Class

Monday morning was class. I teach every Monday after Third Friday (makes for a long weekend). They bus in a fourth or fifth grade art class from the local elementary school; this was a fourth grade class of about 15 students. Well behaved and eager. I never made it to poetry on Sunday as I set up class the day before.

The idea is to take the students through the current exhibition(s) and teach a related project, be it subject, idea, materials. We discussed Liz Nicklus and Michele Post, painting in layers and making assemblages out of various materials. I had a table set up with every possible item I could find, buttons, straws, clothes pins, glitter, paint, oil pastel, magazines for clipping, foam animals...

It is truly a rewarding experience teaching these young folk. They are expressive, they explore, they listen (to whatever tiny lecture I may give), they concentrate on the task. This class a student said he was having "the best day ever" and another shyly came up to thank me and give me a hug and said she would look for me on Third Friday. IF there is one moment in their lives that I have made art a positive and joyful experience, then I am satisfied I am doing OK with teaching. This is my second year with this school. I'm very into it.

The photo is not of this class, but of a prior class where the students worked on self-portraits. That class was a little more serious, I gave some basic instruction on the placement of features, shading, tone, charcoal and paint. Maybe they will remember one day on another project.