Mascoma Valley Regional High School- artist in residence week

In April, I spent a week with all art classes at Mascoma Valley Regional High School. The week was a key feature for their Art and Environment week, leading up to the Saturday Festival/Open House.

I planned different projects for each group of students.
This first group's work was about engaging with natural materials, through observation, drawing, making small sculptures, and more drawing.
What I liked about the experience with this group, was their response to the materials. I think they were surprised about how it felt to build with moss, sticks, rock, bark. Their designs were creative, immediate, and temporary.
As part of the project, they worked to assemble their resulting images into a presentation to be shared at the Festival.
There were 3 groups of these "Art 1" students, and each group ended up with a slightly different angle to the connections between their works.
One group, found litter and logos along with natural materials outside, so their work placed the human impact alongside the natural.
The second group observed the cycles in nature- from decomposing/dead natural objects, to living, growing plants & trees.
The third group focused in on trees- their textures and designs.

Week of the Young Child

I was lucky enough to be asked to work with several preschools, kindergartens, first and second grades during The Week of the Young Child-(thanks to The Arts Alliance of Northern NH) which was in April. I ended up visiting 11 sites! An amazingly busy week, but with wonderful moments and results.

In the images here, you will see different children engaging in my "Making Art With Nature" workshop. Each session began with a wonderful story I recommend, Once There was a Tree. Next we brainstormed animals and insects that might live right outside and shared some sample natural materials. Then we went outside where children created sculptures that would invite local inhabitants to visit.

The idea is simple: invite children and their teachers to engage with their immediate landscape.

Updating

Wow! Can't believe it's been so long since I've posted images and ideas...I guess being busy has its drawbacks.
In the next series of posts, I will present recent images from programs and workshops.