I have been in such a creative mood lately! I have really worked hard at doing something “artsy” every day and I have managed to succeed on most days. I have been drawing, painting, cutting and gluing and it has been so fun. My creative ideas have been flowing so much. I have even been working on my curriculum plan for my classes next year. I have been tweaking my lessons and revising some things and I am really excited about the new school year. Aside from school I have been doing art just for me. I think this is so important for an art teacher and something art teachers often overlook. When you have drawn and painted with kids all day long sometimes it is difficult to motivate yourself to do your own artwork and to improve your own skills. This is part of why summer breaks are so important for teachers.
I just wrapped up 4 1/2 days of prefessional development where I got to learn and make about 6 different 3D projects and about 8 multi-cultural art projects. Today I went to a photography workshop where I picked up quite a few tips and tricks I didn’t know.
Right now I am also involved in a Traveling Art Journal Swap. The swap consists of about 22 people from the US and Canada. We each pick a theme and make the first few pages of our own art journal. We then mail the journal in round-robin fashion and each respective person adds a few pages to the journal until it eventually makes its way back to me in about a year. The swap is being hosted by some of the members of the Facebook group associated with A Year in the Life of an Art Journal. I have chosen ‘Nature’ as my theme. This means everyone who works in my journal make pages to do with nature. As I receive journals I will be expected to work in it’s owners chosen theme. I mailed my book off to a participant in Fort Smith, AR today. I should be getting a book from a girl in Albuquerque, NM any day now. Before I mailed off my book I completed a title page and two additional pages. Here they are:
I also have several other projects I am working on right now. I am additionally working on my own art journal using the No-Frills-Prompts I found over at Daisy Yellow, one of my favorite art journaling websites. I will share my pages as I go along.
I am also planning to take two online workshops to teach me some new art and art journaling techniques.
The first workshop is called 21 Secrets. Basically there are 21 different techniques in 21 different lessons taught by 21 different teachers. I am so excited about all the different techniques I will be learning.
The second workshop I will be doing is a ‘Doodle Camp’ and it starts in July. This workshop will be taught by Dawn DeVries Sokol who is the author of the book Doodle Diary: Art Journaling for Girls. I love her doodley approach to art journaling and I look forward to learning some of her techniques.
What are you doing to stay creative this summer?
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