This is my flyer featuring my "art bike" for Southington Art Council's Bike Parade.
The Bike Parade was a fundraiser in which the art council received abandoned bikes from the police department, selected artists who could turn the bikes into functional art, and matched the artists with patrons who wanted to own the final pieces. The artists received a commission fee and the rest of the patrons' fee went toward the art center.
The new art center, Southington Community Cultural Arts, is now open!
5x10' murals for Waterbury Public Sschools’ Project Art Night, images show the murals prepped in my studio and then after the event during which student painted them.
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Full background information on this project:
The Mattatuck Museum is an art and regional history museum in Waterbury, CT. I have taught studio classes at the museum and through the museum at other sites. One site was in Waterbury Public Schools. Through a state grant in 2015, WPS was able to partner with the museum to offer the students an after-school Art Club, in which they were able to use materials not typically available to them, visit the museum several times, and receive special lessons from visiting artists. I was one of those visiting artists.
The Project Art Nights were made possible through another grant meant to foster student and parent engagement with the arts. Each school had a different theme that was particularly relevant to them and had several stations of interactive art based on their theme. Teaching artists were brought in as a special feature to give the students an opportunity to interact with a professional artist from the community as well as to provide special skills to develop a large-scale, collaborative art project that would expose students to a new art form and/or give them the opportunity to work with materials and ideas they do not normally receive at their school.
Because my primary discipline is painting, for each school, I designed and prepared the underpainting for a 5x10' mural that the students (pre-K through 5th grade) helped paint during the special evening event. The finished murals are now hung permanently in the schools.
Aired on local television, two video pieces documented Waterbury's Project Art Nights- five special events, two of which I was brought on as a the teaching artist. I designed and prepared underpaintings for each 5x10' mural, which are now displayed in the schools. Bunker Hill School's theme was Mexican Arts, so the mural incorporated Dia de los Muertos imagery, Spanish/Mexican lace, and lots of bright colors.
Time marks where the mural/my contributions are featured: 0:00-:0:39; 10:10-17:00; 20:38-end. Time lapse @ 38:30
The Regan mural is featured in the first 5 minutes of this video.
Bunker Hill Día de Los Muertos featured at- 28:45, 30:45; 34:15; 36:25
Regan School's theme was a vegetable garden because there was another separate ongoing project at the school of learning about the water cycle, growing food, and planting and tending their own vegetable gardens on the school property.
(full time marks for my reference: 00:00-4:50 (Regan); 28:49 (Bunker Hill opening, shows mural prep), 30:45-33:30; 34:15-35:00; 36:25-39:54; time lapse on mural is 37:50-end)
“Because of 26” mural, Southington, CT
I was one of 26 artists chosen to design and paint a unique butterfly. The 26 butterflies represent the lives lost in the Sandy Hook tragedy. During a big community event in which everyone was invited to help, I assisted for several hours to finish the mural, and I also helped direct young or first-time painters.
This mural is also part of Southington's Rail to Trails Linear Path beautification project. The Linear Path is a paved path, using the old train railways, for people to walk, bike, etc. The Southington arts council works with local businesses to get permission to clean up behind their buildings and to paint murals on the back of the buildings.
Mattatuck Museum, Spring Break Art Camp, a week-long program of all-day art classes, ages 5-12
I designed all the lessons based on current exhibitions. We started in the galleries to look, make observations, and discuss, and then moved to the studio to make our own art using what we learned. The week was so busy that I unfortunately do not have many pictures. The lessons included many new art ideas, vocabulary, and themes; and the projects included three types of button making (wood, plastic, and fabric-covered), painting, collage, and mixed media.
For one year, I taught "paint along" classes at a private art studio. The mission of the studio was to invite absolutely everyone into the world of making and to show them that they were far more creative and capable than they thought they were. I demonstrated the painting step-by-step and then moved around the room to instruct one-on-one. Every student would complete a painting in the 2-4hr class. I mixed in as much art history, brush techniques, and color mixing as I could, but a lot of the sessions were really about coaching confidence. Most of the students (ages 5-70) were first time painters or had not painted or drawn since they were a young child. The most common thing that I would say was, "Be brave!" Students left smiling, excited, and many would sign up for their next class saying "I never thought I could make something like this!"