Overcoming Challenges Through Art

I want to share how two of my art experiences with art are helping the individuals to overcome challenges. The first is an autistic young man who is taking private art. The art is building up his skills that he enjoys doing. Working together we are conversing on different life goals he has. I was so excited to have another parent donate a drawing apparatus to be used with a computer. This week he showed me some of his simple sketches. I am proud to show you some of his art that he has created and his work continues to grow each week. Praying that God continues to use this young man in a special way! Notice the before and after pictures. What a vast improvement!

My second group that is overcoming challenges are a group of seniors at Clearwater Senior Living in the new Riverpark development in Oxnard. For most of the seniors they had never taken an art class in their life. And you never ask a lady her age, so I wasn’t about to ask how old these seniors were. We created a still life piece in the style of Fauvism. It uses a lot of color, rather than trying to be representational. You can see the piece by Maurice de Vlaminck. I was so thrilled to see how their pieces expressed their unique personalities. Apparently one man in the group is known for doing his own thing and yet he joined in following my guidance. Another lady kept saying her work wasn’t real good, and yet in the end her friends were telling her how beautiful it was, and she was quite pleased with the affirmation. In the end it proves you can learn something and enjoy it even in older age. But please don’t wait to join an art class when you’re past 80!! I have classes now :))

Still Creating Amidst shutdowns

It has been extremely emotionally and economically detrimental to close down businesses and schools for 9 months here in California. I personally am hibernating like a bear financially in order to conserve my resources. I am thankful that a few small tutor groups have been going on to provide joy in my life and a trickle of income, as unemployment is not the way I want to stay afloat. I love seeing the excitement from my young students as they express themselves artistically in my private art classes. Art helps provides them with a creative release from the stresses of this extended quarantine.

During this time I had the opportunity to take a workshop to grow in my own Intuitive Expressive art skills. It was fun to let loose try painting with joyful strokes, new techniques letting paint drip down on the canvas, stamp into the paint, paint with my fingers, or spray more water on the canvas to see fluidity and spontaneous changes in the paint process.

This exercise was done in a course of several days, allowing the paint to dry in between otherwise opposite colors of the color wheel turn to mud or grey. It was great to have no idea in mind on what I was painting and let it just flow from pure fun and enjoyment of the medium. At one point though I really thought my piece was hopeless, everything was in a state of chaos and too busy with all kinds of lines and colors everywhere. . . very much like the state of our country - as if it could not get any worse!!!

The instructor encouraged me to go on and that I would like it. Could it turn out into something beautiful? Internally I thought I can not make any sense out of all this. I would need to let it rest and speak to me. Well nothing really spoke to me so I decided to add something that speaks fun to me- a sea turtle. Somehow as I placed this familiar and enjoyable object into the piece covering an area that I clearly did not like, something changed. I added some blue and greens to outline the shape. This helped coax the turtle out of the busy background so I could recognize it better. Then my turtle needed another friend so I added a seahorse went into another area that was too distracting. . . pretty soon these happy memories of underwater diving made my heart sing being under the sea again!

Once in my happy place, I was able to add bits of color and details to bring more attention to these whimsical sea creatures. Applying a light wash to the background also helped in bringing the seahorse and sea turtle forward. My energy and mood changed and soon this was turning into a piece of art that I am quite excited with.

My other painting was done having hinderances broken and taping into that playful creative side!

If you are interested in trying this creative approach, contact me at Michelle@Art-N-You.com.

(SOZO) Healing through Art

Hoping to find time for myself after teaching others art I took an expressive art workshop in Santa Barbara. I was surprised how this workshop unlocked some very painful lies I had been feeding my mind, while going through a very traumatic divorce. One encounters a lot of shame, depression, and fear going through abandonment issues.

Unaware, I did not expect the workshop to be a time of deep healing, but it was. Beginning in a small group we each shared what we were processing as we went through various painting exercises to help those who have never painted before or to help those who felt intimidated with painting. It was the process and not the final outcome that was so releasing of buried emotions that each participant had stored up. Sharing in a small group, we were there to support one another, as well as to feel safe.

