What can I Gather?
What an exciting and eventful month it has been over in my art corner of the world! First, I have always been a fan of Valentine’s Day, simply for the pure fact that I get to draw hearts, paint hearts and create all things heart related. It becomes a simplistic creative endeavor where I find flow and lose all track of time. Next, I had the exciting opportunity to display a freshly made art piece at an art show for our county’s art teachers! We are so fortunate to have huge support from the Johnston County’s Art Council and wow we felt so loved and celebrated with all our family, friends and fellow art teachers there at the reception.
In case you were not aware, I am a high school art teacher by day and enjoy teaching high school students all things creative and help them find their own spark of creativity through projects and creative play in a classroom setting.
Now that you have some context, let’s dive in…
The Art Teacher Art Show
Johnston County Schools Art Teachers Art Show held at the
Triangle East Chamber in Smithfield, NC.
We had a most delightful evening at the reception held for our county’s art teachers on February 6th. We mingled and chatted about our work and felt celebrated for not only our teaching we do daily, but also for the work we shared that evening.
For months, I could not decide what I wanted to share in this show. Ideas were flowing day after day and my mind was having a hard time honing in on what I wanted to share. What did I want to say or what was I saying? I looked around my studio and finally one day settled my mind. I looked at what I had already made and needed to gather. That’s the idea that came to my mind - what can I gather? For those who don’t know me or have never seen my work, I would say I work in pieces. Small and sometimes tender pieces. I have worked this way for a very long time and probably why my art degree is in metal design. (Think small works like jewelry and bringing small pieces together). To be completely honest, I am still trying to figure out how to put pieces together in a pleasing way, but the tiles I made and my friend Marsha fired for me, keep calling me.
Finally, it was settled. The tiles would be the focal point of my work to share in this show. I made the decision and my mind relaxed for a moment. For my art piece, I gathered my clay tiles with all the textures, colors and designs I added onto the ceramic surface. Next, I simply wanted to adhere them to an unprimed wood canvas. And another decision was made. Yes! I was asking myself questions and I had the answers which translated into placement of the tiles and other small decisions to complete the work. That is how “I’ll Fly Away” was created and hung in this art show. I kept making small decisions about what to share and how to finish off the piece AND I really wanted to be in this show, that helped as well.
Shape of the Month:
HEART
What a shocker on the shape of the month, but I love making and creating hearts! Take a look at the hearts I made to share with my family, friends and art club students at school.
Steps to creating heart ornaments
Create a heart template from a recycled cereal or rice box.
Trace the heart onto watercolor paper.
For tracing I used a Ticonderoga erasable carmine red pencil. I decided to enhance the tracing rather than trace it with a regular pencil and erase.
I cut out the hearts and went back to the hearts with the red pencil once again to make more red areas mostly around the edges.
Next, I applied watercolor paint (only one color per heart) with an older fan brush that created a series of lines in unison.
I allowed my hand movements to vary as I put the loaded brush to the cut out heart and each move recorded a series of lines onto each heart. No two hearts are exactly alike.
I used a small hole punch and waxed linen to add through the hole and knot at the end.
For a final step, I stamped my initials on the back and wrote the year.
Take look at the video below to see how I added the red pencil and painted the hearts:
Gathering…what can I gather? Which of my creative pieces can come together to make a whole work of art? That is my takeaway from this month’s creative endeavors. It is an inspiring idea to hold in my mind that I have many more creative pieces to create, design, gather and construct. May we never run out of gathering our creative pieces and sharing them out into the world to keep us all inspired.
Stay creative out there~
Hannah