"SPREADING JOY AT JOHNSON!" JCPS JOHNSON TRADITIONAL MIDDLE SCHOOL MARCH 3,4,5, 2020

SPREADING JOY AT JOHNSON! Is the title of an Arts for All art inclusion art award for Johnson Traditional Middle School. The first day included time with an art class of 32 8th grade students and then the rest of the day was spent with discovery students in their classroom. The students enjoyed this project of creating self portraits using acrylic paint. We began with an oval for the face and mixing our very own skin colors using 4 colors...pink, yellow, brown, and white. We also chose a background color and a shirt color. One of my great joys was working alongside my daughter, Dala Sparks, Speech Therapist. It was so wonderful to meet and teach her students!

Aides are so helpful to students who cannot grip a pencil or brush. These students were given the opportunity to create and paint today through Arts for All Kentucky!

Sometimes you just need a little help from an Artist!!!

The mural on the 3 doors was a student and artist collaboration. I think it turned out so cute! Three very whimsical animals! The students in the class responded to the mural in a sweet inquisitive way.

Working with Ms. Wempe's 8th grade art class was a wonderful part of this award. The class was inclusive of students with disabilities and all levels of learning. The students loved receiving the large 24x24 boards to paint on and they jumped right in to mixing skin tones and understanding that we all have some of the same tones mixed in varying amounts of color. We painted for 3 days to achieve completion. Some students needed extra time and Ms. Wempe agreed to allow them to paint some after our sessions. The finished projects will be displayed around the school. On the last day some students went outside with Mrs. Soule to spray paint their backgrounds. Ms. Wempe had to paint one too!

This is the display in the Library....I love the self portraits!

I was so Inspired I decided to create one too!

Lost River Elementary - UNDERWATER STEAM INSTALLATION

This week I began my work as a visiting artist with Lost River Elementary School in Bowling Green Kentucky. Art teacher, Kelli Combs and I are leading the students as they discover the science and art connection of our rivers, streams and oceans. We began our learning with the water cycle and a little experiment. The students are using some recycled materials in their installation project. They were painting water bottles using permanent sharpies for color and then cutting and reshaping the bottles to resemble ocean life.

The students did an experiment to see what happens to clean water when oil and chemicals are spilled out on the ground and allowed to run into the ground water.

COUNCIL ON EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN CONFERENCE LOUISVILLE NOVEMBER 2019

Missi Carini and I presented at the Council on Exceptional Children Kentucky Conference November 24th 2019 in Louisville, Ky. We led a presentation about how to work together to write a proposal for an inclusion project and we shared how ours went step by step. We also were able to teach the process of cold wax painting. We are pictured here with Delaire Rowe, Director of ARTS FOR ALL KENTUCKY. It was so fun to share with other teachers about how to write and direct a successful Inclusion project.

SPECIAL ARTS INITIATIVE AT MARTIN LUTHER KING ELEMENTARY - LOUISVILLE MAY 28, 2019

SLIME!! SLIMY SALAMANDERS, SNAILS AND SNAKES! a Special Arts Initiative was a wonderful day at Martin Luther King Elementary. Students had so much fun meeting a real artist, painting a collaborative project on 3 canvases, making slime and creating a slimy snake or snail. Speech Therapist, Dala Sparks was able to lead the students in Speech Therapy as a key part of this effort. While VSA Roster artist Kim Soule led the students in art making and slime making. It was a wonderful sensory experience! The students enjoyed painting with me using lots of colors to fill in this Martin Luther King quote. It is a favorite of their school and I'm sure this collaboration will be displayed and enjoyed for years to come