After taking two of these workshops in Santa Barbara, I wanted others to experience the freedom I received and am offering these healing workshop to others. Come join me and my co-leader Andrea for our first Art SOZO (healing) workshop on Sunday, April 28th 4:30-7:30pm at the Snapdragon Gallery, 778 Greenwich Dr. , Suite #3, in Thousand Oaks. Registration is $20 before 4/22 and $25 at the door. All supplies are incuded in this workshop. Feel free to bring some snacks to munch on and share with others as we know this is during dinner time. Please arrive 10 minutes before class as doors close promply at 4:30pm, please no late arrivals to disruptive the healing enviroment.

Walking away with $100!

You can imagine the surprise on these two young artists as they came for a nice evening out to see their artwork on the wall and enjoy dinner in Ventura.  Both Syna and her brother Aayan went to the art show and walked away with a ribbon and cash award's!   Now that's encouragement to keep on doing well in art class!  Many of my other students took ribbons as well in pastels and in mixed media.  You can see many of their art pieces and the talented art they are creating.  Thank you to D.A. Davidson Investments in Ventura for making this possible to showcase the art in Ventura County.

Mosaics - Just some broken tile turned into art!

I love working with students to see their ideas become a reality.  This Koi fish mural was done from the design of a Senior named Lucy, at Ventura County Christian School.  Our ideas in our art class were to transform the boring white walls in the cafeteria to a relaxing place for the students to enjoy lunchtime.  It was a great project to show how Interior Design can change a place.

The following tile pieces with the children, were done in a summer camp at my Art N' You studio in Camarillo.  The smiling faces tell the excitement they had to break the tiles and then rearrange them into a work of art.  Our lives are very much like that.  Things happen in life and they don't look the same.  With the help of the Creator, we can rearrange them into beautiful pieces of art.

I have also attached some murals that I have seen at a variety of places and was inspired by.  I love the ocean so I was impressed by these ocean murals.  And of course, I had to include some work by my favorite architect Antonio Gaudi and his famous mosaic lizard at the Park Guell!  Gaudi's work brings joy to the heart.  Amazing what a few pieces of broken tile, glass, and concrete can do for a city!

I have an upcoming Mosaic class July 2 and 3 from 1- 3 pm at my Art N' Studio in Camarillo. $55 includes supplies, students will break their own tile pieces, as well as use, pre-cut pieces to adhere them to either a 12" square or a plywood heart of similar size.  Adults can join if they want to get in touch with their inner child!  Please bring a drink as we will be working outdoors in the garden patio.

Creative Venture at Elementary School

I have been working at Mesa Union School this year and at the end of the year we put a together an ocean mural designing a variety of sea creatures out of clay and using mosaics to add three dimensions to the work.  The Principal Dr. Bluestein wanted a variety of marine life found in our local Channel Islands so the students could see what treasures are in our backyard. 

This Tri-typh mural has the Ventura Peir incorporated in the school's bulletin board, stretching out to the Channel Islands and a whimsical sailboat.  Beneath the pier is a crab and sea-star on the rocks.  The next scene is in the kelp bed and has an inquisitive moray eel, prowling leopard shark, and our state fish, a Garabaldi peering out of the kelp.  The last scene is a huge breaking wave with a school of fish, a rainbow jellyfish, and a couple of frolicking dolphins.  I am very happy the students pictured below gave of their summer break to complete the final placement of tiles to make this mural pop!

Mesa Union Elementary School is very supportive of the arts and has a kiln room in addition to the fine art program and has a variety of murals around the campus.  In a time where many of the arts are being cut from the program, the Board of Directors support the Arts!  Hooray, this could not have been accomplished without them.  Come see this in person surrounding the play area.  We are planning a continuation of this mural coming soon in January of 2018!

