Meet Me at the Fair!

Hello, and welcome back to my blog. It’s been a few months since I last posted, because life got busier than ever. However, the school year is over and I’m coming up for air.

Before I show some amazing student art, I’m happy to share that I have a painting in the fine art exhibit at the San Diego County Fair. If you are at the fair in the next few weeks, here is what my painting looks like: 

"Fins," 1959 Cadillac, acrylic on panel

It’s an honor to be included and I’m in awe of how much variety this exhibit has.

Besides doing some of my own art, I spent the last few months wrapping up the school year with my students (Kindergarten through 8^th grade). We had an art show in May, and I will include some photos from that. With no further ado, here is art from my talented students.

Kindergarten: beach balls and robots.

First grade: frog tessellations and flowers.

Second grade: beach balls and robots. 

(Apologies for the fuzzy photo.)

Third grade: robots and sunflowers.

Fourth grade: Tessellated cube art, robots and circle art inspired by Yayoi Kusama.

Kusama is a 95-year-old Japanese artist, and she still makes art! She loves circles, dots and pumpkins, so you see those motifs in her art again and again. Here is an example:

Fifth grade: robots and three-dimensional buildings inspired by Ana Serrano.

Sixth grade: topiary drawings, Serrano buildings, black cardstock records and 3-D cars.

The records project is one I created because vinyl records are a wonderful piece of history (and far from extinct!). I still have some records from the collection I started as a teen. These were made with cardstock, and they are the same size as vinyl records. I taught the kids how to draw bright highlights on the records because vinyl is highly reflective.

Seventh grade: Kusama pumpkin and dot art, paper records and 3-D cars.

I got so excited by the record art that I decided to make a big 2-D jukebox out of cardboard to go with the records at the art show. There is a photo of me with it at the end, for scale. It was fun to paint!

Eighth grade: Kusama circle and dot art, Serrano buildings, topiary art and optical illusions.

My eighth graders just graduated, and it was bittersweet. It is time for them to leave the art room nest, and they are ready for the next step, but I will miss them.

That wraps up another year in the art room for these energetic kiddos and me. I have to be honest: I do need a break. There are naps, painting and reading in my immediate future. I will sign off with a sweet drawing of me that one of my fourth-grade students recently made. There are moments when teaching is hard, but luckily, there are many moments when these kids climb inside my heart, and I feel so lucky to be able to teach them something I love.