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Creativity Starts Young


I just returned from Fine Arts Night at an elementary school. It's one of my favorite events to do. Once every year, this school turns their classrooms over to working artists from a variety of disciplines. Tables are set up in the hallways to display students' 3D works and every inch of wallspace is hung with children's artwork. Music fills the air, as does the ebb and flow of storytellers and puppeteers voices. Meanwhile, students bring parents and siblings through their building, visiting each room and learning something new along the way.



I got Mrs. S.'s third grade classroom. I brought in grid walls and filled one third of the room with paintings. The kids enjoyed flipping through the unframed paintings which I displayed on a table right at their level (pictured directly above).

I set up another smaller table with my journal and some collages, along with sign up sheets for this summer's session of Creative Journalling classes (email me if you are interested in getting on the list - details to follow!). We had a lot of discussion about the type of ideas that you can put into a journal/diary, and I think I recruited a few hesitant writers to try out some visual/drawing expression on their own.

But the best part were the round tables in the middle of the room, tables where I piled up all sorts of crayon muffins, markers, colored pencils and oil pastels (see pic at the tippy top of this post). I spent the better portion of the night around those desks, showing kids how to sketch different animals. And they eagerly shared their know-how with me in return - for instance, I learned that a platypus's egg is the size of a gumball.

Art + Kids always = Good Times.

I'm so glad I got me a piece of that today.

Thanks, as always, for looking at - and sharing - my artwork with your friends and family.
Kim

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