Week 16 May 6- 12

Urban Arts- 4 hours

This week I had been preparing my second lesson for Urban Arts, so I made sure to come fully prepared with everything that the students will need. This also means that I made several meander books all weekend to find the best method of explanation. The students were pretty excited, we did a relaxed lesson with free art time. Most of the time turned into book making and story writing. The students made wonderful books and were very generous helping others and bringing creative ideas to the classroom.

Week 15 April 29- May 5

Urban Arts - 4 hours

Today was a rough one for everyone. The sudden change in weather really caused some frowning faces. Although the weather was pretty chilly we had a pretty bright snack with some cheese crackers and fresh cucumbers. Some of the students still refuse to eat the cucumbers but theres always a few that really get into it. Since it was raining outside we spent all day inside. The outside plan was canceled and we had free art all day to help brighten the children’s spirits. While the students were making art I typed up some of their poems about their family and what their homes are like.

Shadowed Susan Armington for 3.5 hours

Week 15 April 29 - May 5

Urban Arts - 4 hours

Today was a little all over the place. The weather was not the best and it seemed to take its tole on everyone especially the students. Some of them had a pretty rough start as they got off the bus. Many of them loosened up a bit while we were in the gym. Snack was cheese crackers and cucumbers. Many students decided right away they did not want the cucumbers. On the girls ate all the cucumbers that got put on the share table. Since we had a rough start to the day we had a relaxed first session. I helped type out some poems from the students.

Shadowing Susan - 4 hours

Shadowing was an exciting time. Watching the students make work about the things they love was beautiful. I also talked with Susan about my current practice and the idea of loneliness and where I can go with it. Was an absolutely wonderful time.

Week 14 April 22- 28

Urban Arts-4 hours

This week at Urban Arts has been similar to the past weeks. Busy snack and dishing out yogurt. For sessions the students spent half the session making paper kites to use out side. Half of first session was outside and the students were ecstatic to be using their hand made kites outside. Second session started outside with stencils and some paper but they mostly used chalk. Towards the end one of the students lost their backpack and school uniform clothes. After some searching, a few tears and some ice cream from their father we were able to find them. It was a pretty eventful day.

Week 13 April 15-21

Urban Arts - 4 hours.

This like the past two weeks were pretty busy days. Sorta of all over helping where I can. This week we had a good snack with some of the best guacamole most of us had ever had. Snack time was pretty much the only thing we did inside this week. We spent both sessions outside. The students really enjoyed it and got to play with other students from a program that also uses the park we visit. It was amazing to get to be in the sun and let the students play.

Free Arts- 1.5 hours.

Unexpectedly this week was our last week with the students. We were looking forward to our final week being next week so we moved our plans forward and did our outside activity this week for the students. For our lesson this week we really did not teach much, we let the students play outside with bubbles and chalk. We tried some chalk drawings but all the attention was put on the bubbles. They really got a kick out if and was a blast for everyone! It was amazing to get to see all the students having fun.

Week 12 April 8-14

Urban Arts- 4 hours

This week was similar to what I reported one week 10. Lots of running around and helping people for what they need.

We stated outside and but the weather got cold so we headed inside for snack a little early. For snack we had some honey oats and yogurt. A lot of the students were into it and a lot were not. We had a lot of students who asked for cheese even though we haven’t had them for a few weeks, a little unusual. After first session snack I helped with second snack and clean up. I went to the kindergarten and first grade class to help with students. We did some collages and paper cut outs. This didn’t last long with all the energy, we ended going back outside for awhile. This time was way too cold for us, we ended up going back inside for goodbyes and closing circle.

Free Arts - Canceled 2 hours

Week 11 April 1- 7

Urban Arts- Spring Break

Free Arts - Unable to attend

Attended the class meeting.

Studio Update,

I’m still working with the black squares. As of now i’ve been using a matte paint but now I’m trying our a high gloss paint for my next piece.

