BSU Art Methods Class Almost Completed

I only have two weeks of my BSU class, Art Methods for Elementary School, and most of my spare time has been preparing for that.

Last Saturday I helped out at the Family Art Day at the Boise Art Museum. The theme was to create a piece of art with a black and white theme (no color) because one of the exhibits at the gallery was the black & white photography of Ansel Adams. I had a great time and I think I may have recruited a new art student! I was helping a talented girl about 9 years old who loved to draw and her dad was there. As I got to talking to him, it turns out that his daughter has a twin and they both love to draw and would be interested in taking art lessons from me.

I also spent an hour this past week helping one of the teachers at Hillcrest Elementary School with an art project the class was doing--Potato Necklaces. So with this and the three hours I spent at the Boise Art Museum, I have a total of 30 hours of teaching assisting & observation, which fulfills a major requirement for my Art Methods Class.

Now the only thing I have to do for my art class is make a 15-20 minute presentation in front of the class on an art lesson plan that I have developed for elementary-junior high school kids. I have that to do on May 7th.

The only art I have created these past few weeks has been art related to my 322 Art Methods class. Between my art class and my part-time job, there is very little time for doing my own thing. My job ends May 15th and then I am looking forward to being able to spend time doing my own art projects. I recently started on a really interesting cat theme art piece that I think has great potential and is a very original idea. (More on that later.)

See Horse Exhibition at Hemingway Center, BSU

This week was better than last week, but it was still stressful because I had to endure yearly evaluation time at my custodial job. Although it was not horrible, it also was not good either. All part-timers have their last day of work on May 15th because school ends in a few weeks. However, I don't really want to go back again in the fall if I can find something else. I am going to try and find something that relates a bit more to my major at BSU, which is art and art education. And if I can't find that, I'll take some sort of office job.

I have only three more weeks left in my 322 Art Methods class! I thought I had longer than that. I have a lot of homework to do for this class in the next few weeks and I have spent a lot of the weekend working on that homework. On May 7th I have to give a 20-30 minute presentation to the class on one or two art lessons for kids that I want to teach.

Last Thursday our Art Methods class went to a Student Thesis Art Exhibition called "See Horse" that was in the Hemingway Center on campus. This is also called the Senior Show and is part of what an art major has to do to graduate. I will be doing this someday too. Anyway, there was an exhibit that had to do with a white grey hound dog. At first I thought it was really wierd and didn't understand it, until a classmate said that the artist recently lost their beloved pet dog and decided to dedicate his senior show to his dog. There were paintings of his dog as an angel and as the Virgin Mary, and there was a beautiful water fountain that the artist had made and he a sculpted portrait of his dog. I then connected with it totally and it made sense! As a matter of fact, I think I am going to do something like this for my senior show. It will probably be called "Maynard, the Maine Coon."

Sometimes even our heartaches and hurts can be turned into art and that art can be a source of healing for us and for others.

Maynard, The Maine Coon 1993 - 2009

It has been an extremely painful week for me. Today's blog is dedicated to Maynard, the Maine Coon, who passed away last Tuesday, April 7th, due to a cancerous tumor. He was a beautiful cat, very intelligent and very comical. He had the loudest purr and the softest fur of any cat I have ever had. I wanted to share some of the portraits I have done of Maynard. Goodbye, Maynard. I will love you always.

Sick Cats, Booking Shows, and Batiking

Not much to report this week. My cat, Maynard, is becoming very high maintenance and is on about four different types of medications. It is stressing me out. I think I need to take a weekend vacation sometime very soon--just me and my artwork and no sick cats to tend to.

I have been booking some art shows this week for the summer. I have one show during the summer (for one month) at Happy Fish Sushi and Martini Bar which is in downtown Boise. I am also looking into some others.

Last Tuesday, in my Art Methods class, I learned how to do Batiking. The whole class did a Batik art project. It is an ancient art that many cultures use. You put a design of melted wax onto fabric and then paint the fabric with any type of design or color you want. It was fascinating and I really loved doing it.

I am trying to generate some portrait commission work from people who said they were interested, but so far, I haven't gotten any responses. Some people are holding off because they have too many expenses right now.