Featured Artist: Elihu Joshua

Artist and Chi...The World member Elihu Joshua Dryden's experience as an artist spans over a decade. His works include: murals, works on canvas and tattoo art. Elihu has an energetic and experimental mixed media style and uses such mediums as spray paint, acrylics, pen, paper, metal, etc. His current passion is live painting at concerts, festivals, and parties.Check him out on FaceBook!

Elihu live painting at a party in San Francisco. Photograph by Jackie A. 2011

Acrylic and Spray Paint on canvas. "Dubstep Virgin Mary"

5 Must Dos for Teaching Kids Art Workshops


Teaching children's art workshops can be a fun and fulfilling way to contribute to your community, promote your artwork, and to make money. It can also be a challenging experience if you don't know what to expect. Here are five important tips that will help make your workshop a success. 

• Do a step-by-step class and come prepared: From years of experience giving workshops we have discovered that the step-by-step workshop is fabulous because it is organized, time efficient, and can be geared for groups that include various levels of art experience. Choose a subject that has some spunk and extra educational value. My most popular classes revolve around famous artists.  Once you know what your workshop and your medium will be, plan out the steps of the class. 

1.   If your class is an hour long, give three minutes or less for an introduction. 
2.  The kids want to know your name, what you do and what mediums you work with. 
3.  Keep it short! 
4. Next break the class down, for example: 3 minutes- the history of the famous artist; 2 minutes- what we will create today; 20 minutes- instruction on the orientation of the paper, perspective, how to sketch, and then the hands  (example) "...we will all sketch a street" (you show them ways to do this and they follow after with each step, etc.
5. When you have completed planning your workshop, do it with someone at home. Trust me it's a much better way to work out the glitches than in front of twenty kids with parents in tow!

• Be flexible: Call the coordinator or teacher and plan the workshop according to their venue and/or curriculum.  Give your contact person a supply list. And, ask them if they have supplies on hand. Let them know how much time you will need for set-up. 

• Expect to be surprised: Children are often underestimated in their ability to retain technical knowledge of mediums, tools, and techniques. There are  always a few very talented children in each of my workshops. However, I am always amazed at the ways the average child retains knowledge and employs techniques. I once had the parent of a seven-year-old tell me that when her daughter showed her her artwork, she told her about the artist, the water color resist she had done, the supplies she had used, and the type of brush she used.

• Give creative license: We have a funny saying, "You walk them through the class, half of them don't do what you said, they all love their picture and go home." We never know what is stirring in the mind of another. In general I like everyone to follow me and do the lesson. That never happens. There will always be the child that sees color differently, or makes their realistic flower with a happy face in it, or is answering his/her own questions about life through his/her artwork. I encourage the program and then keep it soft around the edges, giving creative license to individual style and creativity.

• Make room for happy accidents: I am walking around the room helping kids with the next technique when I spy a little girl sulking over a piece of white watercolor paper with a few brush lines on it. I walk over to her, "Can I help you figure something out?"  "I messed up my picture. I want another piece of paper," she demands. I don't let people start over as a general rule. It may sound harsh. It really isn't. Much of what we learn as artists is how to flow in our own creative process and to work with what we have laid down. Then I comment, "Well... that's a happy accident!" She looks at me quizzically. This is when I explain how that mistake can potentially be made into something great.

                                                  

                                                                                                     Thanks to everyone at the Vacaville Town Center Library and the Rio Vista Library for making this year's art workshops a big success. And the grand finale was, "Art with LouAnn." We were all surprised when 88 people flooded the room! We had 52 kids painting under-sea watercolor pictures and all of the aids running to assist children, change water, and get paint. Our library staff was fabulous. I would also like to give BIG thank-yous  to Kyle Dryden (left in the above picture). Kyle is our youngest Chi The World artist.  He not only TA'd the workshop... he also took most of the pictures (below). For more information on adult and children's workshops contact us at chitheworld@ahoo.com