ART CHANGES YOU

WOW- what a fantastic week of teaching art. My high school level students at summer art camp at the Leesburg Center for the Arts were/are phenomenal.

The theme for this year's camp for all grade levels was Once Upon a Time meaning up-cycling. We used items originally designed and used for something else. I chose two main things; paper and vinyl. The paper was the type of recycled unbleached, non-toxic "green" insulation that you can find by the bale at Lowe's or Home Depot. If you add Elmer's glue or plaster (bigger learning curve) you can substitute if for very pricey paper clay.

The other paper item used was record sleeves. The students used them as a "tile" base for mounting their paper pulp face creations and also for a 2D project, designing an album cover of their fantasy band. The illustrations turned out really great but even cooler was when we reduced them down to CD jewel case size.

For a fun day and a lesson on how to use a torch we did acrylic pours on the actual records. Don't fear nor cry. Most of the records were donated by a used record store here in town and were not in good enough condition for resale. Nothing wasted - everything gained.

The below video is a compilation of the student's album covers and their "pop" self portrait pieces that went into grids. They are now hanging in the gallery. The master artist I chose to teach about throughout the week was Andy Warthol. He designed several record album covers. You would definitely recognize them. I also chose Warhol because he was not "just" an artist. He was an entrepreneur and businessman. When I was at University I double majored, Art & Business. Later I worked at some very large ad agencies, was an interior designer, had my own decorative pillow and clothing design business and was a working fine artist. If you want to earn a living doing art you need to take action on the marketing and bookkeeping/budgeting sides too. It is well worth embracing all sides. It enables you to do what you love.

This video is not yet on youtube. You are getting a sneak peak. On Wednesday I will get it loaded onto the LCFA's channel, ,Enjoy! Turn up your speakers.

And I have a lot of "stuff" to take catch up on so....

Chau 4 now.