The Duniway Art Show

Last week, I had the extreme pleasure of attending the Duniway Student Art Show! I love the theme they chose this year, it kind of sounds familiar...

This year, the Duniway art committee has made some great additions - they've switched to using a digital projector and laptop to show art history slide shows, they've created an amazing new website, and they managed to extend the art show to three days instead of just one!

I love the beautiful subtlety of the watercolor haiku lesson (above) and the sumi-e ink painting lesson (below).

The majority of these lesson plans were written by the fantastic, incredible, brilliant Michelle Smit (pictured below with her favorites - the "Picassos"). Michelle and I worked together on the art program for years, and she is continuing to carry the torch and doing a great job along with the rest of the art committee. I'm so proud of them!

My favorites are the abstracts, for sure.



But I also love the more realistic pieces like these self-portrait value studies:

This is just a small selection, I really had to restrain myself to not make this post too long, but I could go on forever! Below are some of the nifty ceramic animals made by 2nd graders:

On April 1 of this year, the Duniway Art Program was presented with a Creative Ticket School of Excellence Award by the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education and the Oregon Alliance for Arts Education. I am so proud and so honored to have played a part in this great achievement.
I know that a lot of people come across this blog while searching for children's art lesson plans, so if that's what you are looking for, I strongly encourage you to visit the new website, www.duniwayart.org. You'll find everything you could possibly want for grades K - 5 - painting, printmaking, ceramics, wire sculpture, sand painting, outdoor art with natural objects, collage, mandalas (yeah!), pop art, wood sculpture, still life, surrealism, impressionist landscapes, and much more, all interwoven with art history and muliculturalism. The lesson plans are all on there as PDF downloads with sample images of finished projects.

These lessons were all specifically designed to be taught by parent volunteers who don't necessarily have any art or teaching experience. It has worked incredibly well at Duniway. So get out there and start bringing art education back to the elementary schools - here's proof that it is possible!

Little hands create beautiful mandalas

This week, my Cool School classes at Duniway Elementary started up again. Once again, I am teaching a school newspaper class (creating an issue of the Duniway Dragonian) and we are doing yet another mandala mural on the wall down by the music room!

This mural class is for younger kids (first - third graders) so you can imagine how delighted and impressed I was to see what beatiful mandalas they designed. Each kid is creating an individual mandala on paper so they will have something to work on while waiting for their turn to paint. These will be painted with watercolors and hung all around the finished mural.
While the kids were working on their individual mandalas, they also all took turns working on a group mandala design on a larger piece of paper. I used a variety of old drum heads and records to create several concentric circles on the paper to act as guidelines for the design. Starting in the center, the kids each had a chance to add their own layers of patterns.

I took this large paper to Kinko's and had it reduced down to fit on an 8.5" x 11" transparency, which I then projected onto the wall and traced it with a pencil. The design is now on the wall and ready for the kids to start painting it next week! Stay tuned for more photos as this project progresses.

By the way, if you live in the Portland area and are interested in my children's art classes, please visit the DIY Lounge website for information about my upcoming Saturday morning kids' art workshops!

Mural, Mural on the Wall...

Last week I finished this mandala mural at Duniway Elementary School. I am so pleased and proud of the finished product! The design was totally created by the kids that took my four-week after school class. There were 17 kids in the class, ranging from third - fifth grade.

During the first class session, I showed a slideshow of mandalas. Then, I put a large piece of paper down on a table, on which I had drawn several concentric circles. I had the kids come up one at a time and, starting from the center of the circle, they took turns adding layers of patterns until they had filled up the paper.

I took this large paper to Kinko's and had it reduced down to fit on an 8.5 x 11 transparency.

I then projected the design onto the wall and drew it on the wall with a pencil.

By the time of the second class session, we were ready to start painting!

While waiting for a turn to paint on the wall, the kids sat on the floor and worked on their own watercolor mandalas.


Here's a great picture of the whole group:
By the last class session, we were able to have several kids painting at the same time. They did an amazing job and got most of it done. Afterwards, I touched it up, added some second coats, and outlined the entire design with black.

Then, I used black latex paint to freehand this funky background shape:

Finally, I took all their lovely watercolor pieces (which parent volunteers had helped to cut out and mount on squares of colored construction paper) and hung them all around the mural.
This is me, very happy with the finished mural:
The school principal has given us permission to expand as much as we like down that same hallway, so I will be offering another mural class (this time for little kids - 1st - 3rd graders!) starting in late February, and hopefully we'll do more in the fall as well. I'd love to make this whole hall become one big, gorgeous "mandala tunnel."

In Record Time...

I recently wrapped up an awesome after school class for first-third graders. The kids designed their own mandalas and painted them onto primed vinyl records, then assembled them into fully functional clocks.
The class was loads of fun and the finished pieces turned out gorgeous. Please contact me if you are interested in having me do an arts residency at your school.