Bridge to SEARSPORT!

What we did this week is we had the 
time to draw.

I did something that the teacher did 

which was a circle that was split in
fours- it is really cool.

It is a lot of fun- until we lost powerfor a sec....it was so weird.
So this what we did this week.
- Josh

Terry's mandala-in-progress

"Free Draw" is taken seriously here!

Dillon's characters.. in ballpoint pen

A painting done at home by young Searsport artist,  Nevada

Mr. Bisbee's amazing art room

See you next week!

From the teacher, Bridget: 

I was nervous to meet my new crew at Searsport today. 

Mr. Bisbee's art program is second to none. The school hallways are decorated with fantastic paintings and benches, and this huge studio is brimming with seriously skillful, cool projects in all kinds of media - all on a shoestring budget, working with donations and finds. He's the only art teacher, serving all elementary, middle, and high school kids. This group of ten artists are waiting their turn for some art, which they will get for seven weeks at some point this year. For now... it's afterschool with me.

I wondered if what I had to offer was cool enough. If they'd be more demanding about materials and activities...

I don't even remember how we got from the introduction circle to the kids spread out at tables intensely working on drawings. All I had today was some copy paper and markers - and my own sketchbook which I showed at the beginning of the session. I'm heavy into mandalas with Sharpie as a way to hone my design problem-solving skills. Pretty cool to see that I inspired a couple of artists, and just as exciting to see the rest all were thrilled to get into drawing their own thing and share it with me.  

I had shared my Chinese shadow puppet collection and videos as a project to consider, but now I'm thinking something along the lines of a zine... they'll figure it out for me, I'm sure!