Colour is fun, colour is just plain gorgeous, a gourmet meal for the eye, the window of the soul.

The above quote by Rachel Wolfe, speaks volumes to me. My views on life and the arts are about having a bouquet of choices, colors, emotions, and experiences. Everything I do, I put in all of me - my passions. The downside to this is when I have all of these hopes, dreams, time spent on a new adventure, and it flops. Then, I fall flat on my face for a day of a downer, which leads me to reflect, and then I get right back up on my bouncing trampoline of lifes unknowns.

The above photo is a fantastic one that shows you where I live. It is paradise to me and many others. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. That being said, it can be difficult to live here when you are not independently wealthy. I am luck to have the several teaching positions that I do have. I've been able to teach many kids and a few adults classes over the last year. This post is going to be centered on images of art that my students have done.

Where else can I gleefully boast about my kids artwork?

These examples are the fall art classes of 2015 for K-5 grades. In order from top right to bottom: Salt Sculpture, Fall Leaves with wax resist, Fall Leaves, Fall Leaves, My Rocks Story with hand-sewn bag, My Rocks Story, Paul Klee Inspired Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait, Sea Turtles in mixed-media, Sea Turtles, Collaborative Chalk Painting with Robot, Monet Haystacks in Oil Pastels, Monet Haystacks, Group photo of last day of class for one school's art classes.

The above examples are winter art classes of 2015-2016 for K-5 grades. In order from top right to bottom: O'Keefe inspired Poppies, Collage Map with Hands, Collage Map with Hands, Pop-Art Self-Portrait, Pop-Art Self-Portrait, Shell drawings in charcoal, Fruit drawings in pastels, Pop-Art Self-Portrait, Scratch Art drawing in patterns, Collaborative drawing in movement with charcoal & chalk, Collaborative drawing in movement, final large collaborative drawing, & a student with her Seurat inspired pointallism landscape painitng.

Finally, these last examples are spring art classes of 2016 for K-5 grades. In order from top right to bottom: Fairy & Gnome Home in mixed-media, Fairy & Gnome Home, Collaborative Sunflowers Van Gogh style in mixed-media, Collaborative Sunflowers, Paper Masks in recycled materials, Bubble painting, Bubble painting, Pop-Art Sculpture with cake, Pop-Art Sculpture, Children's Art Walk display with kids art (Monster Mash in oil pastels, and Banyan Trees in oil Pastels), Last day of art class with kids, Charcoal and Pastel free-style drawing, Cave Painting with drawing in mixed-media, a student with her Banyan Tree in oil pastels on last day of art class, another student with her Banyan Tree, the end of art class with a silly photo, a student with his Monster Mash in oil pastels, another student with Monster Mash, a student with her Jelly Fish in mixed-media, and a student with her Monster Mash on the last day of class.

All that aside, this summer is busy with a few summer art camps for kids of all ages that I'm directing with BAAY (Bellingham Art Academy for Youth), for June and July, as well as I will be teaching kids art classes at WCC (Whatcom Community College), in July. This is my first summer where I'm giving a lot of attention to exciting summer art camps of all kinds. There is a Sculpture Art Camp, a Mixed-Media Art Camp at BAAY, and then there's a Paint Like Monet class, and a class called Heroes & Heroines with Altered Books with WCC. 

When I look back at the school year and see all of the great kids art work that was made, it bring me so much joy. I'm so pleased to see so many smiling faces during the time of their creative process, learning, building skills, and then the ultimate goal is reached at the end of the session - they realize that they have gained so much, and enjoyed the final pieces of art!

Here's to next year being even better than this one!