I'm on the road in the midwest this week, doing some comedy, visiting some dear friends, and my old stomping grounds at Hallmark (fun memories), as well as meeting with my publisher. Kansas City, here I come!
I always take a little Moleskine journal and some pens and pencils with me, even when I'm just running around town - and sometimes I just work on backgrounds, doodling, paisley practice . . . I use those in my journals, in my greeting cards, and in the scratch-in on my big oil paintings.
I will miss seeing my students this week. The kids have been working on Fruity Faces, a lesson plan based on the Arcmiboldo fruit-and-veggie faces from the 1500s, doing drawings and clay faces. There's a great Arcimboldo exhibit at the National Gallery of Art (in the Contemporary Wing for its Surrealistic qualities). It's a beautiful exhibition, and the Gallery gave me a pile of brochures for my students, so we could study the pictures. I talked with the students about how amazing it is that this 500-year-old art relates to Davy Jones and his band of CGI fish-faced crew in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." They, as usual, have come up with some wonderful art of their own.
I am thrilled to say that we've been awarded a Target Field Trip Grant to take my 6th and 7th Graders to the Smithsonian. We are going to go to the American Art Museum, the Museum of the American Indian, and The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. We are jazzed!
Attaching a "paisley practice" background I have started in my mini-journal. Happy Art-Making :-)
Comments