C is for Creativity

 “Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” ― Albert Einstein

Once again, Einstein has just the right words to express what I am thinking, and what I am doing in this challenge, in my studio and most of all, in my classes.

One of the biggest issues I confront in my senior classes (ages 73 - 102) is the oft repeated comment, "I'm no artist." Somewhere in their lives, so many (older) adults I meet have been convinced that they "can't even draw a straight line." As if that matters.

So I remind them, that art is not about straight lines (though they can be nice.) Art is not even about curved lines (though they definitely help.) It is not definitely not about getting everything right. So I bring them great art to look at. For the lesson I am writing about here, it was a slide show of images of Georgia O'Keeffe flowers.

I draw for them so that they see how it it done. I bring color and ideas, and I remind them every week that art is about fun and pleasure and experimentation. Art is NOT about perfection, or coloring neatly, or impressing anybody but yourself.


And then we make art -

The two flowers at left are my practice for a simplified lesson on Georgia O'Keeffe flowers - the idea was to fill the page and work large. We used Caran D'ache crayons on canvas board, and outlined with sharpie to make it easier for some of my older students to see clearly. After we colored, we used water to create a painted effect.

But creativity IS contagious. When I got home, I had the urge to continue playing with these large flowers, but to add lines with my well loved set of Prismacolor markers. The flowers at the top are just one of the pieces that resulted. This was so much fun, I did it again the next day, but this time, with my Young Artists. More about them later.

G is for Georgia on My Mind

Dahlia ala Georgia O'Keeffe

One of the most effective tools I use to inspire and teach my senior students is a PowerPoint presentation. I regularly gather information and images to introduce and talk about an artist or a style of art.

My students all enjoy seeing the presentation displayed on a large screen TV, and for me, its a great way to show, not tell, what we are going to be working on in class.

Last week our presentation was on Grandma Moses. She, like many of my seniors, lived and worked in a farm community. Her work is simple and accessible, and very appealing. They totally "got" her. I loved sharing facts of her life, including that she came to painting in her 70's, and lived to be 101. In my research I learned that before arthritis made holding a needle too difficult,  she created paintings in needlepoint, embroidering in thread on cloth. Lots of my older students are or were very handy with a needle, so this small fact made painting landscapes is her style seem a little more possible.

Lillian Pakos

Today, my presentation is about Georgia O'Keeffe (lived to be 98). I have found, whether teaching kids or adults, whether aiming for realistic images or abstraction, drawing and painting flowers yields great results. So, the lesson today will be to draw just one large flower to fill the space of our page, and design and color it as we like. I will provide a wide selection of single flower photos from my own collection, and see what appears.

My dahlia above is an exercise in limited palette, 8x10, acrylic on canvas. The other drawing, by Lillian Pakos is a beautiful example of the kinds of work I see in my classes.