Inside the Spin-Mosaic Studio

Mural painting with schools can be an excellent way to transform space for children. This blog features process photos from the outdoor side-walk creation of the "Story Stream" Fish Mural wit Knightstown Elementary School of Indiana, initiated with Arts for Learning. Through viewing the mural stages, creative kids learn that position and posture of fingers, hands, wrists, elbow, and shoulders are imperative towards accomplishing the size and flow of desired lines. [...]

This blog post features simplified rooflines and angles. When repeated, patterns create unique designs. [...]

Use Art to help encourage doctors and nurses on the front lines of the corona virus pandemic. Everyone can do their part. Here is an opportunity for children to encourage others. Here is one way children can help. [...]

Sundays are different watching church from home. Look beyond the circumstances. See Jesus. Be Jesus. Faith journeys. [...]

Can Art translate as prayer? Can Art be prayer? How can Art and Faith work together? Art-as-prayer? The acrylic mosaic technique that is now signature to my studio began as an effort to pray. When broken by stories of sadness and asked to pray, God asked me, "Who are you?" I had to answer, "An Artist." He then said, "Choose ye this day whom you will serve." It was then that I decided to believe in faith that the contemplation, meditation, and "long thinking zones" of creating art fits perfectly into the biblical model of what prayer is to be. Featuring a centurion artwork (100+ studio hours) with Water for Good well-drilling initiative in the Central African Republic with Jim Hocking, this article shares photos and stories of how art can translate as prayer. [...]

The October, 2018 bus tragedy that took the lives of 3 siblings in Rochester, Indiana made and continues to make national news impact. A week after the tragedy, my little spectrum guitar and my two daughters lead Art Workshops by class for the elementary school grieving in the wake. Together, we created a Children's Memorial Artwall which is now a feature work of Art beside the office. Together, with art, we can begin healing. Can art help children heal? Yes. I have been a witness. [...]

Are you in a creative batter's slump? Is the state of the world getting you down? Is it hard to be inspired to create when things around us are perilous and uneasy? Paint colored zebras. [...]

Just like an egg, this Activity is broken up into 3 parts.   Egg Shell = Activity #8 Introduction, "Cousin Justin's Tractor + Cackleberries", March 25 Egg White  = Activity #8 Discussion, "Eed-bawz, Egg Paints, and Pixilated Days", March 26 Egg Yolk = Activity #8 Demonstration Photos," ...The Messy Part!   Roll your sleeves up!    Throughout 20 years teaching K-12 Art and now full-time studio work, I have had many student teachers shadow my day and even more students ask to interview me over lunch as a topic for an upcoming term paper. One question that never fails to come up is pretty standard, but my answer might [...]

Are a baby's first words an indicator of personalities and preferences to come? How did early artist's make paints? Including sensory integration into your child's learning is vital for brain connections. Follow along with this projects as the common egg is turned into something extraordinary. [...]

A painting of a tractor becomes a creative way to connect in a time of isolation and social distancing. Paints are created with common kitchen ingredients and recycled cardboard. Get creative and invest each other's lives by encouraging kids to "give back." [...]

An introduction to photography for kids! A scavenger hunt for pattern, texture, and repetition can inspire abstracted design. Have fun with this screen-saver swap-out photographic art activity. Photography skills for kids can help develop mind's eye perception. [...]

Art Students create a collage of similar and different objects, create a mini-photo studio, arrange their composition, take photos, select and edit photos, then draw their photo masterpieces! [...]

It's okay to be different! [...]

Welcome to the Weekender! Let's get Creative!   The "30 Days & 30 Ways to Raise Your Child's Creativity IQ (Even if YOU Can't Draw a Stick Figure!)" Blog-post Activities will resume on Monday. The "weekender" can be celebrated as a review and/or adaption of any Days #1-5 Activities. Be creative, have fun, and use your imagination!   Sunday's post will "resume traditional programming" of (pre-quarantine) posts on creative topics and meandering connections. Join "Sunday Sketches" tomorrow as I share personal journal sketches and stories of faith and creative living.   Monday will reveal the winner of this week's Drawing Challenge and present the new challenge contest [...]

Artist, Christi Ziebarth, leads e brain-hand-eye Art Activity discussing the role of kinesthetic movement in the elbow, wrist, and finger movement of holding art tools and making smooth curved lines. The lesson is framed in a ladybug-on-a-grass-blade project that is fun! [...]

Young Artists learn to identify features of simple common objects that are defining. Hand-brain-eye activities build a foundation for art and drawing skill that can cross over to many life skills an learning outcomes. [...]

Today's Lesson in the "30 Days & 30 Ways to Raise Your Child's Creativity IQ" features the Artwall Artwork with Coulston Elementary School in Shelbyville, Indiana created with Arts for Learning. This is a school installation commission presently in process in my studio. I have created a "Where's Waldo" search where student's original artwork inspirations can be viewed and compared within the large-scale collage. The lesson wraps up with an art drawing challenge. [...]

