By Laura Bruni, Art Teacher

I truly believe in this statement of Picasso and I think every child is a universe of powerful creativity ready to come out. I am so happy to witness this. For this first part of the year I am going to start by revising elements of art in almost all classes. Because it is good to go over and give another point of view. It is inspiring for them to review these elements to be able to elaborate them and transform their powerfully creative inner soul into making art. Art can set people free and help express themselves.

My philosophy is to encourage children of all ages to always be brave and to open their minds to try new techniques and ways of making art. I want them to feel free to create and to know that it is ok to have paint on their hands. I want them to experience all kind of materials and have no boundaries. To learn different ways will help them one day to be free to apply what they liked more or to say “I did that.”

In Kindergarten and 1st graders I decided to alternate the research of colors with some fun multi-materials labs to help discover themselves. With 2nd to 5th grades we started with lines and fun games to understand the composition in an artwork. 2nd graders, for example, were helping me get rid of old acrylic colors by using them on symmetric butterflies. They enjoyed it a lot. We also built the frame for their work: the process of how to arrive at certain artworks and how to curate their art is important. I asked them to choose the art they wanted to frame to develop their sense of responsibility and criticism toward art.

In 6th grade we studied steps to arrive at making a comic: versatile positions of a body, how to draw and express feelings in a face, different perspectives and backgrounds. In 7/8th grade we started understanding the importance of hatching technique that gives life and realism to drawings.

Everything is to make students learn how to be courageous in taking risks and opening their mind to new art and new challenging drawings. Art is everything nowadays, we are not in the perfectionist school of thought anymore; instead, making mistakes helps the child to quickly find a way to fix it in a fun way; art is everywhere, from painting to sculpture, from photography to installation, from video art to street art.  And each kid has his/her own style!