Do Dinosaurs Paint?

Welcome back to another episode of Sarah’s Adventures in the Art Studio (SAAS). This post answers the age-old question: do dinosaurs paint? We will get to that in a minute.

But first, I’m interrupting myself to share some happy news: I’m starting a new position at work. I’ve worked at our preschool for the last two years, and I’ve enjoyed my duties as classroom aid and outdoor art studio teacher.

But about a month ago, I was asked to become the lead teacher of the 2-and 3-year-old combined classroom. I felt excited but also a little nervous. I want to do a wonderful job, but I will be learning as I go, which isn’t always comfortable for me. Can you relate? I have moments of anxiety, but I keep reminding myself that it’s okay not to know everything on day one. I care about doing a good job, and that is a solid foundation. So stay tuned—eventually I will resurface and update everyone about how it’s going.

Now back to the original topic: do dinosaurs paint? In my studio, the answer is yes.

We have plenty of dinosaurs in our outside play area, and one day, I noticed that some had open mouths. Hmmmm, what if I stuck a paintbrush into the mouth of the dinosaur? Then the dinosaurs could paint. It was a twist on our painting time outdoors and the kids had a good time. 

But let’s back up a few steps. This blog post was intended as an April post but here we are in August. Last school year was good, but so busy, and blog posts had to wait their turn. So, here are some highlights from the last eight months at preschool, including some cute moments from our preschool summer camp. It’s like a buffet: a little bit of everything. Some Valentines Day, some St. Patrick’s Day, some Easter and lots of messy fun. 

 

Big mess = big fun.

This is Rudi the Robot. I made him as a creature with four slides
(one down each arm and leg). One of my students, Caleb, said,
"Is that a robot?" And that's how Rudi the Robot came to be.

This summer I worked at our preschool's summer camp. Each

week had a different theme and our first week was all about 

pirates and mermaids.

At the end of the week was dress up day so I gathered various accessories and threw together this pirate outfit. I channeled Johnny Depp and played the “Pirates of the Caribbean” theme song while I dressed. Got to get into character, right? 

One kiddo asked about my tights, and I told him that pirates sometimes wear fishnet tights. He asked, “Do you catch fish with them?” So funny, but that’s how young kids’ brains work. Another kiddo asked if I was a real pirate, so I answered, “Yes!” He thought about it for a minute and then said, “No…You’re Ms. Sarah!” 

Arrgh!

Another week was dinosaur week and for our dress up day I made myself a triceratops head piece out of paper plates. I got the idea from one of our campers, who called me “Tri-Sarah-Tops.” Hmmm…I feel an idea brewing. When we were playing outdoors that day (obviously I still had my dinosaur head on), I saw people down the block looking in my direction. Only my shoulders and head were visible above our fence. I hope they knew the truth: that I am both a teacher and a real dinosaur (from the neck up).

Tri-Sarah-Tops

My students tried to hide from me. 

Balloons: all fun and games until they pop, scaring me every time.

The summer passed quickly, except when we were outdoors at camp. Yes, I’m in San Diego, and it’s much cooler here than in most places. But it was in the 80s, with humidity, which we are not used to here. Sweat dripped down my back and face, which is not as glamorous as it sounds. We sometimes sprayed the water hose into the air to create rain, which cooled us off. Of course, the kids loved it, and we tried to keep them cool with outdoor water table play. At home, I parked myself next to our portable fan, put my wearable fan around my neck and tried not to move.

Besides doing art with the preschoolers, I also have done some of my own paintings this year. I took myself plein air painting last week (for those who don’t know, this means bringing my easel to a location and painting on site). Sweat trickled down my back, but a merciful breeze found me. People stopped to say hi and to share details about the neighborhood, a maze of streets twisting in and out of a canyon, filled with trees and plants. I listened to the distant sound of the trash truck, the bird calls, and the rustle of leaves in the trees. It had been eight months since I’d last painted outdoors, although I’d drawn outdoors twice in that time. It felt like a gift to myself, making that time to do something that feeds my soul.

Here is my painting, entitled “Pink House.” It wasn’t my intended subject matter that day, but when I looked down a street, I saw a pink dot in the distance, and I had to check it out. There aren’t a lot of pink houses here, and it called to me. It has at least three floors, as it is built into the side of a canyon. It reminded me of another plein air adventure from two years ago—my painting of a house, only a mile away from this one. It seems I like to paint old houses, tucked into the trees. 