2017 VC Youth Art Show Winners

The Show goes on till May 19th!

Please take family and friends to see the art pieces at D.A. Davidson & Co., 60 So. California Street, Suite 301, Ventura.  This is a private business so hours are only Monday through Friday 10-4pm.

Wow, it was so wonderful to see so many of my students at this fabulous Reception/ Exhibit on March 23, who created such beautiful artwork! They all deserve a round of applause, not just those who won.  This sure had to be difficult to select the best for awards! Not all took a prize, so they should not be discouraged.  I will blog on what makes a good art piece later this month. It was such a joy to meet many of your families at the event.  And of course these happy faces are priceless!  Overall, it takes practice and work to succeed, at art and other areas in our life.

This year there were so much more younger participants and they also were quite happy to get gifts as a "Budding Artist!".  I was happy to see that those who were about ready to give up on a piece put in more time and it PAID OFF!

Cartooning, is this Art?

Parents are always wondering if their child drawing cartoons is really learning any skills? YES! When your child is drawing and copying what they see, even if it is an anime or another cartoon, they are focusing on their drawing skills. For many young children, drawing something realistic is intimidating and they are afraid of failure. Drawing cartoons puts an animal into a correct perspective, yet they can be silly which takes the edge off of it having to be perfect. So much of their schoolwork revolves around them performing or testing well and this gets translated into a need for "perfectionism" for many young children. And who wants to fail?

I have found that the students in my after-school cartooning classes at St. Mary Magdalen's School love to draw and have fun with drawing many of their favorite characters from current movies, such as "Jungle Book", "Finding Dory", and "The Secret Life of Pets".  They are learning how to draw expressions, a variety of animals, create a story, and will gain confidence to draw beyond the "stick figure".

Cultural Art Programs Enriching Lives

Children's Celebration of the Arts has just celebrated their 25th year of bringing art into the classrooms across Ventura City and hosted an art show at The Olivas Adobe. One piece of artwork is selected from each classroom to be represented at the show. To celebrate our 25th year, CAPS made a video of our program. To sign up for this program, teachers are given a brochure and can select from a variety of visual and kinetic art forms taught by professional artists who share their passion with the children. The variety of the classes are not limited to visual arts, but will even show dance, drumming, and harp playing for the students. For $40, all supplies and teaching materials are brought to the classroom and a complete history and art lesson is given to the students. This beneficial program is made possible by a grant endowment from the city of San Buenaventura. To find out more you can go to:

 http://www.cityofventura.net/cs/events/kids/childrens-celebration-arts

Over the last 6 years, I have taught several cultural projects including Mexican Tin Art, or "Jolata", Russian lacquer boxes, African Adrinka placemats, Spanish Crests, and Italian Mosaics. It is such a joy to share my love of art with children. I am hoping on my trip to Israel, to present a cultural art project to bring awareness of how many religions here in Israel are working together - those of the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian faiths.

Zentangle Owls

I had the opportunity to teach a group of Girl Scouts a drawing and painting class. Here are some examples of our Zentangle owls. Zentangle is a new type of art, it reminds me very much of the doodling I did many years ago. I was quite happy to see how each of these owls have their own personality. Not every girl finished with the ink pens, but all had a great time. I also tried this with a group of seniors at Alma Via Senior Center and they liked it too!

My Newest Art Form - Videos

I was quite happy to see that my art skills have been useful in editing and creating these two videos of two recent dive trips I took to Belize, Central America and here at the Channel Islands. I needed to work with the music, learning how to film with a GoPro, edit, and then compose a video. I selected a piece of music but then I realized that the original pictures did not coincide with the lyrics, so those photos got scrapped and I worked with the song and edited accordingly. My first trip was to The Great Blue Hole in Belize where I enjoyed warm-water diving with wonderful, colorful fish and sea turtles! My second video consists of what is local to me in Ventura County of the California coast. Enjoy without the weights, wetsuit, or water!