January Gets Away From Me

In the posting department anyway.

It seems that the added number of classes I'm teaching, combined with the planning and executing of a birthday party for my youngest, daily routines and the addition of volunteering duties with my eldest daughter's school are keeping me much too busy for posting on the a regular basis.

So on the one hand I'm gloriously busy and on the other I'm too swamped to share what I'm doing.

I've added the video I created for the art career fair at my daughter's school last week. I presented as an art educator and wanted to share some examples of my art lessons and the art done by my students. (just one of the activities that has filled my time)

On a personal art making note I've also slipped in time to do some personal work (granted the project was conceived as an option to read to my classes in preparation of creating some jelly fish art but I'm doing it in my own time and may not finish it in time to present to this terms classes) I've started a handmade book using a grouping of haiku poems as the inspiration. I'm using the book as an opportunity to explore new mediums and techniques . So far I'm pretty happy with what's come out of it. It's a pretty organic process so far and I'm having fun with it.

With my teaching load so full I decided that making art for personal reasons was a high priority and have been using time I might have used to post about lessons taught during the week to do some of my own art. I've added a few images below of some work in progress.

Detail of Jellyfish book page

Detail of pen drawings of jellyfish on stencilled gessoed paper

As January comes to a close (and Mercury leaves retrograde) I have high hopes that I will be able to focus more of my time on posting here as well as keeping up with all the other activities piled on my plate. 

How is your year beginning shaping up? Are you as jam packed and scrambling as I am or are you weathering the new year transition more smoothly?

Jam Packed with Jellyfish

Sometimes When I'm scheduled to do a birthday party the guest of honour has very specific requests for the theme of the lesson I must plan; How to Train your Dragon, Lego Friends, Ponies... Other times I get specific but very open requests for a theme. themes that direct me a certain place but allow me a lot of freedom to decide the focus.

My latest birthday falls in to the latter. When asked about the theme she would like the birthday girl just said she wanted something under the sea but not sea stars. A few years ago I devoted a week long summer camp to under the sea themes art lessons so inspiration was not difficult to find. Sometimes to get an idea all I need to do is look in the supply room at Artspace.  Mixed Media Creation parties at Artspace rely heavily on recycled and re-purposed materials for the lessons. The supply room is a treasure chest of saved materials from empty yogurt cups and magazine pages to piles and piles of caps and bottle lids.

I decided to use egg cartons and clear plastic water bottle lids to make a jellyfish garden under the sea. the results were... well I'll just let you look for yourself.