Musings and Memories

 

This time of year always makes me a little nostalgic for my childhood. I always remember going to picking out new school supplies because school was going to start in September. It was a treat to go to the store and get new pencils and crayons. 

I was homeschooled from 3rd grade all the way through high school so the whole getting school clothes was not a necessity for me, but my mom didn't want me to feel left out so she would take me to get a new outfit. 

I have vague memories before 3rd grade and remember getting a new pair of school shoes that matched our school uniform. It is funny what makes you remember things from your childhood. For one it is the smell of crayons that seem to bring back snippets of things. 

Even though my children are grown up and we no longer have the need to buy all the school things (other than what is needed for college note taking) I still like to walk the aisle in the stores and pick up a few things to add to my supply box. I still love opening a box of new crayons and making a piece of art. 

Now that I am teaching children again, I have taken advantage of an excuse to buy all of the supplies. I have picked up crayons, pencils, glue sticks, scissors, colored pencils, and markers. My art classroom has been organized with all the colors sorted into warm and cool colors. One of my students mentions how she likes to organize her things and wanted to organize her colors the same way. 

I have been teaching color theory to start each class this month and then we have been working on learning a new skill. This week was self portrait week so I started off with a lesson in blind contour drawings. They took turns looking at themselves in the mirror and drawing without looking at the paper. I demonstrated that sometimes it doesn't look like what you think it will but that there are no mistakes in art. That is pretty much my motto in class so that they learn to let go of the idea that it has to be perfect the first time. 

I have discovered that children learn early that things have to be "perfect", or "just right" to be "good", my goal is to teach them that in art there is no such thing as perfect. That in order to be creative we have to learn to loosen up and enjoy the process. 

I am trying to loosen up and write what I am thinking and what I want to share here. I am working to regain my voice and tell the stories instead of just adding a caption to a picture. 

I hope you will come back and see what I am up to next.