Pink House, 11 x 14", acrylic on canvas panel

Some of my other paintings from this year involved cityscapes or street scenes—moments from everyday life. I have done several paintings of bodegas, and one depicting the inside of a Japanese market. Anything with color and interesting angles and shapes. 

My drawing of NikiGator, a San Diego sculpture
by French artist Niki de Saint Phalle

Japanese Market, 11x14", acrylic on canvas panel.

Crashing Wave, 9x12", mixed media on paper.

Earlier this summer I made a sandcastle with one of my kids. A small castle--but it was on my summer list. Would it even feel like summer without a sandcastle? 

It’s fun to make temporary art. A sandcastle will not remain intact for long, but the act of creating something is always worth it. 

This summer I also chipped away at a few DIY projects. They

involved lifting concrete blocks and brick, and I asked myself

why I do this in summer, when it’s hot. Longer daylight hours

for outdoor projects? I also enjoyed swimming, hanging with

my family, checking out dramatic sunsets and taking a few

naps. 

Gardening is another of my passions, and my flowers put on a good show this summer. 

Tradescantia Nanouk

Epiphyllum (Cactus Flower)

In case you thought my life is all flowers and sunsets,
here I am in my paint shirt, weeding in the heat.

Monarch and Milkweed

hybrid Hibiscus

The end of summer is always bittersweet for me—it’s not easy to return to a more rigid school schedule, and to accept the days becoming shorter. But it’s part of life, and I will try to be present in each season. Soon I will be welcoming new kiddos into our school, and I hope that they will feel happy and safe with me. We will practice taking turns, sharing, using our words (not our hands) to communicate. I know I will witness beautiful moments, like one from this summer, when a young three-year-old brought a crying friend his water bottle  to soothe him after a playground fall. These kids may be little, but they already have big hearts.

Please wish me luck for a good school year. I remember when I started teaching art nine years ago, and the challenges were daunting. I had to attempt to get thirty-eight kids to listen, while also encouraging them to express themselves, to let loose with their imaginations, while not letting so loose that their glue sticks became stuck to the ceiling (true story). I was overwhelmed--but I persisted and in time, I found my pace and style. I hope this new chapter will also be a good one, and I will try my best to be a patient, consistent, fun teacher this year. Stay tuned for updates.

Until we chat again, watch out for painting dinosaurs. And of course, keep shining brightly!

Love Thy Neighbor

 

Hello again! I’m back with more adventures at preschool, along with some kiddo art and some of my own art. Blog posts often bring out my reflective moods, with my looking back at recent events, funny moments and life lessons. A Thanksgiving blog post makes me extra reflective, because it’s a time to think about how fortunate we are.

Sweaty Summer:

Before we talk Thanksgiving, let’s back up a few months.  The summer went quickly, as every teacher has said since the beginning of time. July arrived and a friend hired me to paint a mural in her back yard. The temperature suddenly skyrocketed, and I found myself sweating before even starting to paint. But four toasty days later, I finished the mural and my friend was delighted with the result. She wanted a lush tropical scene on the fence in her yard, with a glimpse of the ocean in the distance. My friend knew exactly which flowers she wanted and we chose the paint colors together. I loved how the mural turned out and was grateful that our timing meshed. It’s been a long time since I regularly painted murals, and most of them were indoors, so this experience reminded me what an endurance sport mural painting really is. 

More Art:

I make art every week. Lately I’ve been into collage, painting over junk mail, ripping it into pieces to glue together. I like it when the original text peeks through. Here are a few of my recent paintings and mixed media art pieces:

I made this zipper capelet, from mostly thrifted zippers. Wearable art!

Back to School:

At the end of summer, I felt a certain degree of dread. Although I was excited to see the preschool kids again, it’s always hard for me to give up the more flexible pace of summer. But when the preschoolers came back to school, their happy faces, questions and enthusiasm made me smile. I noticed how they’d grown, and who had different haircuts. A few of them threw their arms around me when they first saw me, and honestly, this is one of the best feelings in the world.

Lots of our kids from the three-year-old class are no longer at school this year. In our area, public schools now offer free T-K (Transitional Kindergarten) for kids as young as three. I can’t blame the parents for choosing the free option, but it’s bittersweet that the school population is smaller than it was in the spring. In related news, despite having fewer kids at school, the noise level is just as high. But at times, a joyful kid is a loud kid. It’s okay! 

