Temagami Pine #3

The grade 3 students of Kensal Park sure know how to put a smile on my face. What a great pleasure for me!!!

Yesterday was the final day of this art workshop and we began with the judging of the colouring contest. I am always impressed with the student’s art , but – pardon me – I mean BUT!!!! I could not believe the high quality images that these children created. I was really blown away!

The colour blending was phenomenal! The textures that they designed were masterful! The ‘flow’ of their linework would humble Tom Thompson. The student’s passion is overwhelming! The one drawing that really put a light into my eye made me feel like I was on the moon, viewing the Earth in the distance – this artist also drew a meteor impacting the moon! Take a look for yourself…


These students were very happy to win a special ‘Art For Earth’ T-shirt!


This is a poem that the students created for me:

P lease keep our planet clean
L earning something about EARTH makes us smart
A ir is our greatest need
N o more plastic bags and other garbage
E arth is a very special place
T he third planet from the sun

E at healthy and you will be healthy
A Korean word for Earth is Jeegoo
R ecycle, reuse and reduce
T urn garbage into something useful
H elp clean our world

After the contest prizes were given away, the painting continued…


By the end of the day ‘Temagami Pine #3’ was completed.


Thank you, grade three students of Kensal Park, for sharing all your warm smiles and open hearts with me!!!

Jim

Coming Soon – Art For Earth 2008-09

For many years I have been teaching children about the importance of protecting our environment through art workshops entitled: Art For Earth. I have organized these classes in communities in Manitoba, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Nunavut as well as here in London, Ontario. These classes have always been taught on a part time basis when I have had the money to rent a room and purchase the needed supplies. In an average year I usually teach close to fifty students.

Last year things began to change…

Last November I was getting myself ready for work – I was then working at a hotel – and the phone rang. It was the Ontario Arts Council. They had heard about my educational art programs and they wanted to know if I would become a member of a jury team that would be evaluating proposals from different groups requesting funding for their educational arts programs. I said yes and a month later I was spending a week in Toronto with the rest of the jury team.

I learned a lot and a few months later I had submitted my own proposal for funding. In June I received approval. This coming school year I will be teaching at three London elementary schools. I will be teaching six different grades in each school. By the end of this school year I will have taught over four hundred students – which is quite a few more than the fifty I would be teaching without the funding.

I’M VERY, VERY EXCITED!!!!!!!!!


These last few weeks have been very busy for me, getting ready for all these art classes. Two weeks ago I was designing T-shirts and just yesterday my order was ready and I went and picked them up. I had a little over one hundred shirts made and this will let me give six shirts away in each class I teach with a few left over for prizes at next April’s Earthday celebrations.

I can’t wait to see the smiles on the students who win these special T-shirts!

Jim