Alki Elementary, 1912 – 2012 Artist Residency Fall 2012
“Art is not a thing, but a way.” – Elbert Hubbard
This fall I worked as artist-in-residence at Alki Elementary in West Seattle. It is the 100 year anniversary of the school, and I wanted to honor the centennial year with the theme of community and collaboration in art.
Over the course of 4 weeks, all the students in the school drew, painted, and created collage pieces. Our work culminated in an all-school art show. In the next few weeks, I will be creating a collage panel featuring student artwork, to be installed at the school.
For this program, I took a collaborative approach to art-making in a way that connected all the students of the school to one another. I decided to create an all-school community collage bin. Inspired by the process of artist Eric Carle, students grades K – 5, created a series of abstract, pattern and texture-based paintings to donate to the all-school collage bin. The children will see bits of his or her paintings transformed into flowers, houses, skyscrapers, creatures, and more.
Through the community collage bin, they learned to share their art with others, and that together we can create something more hopeful, beautiful, and magical than anything one person can do alone.
Thank you to Alki PTA, Ms. Oatis, wonderful staff, and many volunteers for supporting the arts in public schools.