is to push the campers out of their comfort zone and force them in a fun way to try new things. Even if it means utter failure in a project. I try to get them to understand that the PROCESS is the goal, NOT the product!

This isn't an easy task. These kids expect their work to be perfect. They are not used to being told that "failure" is actually a win. And this is the reason we have to have events like this camp. So much of our kids lives are wrapped up in "doing things right" and working toward a perfect product. This mindset ends up freezing the kids mid-project and I have to work with them to just keep going. You would not believe how many projects are thrown in the trash as soon as camp is over, not by the parents, but by the kids. Sadly, they have bought into the lie that unless it is perfect, they don't want it. And I'm talking about 4 year olds!! Ouch.

So my gift to the campers is the opportunity to explore and create in a safe place that is not tied to a test a grade or an expectation. My mantra that I say over and over is the only failure is refusing to try.

And I know it's working. You just have to look at these kids faces!

Want to see more photos? Check us out on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/artandtheatrecamp/

A gift for my dad

My dad is an amazing man. He is a daily example of unselfish love. 

Over the years he has spent countless hours helping me with my art program, tackling chores that most people not only don't want to do, but never see. For example, just last week he sorted, washed, dried and stored a thousand soiled flag blanks for me. And these weren't just dirty.. they were rodent soiled from being in cardboard boxes in a storage building. UGH! 

So anyway, I wanted to do something to show my appreciation and I've been wanting to try a new art project, so I figured this would be a good time. When I think of my dad, I think of music and art. Specifically, screen printing... and I just happen to have access to some of the screens that he used in his business for twenty plus years!

I pulled this photo off my dad's facebook page. This is so him!  In fact, this was him in his early twenties.

I took the picture and edited it in photoshop and used it to draw on the silk screen. I used a couple of different kinds of sharpie markers as I found that the plain sharpie dried a grey color, but the one that was created for fabric dried black. You can see the difference in the two below.

Here is the piece in process. I ended up going over the entire thing a few times as I liked the dark contrast on the screen. (If I had time, I would have used both shades to create more depth.. but no time!)

Here is the piece complete.

It was so much fun giving him the gift. 

I have to say, this was one of the best gifts I have ever made. I loved creating it and I loved giving it! I know that what made it special was the meaning behind not just the piece but the screen as well.

Dwindling Summer

It's almost that time again.. another school year.

This year, Maddie is in 10th, Lexi is in 5th and Kylie is in 1st.

Oh my.

We went school supplies shopping last week. OUCH!

And even though it is summer, Lexi has to have her books. Thank goodness for the public library. I think she is closing in on 50 books read this summer!

I have very much enjoyed lazy mornings and fun running dates with Kylie.

She can run a mile and I figure for a 5 year old, that is pretty good!

I've been painting. I delivered these two paintings this week. They are hanging in my school's office next to the secretary. I love having "gallery" space!

And of course I've been working on my grad classes. I completed another 6 hours at the end of July and will start my final 12 of this degree in another week! I have learned so much and have so much yet to learn.

And I have painted some more. 

Have I said that I love summer? :) !! 

It's always sad for summer to fly by so quickly, but I've been back in my room working already and have a great year planned. I'm hoping to focus this year on doing fewer things. But doing the fewer things really well. 

And now..it's back to work full-time. 

A Champions Finish

Last Wednesday my teacher partner Mindy and I took 11 students to the UIL State Theatrical Design contest. Every school district in the state of Texas can submit 12 students total (9 entries) to this contest. We had one student complete 2 entries which is why we only had 11 enter..

In an unheard of accomplishment (at least around here..) ALL of our entries advanced to the state round!

So, on Wednesday we traveled down to Austin for the contest. We took care of some paperwork stuff Wednesday evening and then bright an early Thursday morning the students were critiqued by the various judges. 

The judges were fantastic.. the best we have ever had. And even if our student's hadn't done well, I would say that anyway. The judges were knowledgeable and nice, but professional and tough at the same time!

After judging we had hours and hours to wait around. We could watch plays and hang out.. but we didn't get results until almost 11:30pm. That makes for an incredibly long day.

But it was WORTH IT!

We had 9 of our 11 students medal!! INCREDIBLE!  And that included TWO State CHAMPIONS!

I went and looked... Stephenville High School's Theatrical Design team is listed SIX TIMES on the state medalist sheet. Click here to see for yourself! The next closest team was listed three times.  

Yeah, we had a good night.

Here we are after the award ceremony.

And oh, yeah... coaches get medals too when you are a State Champ!

The next morning, we loaded up early and made it back to the high school ten minutes before the final bell rang for school to be out for the summer!

To commemorate the last day of school, our championships and my final day of my 30 day handstand challenge, I did a handstand at the hotel before we left.

And then on Saturday we had graduation. One of my art students (and theatrical design medalists) was the salutatorian. She even thanked me in her speech. That was really cool. Here we are before the ceremony. 

I have to say, finishing the year on such a high note is really nice. I'm pumped for next year all ready and I get all of June and July to chill. (Well, we all know that I don't chill.. but I don't have to report to school every morning!)

My plans for this summer include running, painting, cleaning house, taking 6 hours of graduate class and chilling with my girlies.

