Here's my dilemma: Being an Art teacher is a great job, which I'm very lucky to have. Yet, I get a bit tired of repeating the same lessons year after year. With school budget constraints and scheduling issues, I seem to get locked into the same routine. Once summer arrives though, I I have time to come up with new ideas for the coming year...time to look back and evaluate which lessons worked, and which ones didn't turn out so great. Summer is my time, and I get quite possessive of it. I usually enroll our children in a few summer day camps so that I have time. Time to do a lot of "house" things, and time to sit at the computer. Time to think, relax, rest, walk around the neighborhood, shop, read, and, well, truth be told, I don't really do a whole lot of lesson planning.
This summer has been quite different. Here's a bit of how it's unfolded:
June: Out of school, back to sleeping later than 5:30. Took on repainting our finished basement. Ordered frames for our kids' art projects and created a 3 ft. X 4 ft. painting. I was inspirated by finding the work of an artist named Judith Rothschild. I'd never heard of her before, but saw one of her paintings in Art in America and just loved her style. Come to find out, one of her favorite places was Carmel, CA.... a place I love.
July: Only attended the Ann Arbor Art Fair opening day for a few hours before we headed west. Went to CA for 2 1/2 weeks with my family. Flew via SFO - spent 1 night near the airport, then 2 in Fresno, almost a week in La Canada, then to Danville, and onto Sea Ranch, with our last night in SF. I think of all the places we've been, Sea Ranch did it. Something about the scenery inspired me. LOVED the ocean, the beach house we rented, the nature around us - deer, barn owl, jack rabbits, huge gnarled trees. Just beautiful.
August: Home & beginning to work on various art projects. I don't really know what got me started, other than realizing that I'd taught the same projects for the past seven years... here's the math problem: Each project taught approx. 12 times each year X 7 years.... 84 times I've taught the same 15 projects! I must change things around. So, I've been looking online for ideas, found a bunch from the Dick Blick online catalog. Ordered some materials and got started. If I can figure out how to add photos here, I will.
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