These are the first standing foam squares i’ve done

I also attended Slow Art Day at the Weisman Art Museum. Peng Wu, a MCAD MFA grad of 2013 and a resident artist at the Weisman had some interesting things happening as well. He has been working on research of his project Archive of Sleeplessness. Peng had “nap stations” around the museum that welcomed you to laying down/ taking a nap in front of sever art pieces. It was quiet beautiful.

I’ve attached a few photos of some of the nap stations and a photo of Peng had sewing one of the pillow cases together.

Week 10 March 25-31

Urban Arts - 4 hours

This week at Urban Arts I was helping out all over. First we went to the park for some sun and fresh air. The students and I made a lot of trips to the bathroom since they were getting wet sand in their shoes. After the park we did snack and no Shawn the Sheep, the students were devastated. Instead of being in the classroom I stayed to help with second seasons snack time, clean up, and homework. After second session snack I went to help the very active kindergarten and first grade class. We did some pom pom gluing for a karate belt flag the class is making. Eventually pom pom’s and markers were not able to hold down the active ones today. This particular day the students were pretty restless and ready for outside time. So we took it outside for 30 minutes. We finished up our last round at the park and headed inside for closing circle and pick up.

Free Art- 2 hours

This week at Free Arts we did model magic monsters. Although we had monsters in mind we spent a lot of time making colorful snacks by rolling out the model magic. But not all our models were monsters and snakes! We also had many scenic ones of Spring time. We made many flowers and sun’s with bright green grass. Nearing the end our lesson many students smashed all their colors together to make one big ball. The students were also pretty happy to be able to take their models home for their parents. For our closing circle we did some freeze dance and high fives!

Week 9 March 18- 24

Urban Arts - 8 hours

I was at Urban Arts for two days this week for my Spring break. For both of the days I was there we had a substitute since our head teacher was out at an important conference. The first day started off normal with inside gym and snack. For snack this week we had yogurt, a lot of students were interested in that with granola and cinnamon. We also decided on water for thirds because second session would not be happy if they didn’t get their snack. First session was not to happy about no thirds. For our lesson we finished up the books by folding pages and adding them to our covers. After I showed the students the page folds everyone was ready to go ahead and add the pages to the covers. The pages took some time to dry as we wanted to make sure the glue was fully dry and would separate when the book was picked up or pulled open. After everyone finished adding their pages we had free time. Free time consisted a lot of more book making with black pages for a twist! The lesson was extremely fun with a little bit of a challenge, but everyone was able to make books from memory by the end of the day.

The second day was a little more relaxed with less students. Instead of gym we got time outside at the park! The young students really loved being in the sun for a little while. Snack was also a fun time! The students had sunbutter, most of them had never had it but so many loved it, especially with cinnamon. We spent a lot of the snack time seeing what cinnamon would be good on. For the class time we worked on making mini sets and character charts for a play everyone is working on. We had some pretty good designs for the first session. Second session was way more relaxed with only two students who already had plans from the day before on what they would do. We went for gym time a little early and enjoyed a short but exciting game of basketball before the other classes came down.

Free Arts - Unable to attend

Week 8 March 10- 17

Urban Arts - 4 Hours

We started off the day with snacks and gym time as usual. When we got to the class room we did a shake it out type of dance for a couple minutes. Today was also my first lesson! We started by looking at some accordion style books I brought in and going through some fun papers I had as well. I explained the project as a way to use collage to design your own book covers. Many students did not want to entertain the idea of collage so we made books with the option of collage. I waited to do the pages as I did not know how many students would chose a big book format or a small book format. Since many students were not looking forward to collage we made multiple books instead with the fun papers. During the lesson we listened to music and had a nice casual time making little books and enjoying the time.

Free Arts on Spring Break this week.

Studio update.

Lately I’ve been working a lot with text. I started to print these black squares and have text on them that either relates to one a another or not at all. I found it’s a nice way to show how i’m feeling without getting too confused and allowing for others to put their own feelings into it as well. I think it’s something worth sticking with.

