welcome to art class

So here it is: Mrs. Sweeney's art classroom. I have to say that I am pretty proud of it. I never thought I would see the day where I would get paid for talking about and doing art with kids; in other words, I was unsure I would get paid for doing something I want to do. For all those who said "What do you do with an art history degree?" I say "Ha! get paid to do something inspiring and fun."


Also note that although these pictures may not seem profoundly impressive to you they are a giant leap from the before images I should have caught on camera. Let's sum it up by saying that Miss Bliss, the previous art instructor, had been there for years with a different curriculum than the new one I got. Although I am indebted to her for some cool ideas for the upcoming year, she left way too many in that room and hauled the rest of her "stuff" away in a U-Haul. Yup, we're talking a lot of stuff. What kind of stuff? Well, everything from the good ideas I want to keep for beginning drawing exercises to really junky (like hundreds of coloring book pages of clowns and boatload of broken plastic soda lids - for mixing paint?) and at times bizarro remnants (baby doll heads...I really don't know).

Once I got over feeling mean for depriving the students of what maybe beloved coloring book activities and perverse for throwing baby doll heads in a dumpster, I started to really feel like some great things are going to happen this year. I am so excited to paint Sistine murals on butcher paper taped underneath desks, make styrofoam plate prints, and cut out tissue paper to make Matisse masterpieces with these little ones. It's going to be marvelous.