Thank you for the $200.00 donation, VIRGINIA!!! We can hardly wait for you and your students to come to Rwanda and work with AoC next spring! Thanks for everything you do!
Paula sent this comment to me after she saw the illustrations generated from our Where Do Gorillas Come From? exercise:
This is so beautiful. I wish you’d make a calendar with a selection of the best pictures – I’d buy one!
Theresa, Sherri S. and many more of you share similar interest in purchasing art made by our Art of Conservation students. I’m struggling with the logistics and perhaps you all can help me. The money raised would help generate funds for the project and thus allow Art of Conservation to continue reaching out to as many different communities located next to PNV. It is approximately $100.00 for one student to participate in our free three-month course. The blogs I am posting now represent the work of 150 students, equalling to approximate project costs of $15,000.00 per each three-month course. In a one-year period, AoC works directly and intimately with nearly 450 individuals.
If I design a set of notecards, a T-Shirt and calender with student’s art and also made available student’s original art that is in the dried banana leaf frame made by Alphonsinee, are you all interested in purchasing these things? Pricing, marketing, shipping, etc… needs to be sorted out. I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.
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Johnny Cash comes to class – well, at least through speakers connecting to my iPod. Joining him is Diana Ross, The Beatles, Burning Spear, Yo Yo Ma, Ladysmith Black Mombazo, Jimmy Cliff, Elton John, Beethoven and Yo La Tengo. I switch the music off and ask, “How do you feel?” Fine, good, happy are the responses from our class of 50 children.
Not that I want to ruin anyone’s day, but with our exercise today, LESSON IN ART CAPTURING FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, I want to explore a few more of our emotional states.
Mama Is Sad, a song by Justin Roberts, a native of Des Moines, Iowa where I grew up, conjures sadness. Luciano Pavarotti’s belting evokes curiosity. Giraffe from David S. Polansky’s Animal Alphabet Songs brings us back to happy. Ok, we’re acknowledging more human emotions. Good.
Now, I’m thinking, this song will really bring the house down with deep emotional expression – John Denver’s Calypso – his tribute to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his oceanographic ship. Music is switched off…silence….then quietly someone says, “That’s terrible!” and with this the student’s laughter brings down the house. I laugh too, but come on, I love that song.
Clearly we are loosening up as kids rush to the front of the class and dance as Bob Marley wails on.
Settling back down in our seats, Eric, AoC’s lead art instructor, explains to the children the exercise:
Part 1. With a pencil, quickly draw a classmate’s face showing their HAPPY expression.
Continue with watercolors.
Part 2. With a pencil, draw a golden monkey or forest elephant’s face showing a HAPPY expression.
Continue with watercolors.
Below, photographs of kids getting started on Part 1 by looking at a classmate’s happy expression.
Classmates drawing each other’s HAPPY expression.
You lookin’ at me?
Again, looking at a classmate’s happy expression and quickly drawing to capture emotion on paper.
Their pictures from the day in the upcoming post.
Julie
Donations made here are
Dec 30th Nicole D USD 25.00
3 Comments
YOU SHOULD BE TEACHING US THIS STUFF. We don’t smile enough anymore! Another GREAT post Julie. On commercializing these works of art I suggest you don’t sell the original pieces, but scan them high res and let any donor on the blog have access to the digital image so that you can sell it over and over again and in different formats (calendars, online postcards etc)! This way you are not ’selling’ (which will incur tax) and you will get to keep the original which will be worth a lot when these kids become famous, or when you have a good stack of them to auction as a set off for a good amount of money. Alternatively, sell pictures to tourists in Rwanda… this way your overhead is minimized. Printing T-shirts is a money eater unless you can sell thousands… exporting them will cost you a bomb. I think it’s risky ….
I disagree w/not selling the originals, though perhaps something other than “selling” would avoid the tax problem. What about giving originals as a “freebie” for donations over $50, or something. To be honest, I don’t think I would be willing to pay for a scanned image that everyone has access to (although I do agree that I’m being rather selfish and difficult . . . .)
I was really thrilled to see that you were enjoying the fruits of my labor.
Continued happiness
David Polansky