Week 7 March 4 - 10

Urban Arts- 4 Hours

This at Urban Arts I was lucky enough to help a fellow classroom, who’s inter was out sick for the week. Since this was so spur of the moment we did some relaxed finger painting that eventually turned into a deep desire to learn fun brush techniques. We started by paint some handprints onto burlap for a project they had been working on for a few weeks. Only a hand full of students helped with the burlap, while others read books and colored with markers. The students waited patiently for the burlap to dry before asking the paint on paper. Since this was more a fun day with no set plan we had some altoid paint trays and just gave it a go with painting.

Free Arts - 2 Hours

For Free Arts we had also had a spur of the moment day. We had a plan but with some changes we also did some fun finger painting! We opened with a discussion on emotions and what emotions people feel the most and the colors we can use to represent them. We had lots of time to talk about our emotions and how we were feeling that day. A lot of students said they were angry, but mostly they wanted to use the color red. Everyone made tons of paintings adding their emotions, favorite colors, and friends. We made a little extra time for some extra sweet paintings. Towards the end we did some collective cleaning and major hand washing time. We finished up with a shake it out/ dance time!

Week 6 February 25- March 3

Urban Arts -4 hours.

Today at Urban Arts we looked at more work by Ifrah Mansour. For our project today the kids worked with found materials to create an aqal inspired by Ifrah. We watched a video that was made about a year ago when Ifrah had a group of Musli refugees come together. This group included elders, children, and teenagers to share their wisdom and contribute to building a traditional Somali house. Ifrah and her group used an assortment of unconventional materials, we used that to influence what the children would use. They used a combination of paper bags, straws, string, plastic lids, and other sorts of materials they could find in the classroom. The kids enjoyed it, making something that was completely their own with the materials they want. One student even built a multilevel aqal using q-tips and cut straws. Another student used straws stuck in a plastic lid for make the structure and burlap to cover the outside. We tried to decorate it with beads but it was a little challenging to get the strong to stay and get it through. Eventually the student used a fun piece of fabric to cover the outside.

Free Arts- 2 hours

Today at Free Arts one of our team members was gone, out sick from this cold weather. But in light we had 3 new members on their first day. Since we had new members in our teaching group and new friends in the class we had a long introduction. We went around with our names and something that starts with the first let of our name. The kids had a lot of fun with it, many of them told us they like spaghetti and meatballs. For our second art project we made paper wind chimes with the kids that reflected seasons. We started out with a big sheet of paper and color the four seasons to our desired image. We had some snowy sprigs, sandy summers, and windy autumns. After we finished coloring we attached each side and hung streamers from the bottom. The kids love picking the streamers and messing around with them, poka dots, bright greens, and blues! Some kids had time to make two while others focused on the first one. Once it was time to clean up we did a quick shake it out with freeze dance. On the way out we said goodbye with high fives and fist bumps.

Week 5 February 18-24

Urban Arts - 4 hours

This week at Urban Arts we ran through our usual routine or gym time and snakes. While the kids were having fun running around and eating snack I prepared some supplies in the classroom for the days activities. This week we painted in celebration of Black History Month! We panted largely on sheets of paper using the pan-african flag colors. The kids were overjoyed to be working with paint this week. They really enjoyed mixing their own colors and making designs. A few were hesitant at first since we using s few brushes and mostly enjoying using the paint with their hands. Even though we had some hesitance at first and were short a few kids we still were able to get the sheets covered. For second session we only had two kids in for the evening, they also enjoyed some hands on painting. The second session kids covered their own big sheet of paper with fun designs and hand prints! Towards the end of the day and winding down, the second session kids helped me with clean up by taking the paint water to the sink. Afterwards we headed down to the gym for the last run around and the never ending game of kickball.

