Artist
Working with children ages 5-10 in the CREST Enrichment Program, teaching them how to create books!
After school, in the Santa Monica Public Schools, children are enriched with sports, homework help, science, technology, language study, and the arts of course!
Here students at Edison Language Academy in Santa Monica share and celebrate the folded fan books they have created with their peers.
So. Much. Fun!
A group of makers from Tierra Del Sol visited the Sunland-Tujunga Library, and participated in a flag bookmaking workshop as part of my artist residency there, supported by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
It was an honor to work with these participants!
Continuing my 2019-20 Artist Residency at the Sunland-Tujunga Library, supported by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, I led a Bookmaking program, for teens, the winning, fun, wild and versatile Flag Book!
In addition to teens, families attended as well, and learned to fold an accordion spine, attach covers to it, and add the flag pages to create a pattern that created all kinds of options for text and visuals.
Color choices are one of the first ways the young makers express themselves.
Students from the nearby Verdugo Hills High School shared that the artmaking was a welcome break from academic pressures.
Great use of magazine text and letters.
Celebrating “STEAM VHHS” (STEAM is an educational approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking, VHHS is Verdugo Hills High School).
So glad the Arts are in there! All of these disciplines must work together if we are to move ahead in this World!
A workshop designed for teens turned into a family and community affair, at the Granada Hills Branch Library.
As part of my Artist Residency at the Library, supported by the wonderful Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, we held a Flag Bookmaking program with a Manga comics theme. In addition to teens, families and makers of all ages attended, creating wild and wonderful “Manga” Flag Books!
Father and son work closely together, collaborating on a radiant red book.
This brilliant young maker was amused to realize that he was using the same colors in his very cool book as he was wearing!
Sister and brother work side by side. Getting along…in the moment of making.
This wonderful woman has a attended numerous workshops, and is becoming quite the bookmaker!
Three unrelated generations of makers, working together in an atmosphere of collective creativity.
A mother with her two daughters takes advantage of Library offerings.
Makers’ hands.
A measured smile from a teen assistant and maker…using color to tell as story in her book.
Using the popularity of Manga and the arresting structure of the flag book as a means of engagement, participants worked together as a community on their individual projects, learning, enjoying and sharing all at the same time.
Does it get any better than that?
To kick off my 2019-20 Artist Residency at the Granada Hills Public Library, supported by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, I led a bookmaking program in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, where participants learned to make their own photo album.
Participants bound together a single signature (gathering of folded pages) into a binding composed of a tag board sheet folded both horizontally (to create a pocket on either side) and vertically (to create the body of the cover structure and hold the signature), then added stiffer more durable boards on either side to strengthen the covers. They sewed the components together using the pamphlet stitch and ribbon, using enough ribbon so that the ends would be long enough to tie the book closed if they wished.
Mothers and daughter created side by side and shared their work.
As did Mothers and sons,
and the whole family!
Our teen helpers got into the act too…..
and had a blast…
Pride of Book!
It was a gift to be able to work with students every day for five weeks this past summer, and introduce them to the book arts as well as other media. As a teaching artist, we often only see students once a week, so to be able to watch them learn and grow on a daily basis was a thrill!
Surrounded by scads of art supplies, tools and materials, 5-6 year old students in our “Fairy Tales” and “Make Your own Books” classes had an ideal situation for creating!
This outstandingly creative young student in “Make Your Own Books” certainly did just that, using her flag book to try out all kinds of drawing and painting media while exploring color, shape, line and texture.
Each flag page held a different combination of media, including acrylic and watercolor paints, pastels, crayons and markers.
Students created books large and small, including tiny ones that would fit in a (albeit rather large) matchbox!
Mixed media reigned supreme, such as combining letter stickers with markers and paint pens.
Oops! Markers on the project, not on your fingers!
Making and embellishing file folder portfolios was our first project. Some students created so many books they made a second portfolio to hold them!
A brilliantly bookish and imaginatively magical time was had by all!
Goodbye summer program, until next year!