SUPPLIES: Paper: 8.5 x 11 Prop: Any small toy on wheels...just as a visual aide. Markers: Markers in color-wheel spectrum work best for this activity and doubles up the learning potential by adding color wheel theory to the mix. Each "race" will involve two markers. The effect is best when the two markers selected blend well and  clearly create a new color when mixed. Forgive the racetrack analogy, but choosing two primary colors to use will help "drive home" the learning message. Ha!   Red + Yellow = Orange Red + Blue = Purple Blue + Yellow = Green   Activity: As you can see in the pictures, my son was [...]

Here we go! Get ready for your creative kiddos to look at you funny! This is the goofiest activity, but possibly the favorite pre-drawing training activity of all time. Classes would ask to do it again and again.   That's the idea, remember. This 30 days of blog posts enable YOU with a collection of "tried-and-true" training activities you can pull out of your creative toolbox and adapt over and over again. Each activity addresses a specific concept of awareness. Just like learning basketball, a musical instrument, or any new skill, repetition is key. What you put into it is what you will [...]

The image above is inspiring. Each childlike part of the collage is an adaption from a 36" work I created for and with Coulston Elementary School that will soon be transformed into 32-foot Artwall. This commission with Arts for Learning of Indiana has been postponed due to repercussions of corona. Each image in the artwork is inspired directly from 100's of drawings sent my way from students.   In addition to a resume' or CV, artists have what is called an Artist Statement where, among other things, a short description of the artist's key inspirations are discussed. Every artist is entitled to their [...]

The Question, "How do I talk to my child about Corona?" is answered by one creative artist and mom. Renaming a box of crayons as a prop tool for conversation engraves an analogy of Perspective. Empowerment can come through creativity. [...]

In this Article, I recounts the story of when I nearly "quit" my pursuit of Art, and the visionary professor who saw potential. When I thought I had produced a piece of junk in the midst of disappointing circumstances, he saw a rising star. When my professor passed back all the projects that day, all other aspiring artists received theirs back with a rubric paper. Mine did not return. Instead, he handed me a yellow manilla envelope, turned on his heel, and walked away. Inside the envelope was a check for $88. He had personally framed my messed-up art piece, entered it into the Juried Art Exhibit, and it won. The $88 was the remaining of the $100 award money after his raw material were taken out. He had bought the wood, hand-crafted the frame, and ultimately...the humble work of art that ruined my boyfriend's carpet took it's place as the #1 Award Winner. We all need heroes like this in our lives who lift us up! [...]

The first thing I see when looking at anything, anywhere, is color. I am an artist. So is my guest Artist, Claire.   Fortunately, my husband, Tim, is not. Otherwise, we would have purchased many duds for vehicles over the years.   I look at the exterior color and then contemplate if I could live with the shade of upholstery or leatherette inside. He looks at the engine. Thank goodness!   The engine is the driving force. I don't know that color registers in his mind before he pops the hood. If what's under the hood does not pass inspection, the color is a moot point. It's [...]

A few years ago, my car took a pilgrimage north across 6 hours of mid-Michigan rural roads to visit the picturesque country church our family attended every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday night, and the occasional mid-week socials when I was a very little girl.   We moved from that small town when I was eight, but it will always be home. After eight, the rosey memories were cut short. After that, I became aware of the world in which I lived.   In this place were my best memories. Not of fun, or of entertainment, but of belonging and of dreaming and of believing. [...]

If life is like a box of chocolates, potential is like a head of lettuce. My son is 8. This morning, he lead me to the window to teach me how to see.  We were running late, but I did not hurry him out to the bus. If we miss it; I will drive him in. I did not sip the hot coffee in my hand. If it gets cold, I will heat it up.    I was as close to the window as this statue is to the wings of this yellow butterfly. I stood motionless watching him and listening. I didn't miss a thing. *Artwork [...]

In black and white, neither the butterfly or the chrysalis can show off its fullest glory.   The last blog featured a sketch of Donna's chrysalis dangling above the brick foundation of her house last year. It was so stunning that the fragile memory still swam around in the shallow waters of my mind until my pencil found my sketchbook last week. In process, the sketch went from light pencil lead to pen and ink to watercolor.    A sketch is an unfinished stage, it is not a finished work. Artwork is not exhibited, priced or sold at the sketching stage. As an artist, I [...]

Butterfly art is everywhere. Google it; or, don't. Enough images already come to your mind, I'm sure.   That's why I drew the chrysalis instead. At this sketch-version stage, it looks more like an abstracted conch shell mixed with a hanging egg plant. But, this evening after the kids go to bed, I will transform it. Trust me.   In the next blog it will come to life in color. Many thanks to my teacher-friend, Mrs. Propp, who posted the photograph I used as an inspiration reference on facebook. At this stage in the life-cycle of the butterfly, the chrysalis becomes translucent to where the [...]

My classroom door closed when my studio opened. My own kids are growing up each day. It is my prayer that discussion of "Growing Your Creative Child" and transparency with the ups and downs will be an encouragement, or a lifeline even to a few. As an Art Teacher, my job was easy. Parents, you have the toughest and most rewarding job on the planet: raising our next generation of creative thinkers!    What's the giraffe picture about? In addition to the line of acrylic mosaic represented in this platform, a stylization of ink and watercolor graces only my personal prayer journals and sketchbooks. [...]