Kindergarten Self portraits

I love these.  Look at these smiling little faces. This may be my favorite lesson plan of the year. Six year olds rock!

Suminigashi Prints

I discovered Japanese paper marbling this year and I have been pining to do this project with my classes.  Finally, I got my hands on a kit and we've been going to town in the art trailer.  Here are a few of my favorite Suminigashi prints from 5th grade.  Suminigashi literally means "spilled ink" in Japanese.  Take a look!  The kits cost about 17 bucks online, and here is a link to the lesson plan in case you want to do this too. In my class, we create the Suminigashi monoprints on day one and then over the next several class visits, the students create a drawing that goes with their monoprint.  Lots of students chose to draw Koi fish, the Japanese symbol of love and friendship.

Snow day

Will it snow this afternoon?  I sure hope so!  Here are some snowy landscapes by my second grade artists. We read Robert Frost's poem, Stopping by woods on a snowy evening and then we talked about how atmospheric perspective can make faraway objects look soft and grey.  We also talked about space in terms of foreground, middle ground and background. I didn't tell the kids how to draw the animals, but many of them put in really cute little fawns and bunnies based on the illustrations in my book.

Who do you admire?

In kindergarten class, we created stamps of people we admire.  Here are a few of them.  The funniest thing is that one kid drew a green alien.  He never would tell me why he admired an alien. I tried to get him to talk. (Alien not pictured)

My little tigers.

I have been swamped since August. This is not an exaggeration or a lie-- it just is... when it comes to the life of a first-year teacher who is also trying to take graduate courses. My paintings have been selling faster than I can make them, but instead of painting more I have been helping petite Picasso's make some brilliant work. Check out my favorite second grade tiger collages.  These were made after we looked at Henri Rousseau's jungle art. Since my school doesn't have a big budget, we made glitter paper ourselves.  Check out the personality in these little tigers! Their little faces and expressions make me laugh.

Here are some 5th-grade versions created for a yearbook competition.  The kids are dying to know who won, but I can't tell until June!

The last one is a "Terminator Tiger." Gotta love the creativity.  One of the tigers with tattoos may be gang related, but to an innocent eye like mine, I loved the design and put it smack dab in the middle of the bulletin board... I have a lot to learn!

Old Lady Antebellum

My favorite house in Savannah is this one.  I've loved the lacy wrought iron balconies and the rusting intricate iron window-works since I first laid eyes on it.  I've always imagined the interior as a lavish home for a wealthy family.  The interior I pictured had grandiose staircases,  windows with yards and yards of richly colored silk draperies and plush velvet armchairs made for shipping mint juleps while cradled in the lap of luxury. The walls would be decorated with contemporary landscapes of live oaks, much like my own.  Ok, now I'm fantasizing that I own the place...Anyway, I never thought that I'd be able to waltz into the house on a sunny afternoon, much less poke my head around each corner on every floor.

Dave and I were in Savannah on our way back from the Podracky Christmas celebration in Orlando this year.  We were walking around and peeking into antique shops when we stumbled upon the open doors of Alex Raskin Antiques.  He owns this house!  Of course we went in, and when we did, we found piles and piles of dirty old treasures.  They were stacked to the ceiling, covering the walls and spilling out of the balconies of this wondrous old shell of a Savannah mansion.  Based on the condition of the stuff, we thought we'd hit a gold mine! Surely we could find an affordable treasure here!  It was not the case.  Every piece of hand-carved furniture and ancient photograph was priced at thousands of dollars.  So we crept around and looked and marveled at the treasures!


My favorite piece was a hand-carved Victorian mantle.  It was a mere $4,500.00.  Since it wouldn't fit in our trunk, I had to say no.  I also adored some stained glass windows that were propped precariously on the first floor in what I assume was the grand ballroom in it's hey-day.  The paint was peeling off in layers as thick as cardboard.  With the original chandelier still swaying eerily from it's dusty chain, this house was beyond anything from my wildest dreams.





We also found an early dress form with a painted doll's head.  Dave loved an ancient looking fish-tank from the turn of the century. He also eyed up some French furniture with aged paint patinas that cannot be mimicked, no matter how many layers of faux paint and crackle medium you try.  We laughed when we saw a "choo-choo" train that looked like it came from the carnival from the turn of the century (1900's, not 2000's).  There is no way to describe the magic of this place.


At the same time, there was an inescapable sadness to it all.  Every room was decaying. The ceilings were caving in on the top floor.  The stairway was held up by a metal rod that surely was not an original part of the design.  As the plaster and horse-hair concoction crumbled, you could see the wooden slats behind the walls and ceilings. With every crack in the wall, it became harder and harder to imagine the people that raised their families here.  I felt a sadness that the owner of this place didn't take better care of it.  Hopefully one day we will go back again to see that renovations from the historical society have begun.  If Dave and I ever hit the lottery, this is where you'll find us!

This is me.

One of my second grade students drew this during class while we studied art about communities.  In second grade, there's a big push to learn all about community helpers like firemen, policemen, teachers, construction workers and even business owners.  We talk about all the community helpers we can think of and I show some examples of Norman Rockwell's illustrated pictures of community helpers from the Saturday Evening Post.

When we got down to business with our pencils and markers,  one of my little kiddos drew ME!  Here I am at my teacher's desk with my pink insulated cup of Diet Coke sitting nearby.  All the students are smiling and busy as they work on their drawings and as you can see, there are lots of drawings hanging up around the room on a clothes line-- just like real life!

Oh how can I begin to describe how happy this makes me?  This is why I'm here-- to nurture, to support, to encourage this kind of sweet innocent talent until it takes off full speed ahead! Have I mentioned that I love my job? I do.