artists making a difference

Dr. Arthur Culbert is the head of the Central West End Community Farm and one of the kindest people I have met! He partners with the New City School 4th graders to plant, tend, and harvest the garden for local food banks. This is a really wonderful partnership and we are lucky to have him in our community. Read more about his work here.

We were approached by Arthur to create a mural on the existing barriers blocking the garden from the alley. These were an eyesore and Arthur wanted to change their purpose to allow passers-by to see what this garden is all about. The fourth grade artists spent many hours designing, planning, consulting, and collaborating before the actual painting even started! The garden mural is now finished and is a happy centerpiece of the community farm. Many times, people have stopped to comment how seeing the mural on their way to work and home, brightens their day!

sixth grade color investigation paintings

I love these free form color investigations! I first saw this project here created by Olivia Gude (love all of her work).

The directions are simple (download the complete project details here):
1. Choose a shape and make it your mark in your painting.
2. Choose a hue. Make many variations of your color without it becoming a different color. Push green until someone calls it blue!
3. Vary the color in hue, value, and chroma.
4. Now choose another hue and use variations as an accent.

The sixth graders did a beautiful job with their color investigations. I certainly enjoyed hearing the excitement and joy of new discoveries being shared along the way. Not wanting to waste any of their color combinations at the end of class, some of them even made abstract monoprints from their color mixing palettes!