Free Arts - 1.5 hours

Today was our first day at Free Arts. We started of the day with simple introductions of names for everyone. We set out for a self portrait day using all kinds of easy mediums. Our time here went by pretty quick and we did a bunch self portraits, portraits of animals, car, anything you can think of! Towards the end of the time we did circle and shared our self portraits with the class. After sharing our portraits we did the “shake it out”. You shake all you limbs our to get the energy out, similar to the hokey pokey dance, but really fast!

Week 4: February 11 - 17

Urban Arts - 4.5 hours

I was able to make it to Urban Arts with all the snow! We had a short meeting where I was introduced to a few of the Teachers that I will be seeing regularly. The day started a little late for the kids as the buses were running behind with snow and school cancelations. Once this kids got to Urban Arts the had some time run around and get some energy out. The kids really enjoyed the scooters in the gym, the ones that are used in a gym class and made of wood with four wheels. After gym time the kids got a snack and some time to watch Shaun the Sheep . A lot of kids that were delayed with buses did not get as much gym time so they were over flowing with energy. After snack we went up to the classroom, since many schools closed early our classroom only have three students. We talked about the artist of the month, Ifrah Mansour, a refugee form Somalia when the civil war broke out. Ifrah is a a actor/ performance artist that talks about the civil war from the perspective of a child. By the end of the discussion the kids were pretty tired from a long snowy day. We did some home work, some crafts, had our second snack. Second session stated just after snack and we went back to the class room. By this point the three students that were with us in the beginning have been picked up. For second session we have one student. We talked about artist of the month and did some crafting, mostly gluing things around. The teacher and I discussed project ideas for my teaching session. I was thinking that we could make small sketchbooks for the kids, something they could make all their own. After a short brain storm we went to the gym to play and wait for pick up. Over all the day was fun, hopefully next week there won’t be any snow cancellations.

Free Arts - 2 hours

Due to cancelations last week we had our orientation this week. Over the past two weeks we have gained three members to our group, very exciting for us and the children. For orientation we went over what the Jeremiah Project’s goals and objectives are. We looked at how the program runs and how we can be apart of that. We also had a small tour of the building, met a few staff members and said hello to a few of the children. We are still unsure of how our large group will be split up but we have all started brain storming and thinking of what the children would want to do and what we can do with them. It was amazing to see how the program runs and all of the wonderful help they are providing to the community.

Week 3: February 4 - 10

Urban Arts canceled again for the cold.

I was able to go and have a short tour of everything and meet some of the staff. The staff I met was extremely welcoming and helpful to all my questions and concerns. I’m very excited to able to work with Urban Arts.

Free Arts was also canceled for the cold.

Studio Practice Update:

Lately I’ve been looking back on a trip I took over seas and the writing I did while I was there. The feelings I was experiencing there are making their way into my work slowly. I’ve been experimenting with this idea of loneliness and being content with it. I would not say that I was lonely while I was their but more of a homesick. I’m still trying to figure that out.

Week 2: January 26- February 3

Urban Arts, Cancelled due to the cold.

Next week I will start at Urban Arts.

I am excited to get to work with younger children again!

Free Arts

We have been waiting for a third person for our sight and received the “go” on our placement for next week.

Next week we will not meet with with the children for a lesson since we are having an overview of our specific sight for the day. Hopefully we will be able to swing by and have a quick hello with the children.

Week 1: January 20-26

Free Arts Training 2.5 hours

Meet with the program manager and a group of other volunteers.

We had an overview of what is expected of us and the program. We discussed why we chose the program and what inspires us to work with Big Brothers Big Sister. During the meeting we talked about what is expected of the age groups we will be working with and how we as people coming into their space should handle possible situations. We learned about Free Arts process vs. product out look on the work created. Free Arts has a strong holding on process work, allowing for unique and individual work and open ended questions.

Toward the end of the meeting we had a mock session work sheet we filled out with another volunteer at the meeting. We practiced our ability to create a lesson for the age group given in the prompt and worked with the rest of the group to help create a more involved lesson.

some nice green form the building