Living It Up In the Garden....

(Okay, I had to borrow that line from the beloved Nields song... thank you to all of the Nields)

Today we had a curriculum day in Chatham County, which here on out will constitute a YMCA field trip.

We piled everyone in the Van at 10am and headed to the SCAD Museum to see the Faith Ringgold exhibit. The kids were especially excited to see the Tar Beach Illustrations, as many of them have read the book in School. We of course couldn't take pictures of the artwork, but I think you can tell from these pictures how amazing it was for the kids to be flipping thru the Tar Beach book and finding the REAL painting on the wall!





Our next stop was Jane Fishman's Garden on West Boundary Street!
I met Jane through my Savannah Stories class a few weeks ago. Her garden is an amazing mix of food, flowers, sculptures, fences, structures and places to sit. It the sort of real life magical place where amazing things are built out of found objects and just about anything is possible.

Here are some snippets of our visit!



Jane invited us to explore, to play, to eat some broccoli and collards and to add some of our own beautiful things...






We realized that we could use our weaving skills to fancy up this bed frame!







My favorite part about this whole day is that Jane's garden became one more safe and important place on our map of Savannah. I think a lot about the places that we go, and the places that we don't go... it is good to grow the list of places that we know about and can expect to be happy in, if we go together.

PAINT and a first day of pre-school

Today Laura Ayala (super tuesday volunteer) and I braved a large scale painting session with the twos and threes!

We covered the tables with paper and put out big trays of paint (against our better judgement??)



The kids got all smocked up and dove in, using big rubber stamps and their hands!

Paint on your hands has got to be the greatest feeling.



Making marks, and understanding how different ways of moving your hands make marks is an incredible thing for the little brain to wrap around!

We painted with almost 40 children today, one of whom was brand new to the YMCA!

I noticed that he seemed to be tagging behind the rest of the group, so I asked him:
is this your first day here? He nodded, "yes the very first one... ***sigh"




Well, there are a lot of things to get used to around here, but I think that you're really going to like painting.....

building: paper blocks neighborhoods

We've been on this kick lately, about talking about our neighborhoods.

For me, it is stemming from the Savannah Stories class I am taking at SCAD with Julie Rogers Varland. The class focuses on the social architecture of Savannah, the reasons behind the landscape that we trapse thru. We've had some incredible guests talk about their experience living in this town over the many years. The neighborhoods they've lived in, the places they've gone over time. If they went there because they wanted to, needed to, were allowed to...

For the kids, this neighborhood kick stems from the fact that we all have a neighborhood. Infact, many of us have our neighborhood in common and it is an easy way to talk about what our Savannah looks like and feels like.

My sister Abby has been visiting, and we spent some time building with the 2s and 3s!


"this home has windows. the people will know what is happening outside because it has windows."




"this is town. towns have big and small buildings. a lot of small, see... not a lot of big."



"this is a wall, i builded it."

Sewing Projects: Part One

The four year old class at the YMCA Early Learning Center decided that it would be fun to make stuffed animals! We've done lots of animal drawings but hadn't decided how to construct the actual stuffies. Sewing seemed the locigal way to make them, but we all asked ourselves, can this group of four year olds learn how to sew?



When you read you begin with A B C, when you sing you begin with Do Rei Me.

On Thursday, I made a burlap suqare for each member of the class. Each child got to choose their own shape, which we drew on with sharpie and then the sewing began!







"Up down up down up down, go down at the next door neighbor and then up that that neighbor... then you don't get the side tangled."

CHESS!

In a recent brain-storming session with Mr. Chris Nunnery (big kid's after school teacher at the YMCA) we concluded that we could really use a fun and interesting go-to activity which can open as kids finish homework.

hmmmm... lets teach everyone to play chess!
We unearthed some pieces, but no boards.

I have been thinking for a long time about the importance of making useful things in art class. To be able to make something that you need to stay warm or can use for fun is an important life tool, which we seem to be loosing as a culture. How can we bring it back in relevant ways?

We decided that we would make our own chess boards.



Most kids worked in pairs, which led to a lot of good discussions about how the project should be done.


"We do it like she does the pink and I do the green so that we get the checkers right... if we mess up the game doesn't work as well. So we are paying attention to the paint, to the color."


Dual brush action!! One for the red one for the purple!


(serious moments)






(less serious moments!)



over all, a very good day on May Street!

drawing where we live

Over the past few years, we have had the chance to work with many international students from SCAD. Its an amazing experience, because these students bring not only the art that they're excited about, but pieces of their culture and native language...... awesome, and as Tom Waits wrote, an experience that gives us all better eyes.

Today Yoyo (Fashion) and Faisal (Architecture) did a little class on architectural drawing. We were all absolutely amazed at what we came up with!

it started with elevations... and talking about lines.




Now what about drawing things that are 3D? lines, shapes and angles...










"All of our houses are in the same neighborhood. Because they are under the same sky, see?"

if not now, then when?

if not today, then why make your promises?

**** We have had sort of a hard week at the Y. Over all, there is such good stuff going on; such good energy, hard work and fun things. This week however, we've seen a lot of difficult behavior from the kids. The kind of extreme behavior--- aggression and upset-- that only comes from a few children, but is so loud and clear that it rubs off and effects the whole group.

So what can we do? We are far enough into the school year that we've identified the few kids who are having the hardest time and are engaging in the most challenging, mean and sometimes dangerous behavior. So what do you do with this knowledge?
What do you do with those kids? How do you Understand and address that unhealthy behavior? You can't ignore it. You can't hope that it will go away on its own.... it is here to stay until there is some real, true and believable reason for it to go away.




I really don't know what to do, but that isn't a good enough excuse anymore to stand here doing nothing! SO, tomorrow will be the beginning of some one on one art sessions with members of our little group...... I've been thinking it over for a while, so let's calm down and start drawing----- mark making is very telling, the way that we handle materials is telling and therapeutic. learning to take care of something over time is healthy.

Project one is book making--- I will bring materials to create a special book for each child in this little group. We will work one on one in a quiet place. The book will include photos of them. that's the plan so far. working with children one at a time is so different that working with a group---- often so much more space for important things to happen. being a child in a group can be so over stimulating, step one is winding down through the process of making.

A later step will be finding ways to sustain this calm (if we happen to find it)

My friend Deborah shared this video with me a few weeks ago--- http://blog.onbeing.org/post/897441497/a-world-through-the-hands-by-trent-gilliss

please check it out. please do whatever you can, even if you don't know for sure that it is gaurenteed to fix things---- do what you can with good intention, whenever you can. It will pay off. I know it.