December 14, 2011
OK, I'm still stumped. I know that I'm using this page as a blog but my blog page, which opens up first when visiting this, is the page that I want to explain what this blog is all about. Anyway, I do have to say, I'm just loving getting all this out. All this about my-take-fairy-tale project reading my friends' stories are just so amazing. Can't wait to get the last 4!
December 11, 2011
Venting- so now have been working on this blog for about 3 hours. Frustrated because the pages don't work like the main page which I'm using like an intro page but oh well. Be creative with it I say!! So will have to type in my musings and updates as an edit to this page. Hope you all don't mind!
November, 2011
One of the many things I love to get into is using art as a way to encourage others to examine ways to create peace in their lives. As an artist, I have had the opportunity to meet many creative and socially conscious individuals. One such person is John Aaron, professional artist, and founder and CEO for the nonpartisan, nonprofit arts organization CHALK4PEACE. He started the organization after seeing the great response to inviting families and individuals in his North Arlington neighborhood to create peace images on the sidewalks around the building that housed his studio. He asked them to create images expressing their messages for peace, how they want peace to look like, what is it, symbols to remind others of peace, etc. What happened was a dialogue about peace and an overall positive experience surrounding the event.
A couple of years later, remembering that I was an art educator and art therapist educating primarily at-risk youth, and children with emotional disabilities and autism, John asked me if I would be interested in organizing a CHALK4PEACE event at my school for the month of September. My first reaction was "Whoa, I have one week before school starts and this sounds like a big logistical challenge. I wonder if my colleagues, better yet, my administrators, would even be interested in letting over 600 students chalk up the blacktops and sidewalks around the school." I mentioned it in a staff meeting and they all enthusiastically said yes. That was in 2006. Since then I've become the organization's East Coast Coordinator after spreading the word throughout the Fairfax County Public School District convincing over 40 other art teachers over the years to have their own C4P events, and rallying various organizations in the DC/VA/MD area to have their own events. I've given talks about C4P at the Corcoran Gallery, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Artomatic, and met and communicated with the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum to organize their first CHALK4PEACE event this year.
All this because I saw the impact and enthusiasm my students had for participating in this school community project. They look forward to it every year and we use the language of peace, and reference the event when discussing how they, on a daily basis, can create more peaceful experiences at school, at home, and in the community. I have incorporated C4P into the curriculum by addressing the formal elements in art and design as well as instructing them to focus their imagery on themes that apply to the county wide curriculum in their grade level. It is my hope that by doing this every year and actively "creating" peace through imagery, dialogue, and every day action, my students will not only learn about art principles but also see how art can be a tool for communication, empowerment, and peace.
I invite you to click on my photostory that I just created and plan to show my students at the start of next year. It is to help them see why we do CHALK4PEACE at our school, the steps that lead up to the big day, the day itself, and how we reflect on the experience.
Hope you enjoy it but most of all I wish you peace and I hope you too can find creative ways to make peace in your life.
"Chalk4Peace" song by John Aaron
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