Inspiration

I am so lucky to be surrounded by artists everyday. My Kindergarten students just finished a sculpture unit, and are moving into texture. They loved clay. So tactile and directly manipulated by their hands. We pushed, pinched, pulled, poked, stretched and squeezed the clay into its final shape. Then we painted them with tempera. We are moving from sculpture to texture through a series of lessons in which the materials are still very sculpture, in a relief sense. This painting started as a drawing which was measured and matched with straws to raise the image, creating low parts and high parts. We painted them with tempera, thinking about this new kind of surface, and how the paint will either highlight or diminish the appearance of the straw lines. Sounds complicated, but they are amazing, and they always rise to the occasion. I know my work has simplified over the years because of seeing them create so effortlessly. I need to always channel my inner Kindergartener.