Fantastic Fridays

     When Fridays roll around, I seriously don't know who is more excited about art class, me or my students! I was introduced to art at a young age. Staring at my mother's oil paintings hanging over the couch, I used to imagine I was sailing on her painted ship or holding that cute cuddly painted kitten. She let me peek into her art books showing me the correct way to sketch a tree or shade an object. I fell in love with art and with trees. I should have a bumper sticker that says, "I love to draw trees!" Just ask my art students. In the fall we tackle pointilism trees painting bright bold dots for leaves. Amy Carr, Candadian born artist, is an inspiration with her water color tree resist paintings. Next we try our hand at constructing a Gustav Klimt curly tree with metallic paints, not to mention all the fun things we do with leaves!

     I tend to think in terms of snapshots and color. My children think I'm crazy for stopping by the side of the road, "Look at that!" I pull out my camera and snap the perfect picture of a  trio of trees each dressed in their own fall color. "Mom's getting Willow Care for Christmas," they say. I'm pretty sane (I keep telling myself that;-).

    I have a wonderful group of 3rd-6th graders this year. It's important to make art fun and to make art a great learning experience for them. As a child, I was never without a pencil and paper in my hand. My addiction to writing words and drawing pictures first started with my Grandmother, Mary Curtis, a sassy, saucy, southern bred woman full of spunk and pizazz! To quiet me and my sister in church, she would reach deep into her purse. At first, I thought she was going to pull our a whip! She smiled kindly handing us tiny pencils and brand new shiny notepads. I fell in love.