Art On Wheels

I was very fortunate to have a new teaching opportunity over the past year. It was working with a company called Art on Wheels. They are awesome!!! Basically they bring art classes to various groups in Virginia. These groups can be for children or adults at schools, churches, community centers, hospitals, local events, etc. The teacher brings all the supplies to the location, so all participants have to do is come in. I have been teaching a few regular art classes with the company over the Fall and on into this year. If you would like to learn more about Art on Wheels, visit their website at http://www.artonwheels-va.org/ .

I have two new classes this year, teaching creative painting to adults at the Cancer Institute at Reynolds Crossing and the St. Francis Cancer Institute. I will post more from them throughout the year.

Two of my Fall classes have been geared toward teaching adults with disabilities; one class at a local church and one at a historical location called the Walkerton Tavern. (Beautiful building if you get the chance to visit. It used to be a field hospital during the Civil War.) These classes tend to have between about 6-13 participants, so that allows for more one on one time. I love this because it gives me a chance to get to know the participants and help them with different aspects of projects as needed.

So far, we have done tissue paper collage, plaster casting, clay bowls, and marionettes.  

Here are a few photos from some of the Fall classes, the project was creating a tissue paper collage of a river scene over two class meetings. It was fun to see their different approaches. I had a few people who would take their time and tear their paper deliberately into smaller pieces and plan their landscape out. I also had a few who were more interested in the collage process and went more abstract with their designs. I had participants make a collage of their choice if they finished early, and had time for another piece. (It is always best to have a few back up lessons handy in case you have some fast workers. I started carrying paper and colored pencils as an additional back up.) The participants were really excited to work on one of their choice at the end because they could involve their interests. I had one student who wanted to make Ninja Turtles, so I brought in a reference and showed him how to draw the characters. Another student mentioned wanting to make a Whammy character from an 80's game show called Press Your Luck. She got so excited when I told her she could and I would help her to make the character! I pulled up a video and pic of the character and we used that as a reference. Several other students wanted to do Halloween pictures for theirs. Theses classes were a lot of fun to teach and everyone really enjoyed them!

 In some of the pictures you might see some aids (church class) or volunteers (Tavern class). These lovely ladies are all absolutely wonderful!! They clearly love working with the participants and really enjoy what they do. They were a big help during these classes!

Church Class:

 

Walkerton Tavern Class: