Do you have child that will grow up to be an artist? Will they make their living through fine art or commercial art? For those of you that shook your head no I encourage you to ask the question how can art encourage your child even if they aren't a gifted artist. What is art and how can it benefit every child?
14 years ago I walked into my very first art room, full of so much excitement but also feeling totally overwhelmed wondering where to even begin!?
I've been chatting alot with y'all lately about routines for the art room...and it seems kinda crazy to address that before talking about rules, doesn't it?! For the longest time...like, I'm talking YEARS, I did not understand the difference between rules and routines. There were times when I would list my rules and they'd be a mile long because they were actually procedures I wanted my kids to follow, not rules. It can all be a little confusing so let me share an analogy with you... Your art room is the magical masterpiece of a place you wish to create for you and your students. Your RULES are the broad brush stokes of that masterpiece. The solid foundation you wish to create. Your ROUTINES are the small brush strokes, the dabs of color and light that bring your entire work of art together. With rules and routines, your art room are room has the potential to becoming everything you and your students need to create, grow and thrive. Now...when those rules and routines are disregarded, which can happen for any number of reasons, then there are consequences. I'll be talking more about that next week. For now, let's focus on rules. Here's mine: Each one of these is a downloadable PDF which you can find here. In fact, you can read more about my rules by following this link. For many years, I just came up with rules. I copied rules that other classroom or art teachers used without putting much thought into it. I hate to even admit it, but it's true. In fact, I talk a lot about it in one of this week's podcast episodes. But, incase you missed the prequel, you might wanna listen to the one on routines first. And here's my podcast episode on rules: Before you even start thinking about your RULES and ROUTINES, shouldn't you know your WHY? I wish I had. For years I was just blindly going thru my rules, the ones I'd robbed from other folks, without giving it much thought. It was the thing I thought I had to do, get outta the way and off my To Do. Sadly, what I didn't know, is that your WHY sheds light on the tone and climate you wish to create for your art room. Starting there allows you to then shape and form your RULES and your ROUTINES. If you've not yet created your WHY, don't worry about it. I walk you through the process in this working podcast. I have LOVED seeing your pie charts and your WHYs...thank you so much for sharing them with me here. Painting my WHY was so much fun. It now hangs happily in my Command Center, right where all of my students and I can see it everyday. I talk about my WHY with my students on the very first days of art. And I ask them WHY they want to be in art...WHAT do they hope to learn, do and know. Knowing their stake in their education and owning it, gives them power. My rules embrace my WHY and help to bring it to life. What are your art room rules? What tone and/or climate do you hope they help your masterpiece of an art room become?
Katharina and her husband purchased this 1960s home that was once a holiday property and hadn't been updated since it was built. While living in it, the couple has done a fantastic job taking it
1 million years ago (ok, actually 14) when I walked into my first art room there was absolutely nothing in it. Other than tables and chairs, there were no supplies, no white board, no decor. Nada. I had taken a job at a brand new beautiful school which certainly had it’s perks (clean, brand new, not having to inherit a
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I’m in the market for a another work space. Our makeshift dinning room office is not only driving Abe crazy, it just isn’t sustainable anymore. And now that Coco is just half a year away…
Looking for fun, educational games for art class? Check out these three simple games you can put together in a few minutes.
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I’m in the market for a another work space. Our makeshift dinning room office is not only driving Abe crazy, it just isn’t sustainable anymore. And now that Coco is just half a year away…
Welcome to the Art room!
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Most art canvas storage racks were very expensive and took up too much space. So I found the IKEA HEJNE shelf and got to planning!
Well, I'm back at it: picking up more things from the Wooden Thingies You Can Paint aisle and goin' to town. I've painted paddles into paint brushes, a picket fence into a stack of pencils and now this fun Tints and Shade sign! The other day, I was at Hobby Lobby and spotted this fun little fence. I picked up two of them and used a coupla coupons to bring the price down a pinch. I wasn't sure what I'd do with them until the idea of creating a value scale of tints and shades came to my mind. Over a couple of evenings, I managed to get this bad boy complete. It was very similarly to my Stay Sharp pencils. I will say, mixing up a gradient is no joke, especially when you do it over the course of a couple of days. I did struggle a couple of times getting colors to great an even value scale. Once the pencils were complete, I added the lettering and the fine lines. I love using black and white lines to give things a cartoon-y look I was going to go with "value scale" or "gradation" but those aren't words we use a lot in my art room. We do talk a lot about mixing up tints and shades...so this was what I went with! Don't be throwin' no shade now, y'all. I also had a chance to hang my Color Families display today! I used Command Velcro strips to hang these and my Tints and Shade sign. Because I want to be able to remove the crayons and use the as teaching tools, I used velcro dots to add them to the crayon boxes. You can see them in the secondary color box. Now I did mention that I purchased two of these wooden thingies...the other will go over the door to the left of my clock. I plan to paint that in a rainbow gradation...but not sure what I'll write on it yet, if anything. I'm really excited about this area of my art room now! I am loving the new look so much...I am slowly working on giving my entire art room a make over! This is an area that the kids see a lot so it gets first priority. I even painted my easel to match some bookcases I recently redid. I'll have to give a complete tour once complete...although who knows when that will be! Until then, this will have to be my happy place! Thank you for letting me share!
Beautiful and creative inspiring art rooms. These art teachers have gone all out decorating their art rooms. Super-creative!
Your daily dose of #girlboss inspo.
Name: Mary Sprague Profession: Artist and Art/Art History professor (retired) Location: St. Louis, Missouri Size: 4500 square feet Years lived in: 27 years; owned Mary’s home and studio is an aggregation of 50 years of art. An active and longtime member of the St. Louis artistic community, she’s also one of those women you want to be when you’re in your 70s — whip smart, creative and kind.
Detailed illustrations of interiors and the spaces we create for ourselves.
Inspiring Art Room Doors. Lately, I've seen some truly inspiring art room doors posted by art teachers on social media.
Artist Oliver Jeffers keeps a quirky cast of characters (including a ghost!) and various secondhand treasures in his Brooklyn studio.
Designer Hopie Stockman gives us a tour of her beautiful rental house.
I'm off to the farm this week to paint trim and stain the floor in the studio - the last bit of work to do before I can start setting up the space. Since there's really not much to show, I thought I'd share some ideas I've gathered for the space. I need shelving as I have books, frames, canvases...all that need a home. This bookcase is nice and I really like the brush holder. source I like the shallow shelves in this picture. They'd be great for all the cans and bottles of paint. The inspiration/bulletin board area is also really great. I do have an idea for an area to hang photos I'm working off of. source This one is one I really like - notice the canvas storage above the bookshelves and worktable. I want to replicate this is some form or fashion. source These shelves are only one can deep -I'd love something like this so I could see at a glance what paints I had. Loads of them too...I don't think you can have too many shelves. 😊 source Right now my oil paint tubes are in a toolbox. I'd love to have something like this that I could clip them on. Sure would make finding a certain color easy instead of digging through my box. source - #15 Another paint tube system also fabulous: source Love the idea of clip boards to clip inspiration photos up. You can usually find clipboards at the thrift store for next to nothing. source Another setup for canvas storage: source source This is an idea I could easily do - it's an old tv cart with pipe dividers. hmmm, guess I'll have to look for one if Bruce doesn't have time to build me one like in the previous photos. This one I like for the tin ceiling and large worktable in the center. Not sure if I'll have a table in the center though. However, I do plan on one against the wall like the back wall in the photo. source These are all great ideas and will help me figure out how to set the studio up. I am looking forward to planning the space out. SaveSaveSaveSave
It's time for another year!
Whether you are using a corner of your bedroom or you have a room all to yourself, find some inspiration for organizing your art or craft studio space!
Featured Image: @darrylandjj This post is all about dorm desk organization ideas that are perfect for your dorm You're going to spend a lot of time at your dorm desk, so you might as well make it functional and productive.With a hint of cute!You don't want to use your desk as a storage unit.It has
This weekend I celebrated my birthday with lots of fun activities. Part of the weekend included crafting with my sisters and making these adorable paper dolls inspired by Claudine Hellmuth. We met at a wonderful art store in Marin called Once Around, and they allowed us to use their classroom to make these dolls as a private class. My sister, Diana, helped coordinate the event - she made the samples for us and provided many of the supplies - thank you Dee! If you're ever in Mill Valley, make sure to check out this store called Once Around - it's very cool! Prior to the crafting event we had a wonderful lunch at Blue Barn at Corta Madera, one of my favorite spots for lunch... Picture of me & my sisters and my niece Natalie On Friday, I took the day off and spent some time in Petaluma antique shopping and also taking a class from Eileen Hull at Cathe Holden's amazing barn. Below are a few shots from her barn. Cathe Holden and I My sister Maryl and teacher Eileen Hull What great inspiration for redoing my craft room someday! Cathe you've collected some amazing pieces and your barn is a dream...love it all! Here's a picture of the project I made in the class. We used a Sizzix die to cut out the cover and pages. Thank you Eileen for a fun and inspiring class! Another nice bday surprise was being published in the Oct/Nov/Dec issue of Somerset Life. One of my recent necklaces that I constructed from several necklaces was featured. Thank you friends and family for all the bday wishes and thoughtful and generous gifts! It was a wonderful weekend of celebrations!
Most art canvas storage racks were very expensive and took up too much space. So I found the IKEA HEJNE shelf and got to planning!
Is it just me or are a lot of people in the middle of sprucing up their
Well, hey there, strangers! It's been a beat since I last chatted with you here. I've been away in Seattle at the art teacherin' conference and took a short hiatus from blogging. BUT now I'm back. You're welcome. As y'all know, I've been on an Art Room Redecorating Bender since the start of this school year. And I've not slowed down. I realized the other day that I'd crafted and hung a bunch of new things in my room and I'd failed to post 'em here. Of course, I OVERSHARE here...in case you need more crazy in your life. Let's start here, shall we? This is the main entrance/exit to my art room (I also have an exterior door, an office door and a side door. I'm very door-y) and this here is a view from the inside. That fuzzy thing you see thru the window is the Rainbow Wreath that hangs on my door and beyond that is our giant It's Okay to be Different mural. I've long since had this saying on my door but the original was simply hand written on a piece of laminated poster. It was started to look sad and faded. And, while I loved the message, I hated the sign. So I painted a version and it's now on my door. The mermaid was one I found at the Nashville Flea Market (a must go to if you are ever in town...last weekend of every month!). Originally she had a blue tail and blond hair. I was going to hang her in my house but she never seemed to look right anywhere. One night I painted her all rainbow-y and now she loves above my doorway! Right next to my Rainbow Mermaid and my door, I hung this chalkboard and my heart sculpture. I found this chalkboard on the cheap at my local craft store. I've always wanted a chalkboard but was afraid the kids would wipe off what I had written...so I picked up some chalkboard markers! My plan is to change the sign up every now and then...but my money is on me leaving this up until the end of the year. Every since making this heart, inspired by artist Chris Uphues, I've wanted to hang it up. You can find a complete video tutorial on how to make a heart with wings right here. Now, I know what you are thinking...how are you getting these things to stay on your walls/doors?! Okay, my secret is: Command Velcro Strips. Y'all, they are THE BEST. I use them for nearly everything on my walls and nothing ever falls. I go for the 16 lbs Velcro just to make sure everything stays anchored. This canvas was one that I had previously painted some other nonsense on and decided to paint over it. I added chalkboard paint to the middle so that I could change up the signage. Again, my money is that my lazy butt never gets to it. I hung it one Storage Closet of Horrors #1. My painting was inspired by Rifle Paper Company. You can also find a PDF of my ART sign here, if you'd like! I painted those right before the school year started. K, so I actually HAVE been cleaning out my closets and pitching MOUNTAINS of junk...but I still have so much to do. Being in a space for 12 years AND being a natural born slob/hoarder means you acquire some stuff. One fun find was a huge bin of magnetic letters. I've been leaving messages for the kids above every door. Info on my tints and shades sign can be found here. Speaking of finding stuff...I discovered that I had several of these blank wooden plaques. One night I painted a Matisse-esque background for a SMILE sign. I hung it on the small sliver of wall space that I have left near my Roy G. Biv paintbrush wall. This area of my art room, I call The Store as that's where the kids go to gather their art supplies. You can learn more about Art Teachers in Training here (we no longer use badges but aprons) and more about The Store here. Some seriously sweet artists have gifted me amazing artwork. I want to look at it all the time...so I decided to hang it in a prominate place in my art room. It makes me all kinds of happy. Let me share who made what because each is a seller of their work. The Tennessee sign is from @artroomantics and she can paint any state you like. Chris Uphues, who I mentioned early, sent me the poster of a rainbow from an exhibit of his. Joy makes all kinds of amazing things from customized stationary to my Broken Crayons Still Color sign! My INSANELY motivated buddy Jennifer has been creating a painting EVERY DAY for the last several years...and painted that portrait of me as a super woman. My buddy Stephanie stitched the Small World. And my friend Ashley, who is INSANELY talented, made this caricature of me. You can commission her to make one of you too, my buddy Virginia just had one made and it is amazing! One night I slapped some paint on more of those wooden plaque thingies and made this... One of my favorite books and one of my favorite messages. Right now, it's sitting here but I do think I'll hang it properly soon. As soon as I find some wall space. Remember that flea market I told you about? Well, I found this amazing work of art there. The artist sold it to me for $5! I added orange to the frame so that it would pop as the original color matched my walls. Also at the flea market, I found these! They actually open and close and I've been using them to talk to the kids about scissor safety. It's pretty hilarious. I did punch them up a bit with some silver and red spray paint. I attached them to the wall with some velcro strips so that I can take them down easily. Also new: I spray painted my magazine rack to look like a rainbow! That was gifted to me when another teacher moved away. Not sure what they'll hold. Also, I spray painted my storage bins by grade level...just need to get the teacher names on them. The big clipboard was a thrift store find. My idea is that it can be a drawing center for my early finishers. Whew! So, that's all that's new. Thank you for letting me share a tour!