We started up our preschool art studio the second week of school. I do art with each class twice a week and if the weather is cooperative, we create outdoors. Most of the kids love experimenting with paint, shaving cream, finger paint, dot markers, play dough, and paper for collage projects. After the kids helped paint fall leaves, I decorated the pergola over our art area. I wanted it to look like the colorful leaves were falling from the trees above.

 

Halloween: 

Halloween is always fun when you work with kids. They start planning their costumes weeks ahead of time, and their choices are a window into their personalities. One little girl with tons of energy said she wanted to be a ninja. We had princesses, Spider man, Lightning McQueen, and a child dressed as a yellow crayon, among other costumes. The kids did spooky artwork leading up to Halloween. We painted pumpkins and ghosts, bats and cats, which I displayed on our playground wall. 

 I made two haunted houses from cardboard and hot glue, and they had fun painting the houses. I taught the four-year-olds how to make spooky trees from pipe cleaners. You twist pipe cleaners to form branches, which should be gnarled and twisty, full of haunted energy. The kids also cut gravestones, which I glued to form a haunted graveyard. 

Yes, a festive season, indeed. 

Learning our ABCs:

Every preschool teaches the alphabet, colors and numbers. I can almost see the kids’ brains developing, right in front of me. But this fall, I’ve had an interesting experience with one of our new students. She is four, and I will call her M. M speaks Japanese at home, and when she started, her mom said that M does not speak English. I knew she would learn quickly, as kids do. The first week she was in school, I noticed that M does have many English words. True—she doesn’t have as many as her classmates, but M spoke plenty of words. I see her language develop each week. M fascinates me. She is fearless on the playground and full of joy and confidence. She gets her point across, even with gaps in her vocabulary. “I lunch you,” was M’s way of saying she was giving me lunch (a toy plate filled with sand from our sandbox). One day, she noticed two friends fighting over a toy and she ran to me, pointed and said, “Angry!” I hurried over to referee the problem. I love that M is not self-conscious about her developing language skills. She is full of smiles, questions and observations. It’s a good reminder for me: don’t aim for perfection. Aim for happiness. 

Thanksgiving:

In case you haven’t seen all the Christmas and Hannukah decorations in stores, it’s true—it’s Thanksgiving season. The preschool kids made hats for our Friendsgiving party at school. Each child brought a piece of fruit to add to our Friendship fruit salad, a colorful collaboration. The kids sat outdoors together and shared some food and friendship. It was adorable and a wonderful way to talk about Thanksgiving and what we appreciate. The kids helped paint giant pieces of fruit to spill out of the cornucopia I made, and they colored the letters to spell “Thanksgiving.”  

This Thanksgiving, I feel grateful for many people and things. We all have our worries but I’m focusing on the good. I want to share something inspiring that I witnessed this month.

My fellow San Diegans have such big hearts. There are donation bins around town, including in grocery stores, where people can donate food to those who need it. This is something that happens every fall around Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it feels extra meaningful this year. When many people’s SNAP food benefits were cut on November first, San Diegans stepped up to help their neighbors. The school our youngest attends immediately sent out an email, asking for donations of non-perishable food. The email listed ideas for donations and assured everyone that the kids could come get what they needed and bring some home to their families. I bought some items and put them in a bag by our front door. A few days passed and before I could bring our bag in, another email came from the principal. The message was this: don’t bring any more food for now. We are at capacity! In a matter of a few days, they received hundreds of items. A plan was suggested to bag up items and leave them for students to pick up at the building next door, so their privacy would be protected. My heart swelled with happiness, seeing how quickly people jumped in to help their neighbors. It’s hard enough being a teenager, without worrying about how your family is going to manage. 

Since I hadn’t donated my bag to school yet, I donated it to the bins inside the grocery store, knowing that people in need will benefit. In case you haven’t been inside the store recently, the bins are already quite full. 

This really warmed my heart. It shows how kind most people are. I love these moments when people’s differences fade away, and we are united by a common goal to help others. The act of sharing is one of the most fundamental parts of being human. San Diego, you really showed your kindness during the Thanksgiving season.

If anyone needs an extra boost, I would like to share a website called Tank's Good News. Here is the link: Tanks Good News.

This site posts only positive stories about inspiring people and animals. It’s an especially happy place to land when you need a break from negative news. 

So, on this Thanksgiving week, when the sun sets earlier and the night seems darker, I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Let’s shine a bright light out to our neighbors, and our fellow human beings. Let’s keep sharing and keep shining, too…