Music is Good for the Soul!

I've been playing around and painting just for fun.Well, actually, all my painting is just for fun, but my music series of paintings is really just completely fun and freeing!

Here is my first one.  It is 2 feet tall by 4 feet wide.

It is currently hanging in our school office.  It's nice to have a "gallery" space to hang my oversized artwork! (and I like for my students to see that I create too!)

This second piece is actually a rectangle as well, but I posted a picture of it on instagram, so it is cropped to a square. My dad is a guitar man and this painint is for him.  I have painted this on top of a different painting, so the layers underneath provide great depth.  I can't decide if I am finished with this one yet. 

My goal is to paint three or four more music paintings before I move on.

But.. Remember this "selfie" Kylie took when I was working on her painting?

Look at it edited in black and white.  I'm thinking I'm going to have to create something with this!!

What a week!

It has been one of THOSE weeks! Lots of good stuff happening, but no time to savor it as we have been so incredibly busy!

I have a little time this morning as it's raining and Kylie was up for a couple of hours during the night throwing up, so our plans for the day were cancelled.

Anyway, here is a recap of the week. 

Monday and Tuesday were state standardized testing days. Fun times for students and teachers alike. 

Tuesday ended with Lexi being given a child sized REAL guitar from her Papa. She is beyond excited. And it's baby blue! 

Wednesday morning started nice and early with the annual art show set up. However, we had to take down the existing cork and felt off the large display panels when we found DEAD BABY RATS AND LIVE SPIDERS!!!!

It was beyond gross. My student teacher and I spent all day cleaning and prepping the panels for new felt. (Unexpected and unplanned expense!) Once we had things clean, the exterminator came in and sprayed every panel and the building! The panels had NOT been stored on school property, instead they had been in a rented storage building. Needlesstosay, we are working on alternate storage!

Thursday morning we started putting up new fabric and hanging artwork. Thankful we had afternoon reinforcements in the form of tech theatre kids! They enjoyed helping us and we were exhausted! Prepping over 3000 pieces of artwork takes a while!

Friday morning came in a hurry and with it our annual hat day to raise money for the National Kidney Foundation. The kids in Stephenville public schools raised $1050!! Woohoo!

As soon as I could hand off fundraising duties and make sure the art show setup was in the final stages, I headed for College Station and the State VASE contest. This is the big time art contest in the state. 26 thousand pieces of art are judged around the state and 1600 are chosen for the state event! Yes, it's a tough competition! 

One of my students was selected! Here she is with her piece!

And since I was there and they needed workshop presenters, I taught "how to paint an acrylic landscape with a kitchen spatula" to about 80 students! I made a guide for this, I'll link it later!

I got home Saturday night about 8pm. Kylie woke up at 2am throwing up and then the rain started. 

So for the second year in a row we have missed the kidney walk. Major bummer for all of us. Last year we drove in hoping we'd get to walk. This year, Maddie said no, it wasn't worth it. They ended up walking in the drizzle, but I'm thankful Maddie didn't want to try. Her immune system would not have done well in the cold and wet.

But we were represented! The Tarleton girls were there and sent me this! What a blessing this bunch of girls has been to us!

And lastly, I desperately wanted a donut this morning. And I resisted! Yay me. I ate a pear with almond butter instead! Still want the donut though.

Sticking around for Success

In all my years teaching, it seems like all I have done was to get the ball rolling, lay a strong foundation and just when things take off, we move.

Let's take a walk down memory lane...

Theatre Teacher in Texas 2 years
Theatre/Speech/Debate in NC 1 1/2 years
Back in Texas...
3rd grade inclusion math and TYC reading teacher 1 semester (plus a miserable summer...)
Theatre/Debate/8th grade reading 1 year
Theatre/Career Investigations/Speech/7th grade writing 1 1/2 years
Theatre Teacher 1 semester
Economics/Debate 2 years

Wow. What a journey. I am absolutely certain that I am a better art teacher because I worked in so many other teaching jobs, in so many different communities. I've taught in big cities and tiny communities; I've taught to the affluent and teenagers in a jail.

Then I finally found my way to Art.

And now, I'm in my 6th year of teaching art. AT THE SAME PLACE! Crazy stuff. And even better, I am here for the successes. I got the ball rolling and laid a great foundation for a program that was to be distinctly MINE and I'm here to see the successes.

It is an amazing feeling!

Yesterday I had six students receive big honors in the art world. One student won 3 Gold Key's at the 2014 Region-At-Large Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and has three pieces in the NATIONAL competition. And he is a Sophomore! Such exciting times.

I have to say, this stability stuff is pretty cool. I've never gotten to see the reward first hand and now I am. It's a heady feeling!

Here are a couple of pictures of some of students and their award winning works!

This first picture was taken back in the fall, but how cool is this, both girls received awards this week. Emma, a 3rd grader had her self portrait (upper left hand corner of the display) chosen  to be included in the Youth Art Month Exhibit at our state capitol. Heather, a senior, had one of her photographs awarded an Honorable Mention at the Scholastic contest.

And her are a few more pictures of my students and their award winning pieces!

I don't have a picture of my student who advanced to the National competition. I'll have to do that tomorrow!!