Art Classes

After almost 14 hours of sleep (that I really needed), a very filling lunch, doing my laundry (like every Sunday, cleaning my room, and trying desperately to watch an episode of "The Walking Dead" with little success because of the slow Internet connection - Ricardo, Dani, me and our two friends Amarillo and Toño always watch the newest episode on Mondays and I didn't know the show before, so I'm trying to catch up- I finally have given up waiting for the episode to load and can write down what has happened the last few weeks.

As I mentioned in my last entry, we have finally started out arts classes for kids in the Taller. It is crazy how time flies by when there is a lot to do, because we now only have one more week with the kids.
We have seven kids that come to our class from 9am to 12pm, Monday through Friday, for a totally of one month. The youngest of the kids is six-year-old Maria Cristina, the oldest is Camila with twelve years. Melanie just turned 7, Luana (or Lulu) is 9, Siomara is 10 as well, and Sofia is 10 or 11, I'm not quite sure. We only have one boy who comes to the class, Emilio, age 10, but from what I have picked up, he has found his place in the group and feels comfortable.
Overall, I am really enjoying the work with the kids. We try not only to do the projects that we planed, but to play with the kids as well and correct them a little in their attitude towards each other. Sometimes, it is hard to find a balance between the ages, but for the most parts, the kids work together well.
I have set up a loose system of my "no comment rule" - that means that we try not to comment the artwork of the others, positively nor negatively. It is hard for the kids to not say "Ohhh how nice", and even for Vero and me it is hard.
Towards me and Vero. the kids are very respectful and listen up most of the time.
The projects that we have done so fare turned out well with an exception of two projects.
Here's a recap of all the projects we have done so far:

We experimented with watercolor to show the effect of mixing colors; using little water or a lot of water...etc. We used straws to spread the watercolors on the paper and had a lot of fun.

The next two days we painted two abstract paintings - one with warm colors and one with cool colors to then weave them together. In the beginning, it was hard for the kids to understand, what the outcome of the project would be, but they were happy with the result.

Our next project was to make sculptures from clay, but sadly it was too warm in the Taller so that the clay dried up rather quickly and the sculptures were very brittle once they dried. Most of them fell apart after a few days. We repeated the project the next week, and this time it worked a little better. Because I have almost no experience with sculpturing, it was hard for me to actually teach them techniques of how to make a specific thing. Nevertheless, the kids had fun using their hands and playing around.

The next day we made lamps from scraps of paper, balloons, and homemade glue from flour and water. it took a lot of patience for the kids to finish their lamps; to cover their balloons completely with paper and glue. Sadly, Lulu and Siomara did not manage time wise to cover their balloon with enough paper so that the hardened paper shriveled up when we let the air out of the balloon the next day. they were both sad but I hope they got over it.

Next, we made dream catchers with the kids. I never imagined that they would turn out so beautifully, that the kids would work so quietly, with so much concentration...I was really, really proud of them that day. I made dream catchers with the art camp at the Open Studio Project but the kids there were older, so I was sceptical whether the kids could do it.
I did a bit of yoga with the kids before starting the project and then put on calm music and explained to them that dream catchers were first made by the Native Americans and that their purpose was to trap the bad dreams and let the good dreams slip through the net and down the feathers.
It seemed to me that they had a lot of fun. A few of the kids wanted to make dream catchers again.

Because we had mixed up the order of our original plan a bit, we decided to do a more simple
 project. We did a body tracing exercise with them. They formed pairs and one of them laid down on huge pieces of paper. they traced each other's bodies and then colored their own. They turned out really nicely. I was amazed at the creativity the kids had in coloring the silhouettes.

The next two days we made stencils and sprayed graffiti on pieces of papers and on the walls. the next day, we used the stencils to design T-shirts. Adolfo helped us teach the kids how to make the stencils because neither Vero nor me knew exactly how to make them.

Our next project was a creative project of photography. We painted little Styrofoam balls like eyes. Then we went to a park near by and told the kids to tape their eyes to any object in the park and then take pictures of the eyes. They had a lot of fun and we had a picnic in the park after they were all done.

Because the paper-glue-lamps had not worked out so well, we reexplained the project with a different objective. We made Insects and animals from paper and glue covered balloons. This time, the kids covered the balloons thoroughly and none of them broke. This two day project was a bit rough for some of the kids, because it took a lot of patience to cover the balloon entirely and then paint and decorate it the next day. Nevertheless, all balloon animals turned out very creatively.

The following day we made 3D pop up cards with the kids. After a bit of experimentation, we figured out the right size of the pop up drawing. Luckily, we had more than enough paper so that the kids made multiple cards. Because it was Melanie's birthday, I had made brownies and she had brought a few snacks so that we had a birthday party for her as well.

On Friday it rained so much that the buses were overfilled and I arrived to work late. My college had kept an eye on the four kids that had arrived before me. Because of the rain and because not all the kids showed up for class, we decided to repeat our dream catcher project. I also lead a few improvisation skits where two people would start a scene and when someone from the audience had an idea, he/she would tap an actor on the shoulder and continue the scene. Even though they did not understand the "taking shifts" part, the kids had an amazing time, laughing and joking around. Not all of them understood the objective of impro theater so I will repeat the exercises when the other kids are present as well.

There we go.

Now to the complications that have come up, because not everything is all great.
It is hard to keep the kids all focused throughout a project. And that makes sense, because after all they are kids, but I forget that sometimes. What is hard for me is keeping myself together when some of the kids pretend to understand the project when they obviously have not understood it and then get upset when their artwork turns out differently than everyone else's. But that's OK, I just have to breath and keep calm.
One day we had a fight between two girls in the class, because one of them had called the other names. I tried to talk to both of them separately and explained that I was not going to favor one of them, believe one of them and not the other, but that I, instead, would like the girl that apparently had insulted the other girl to apologize, not because of what she said, but because of the way the other girl felt. I told the sad girl that the other girl had not wanted to make her feel bad. They ended up playing happily together. Score!!
Another day one of the girls started to cry and wouldn't talk to me or stop crying. I did not know what to do so I got her a tissue and petted her back. after a while I asked her if she wanted to go back to the others and she nodded. She was fine after a while but i was worried because she wouldn't tell me what was wrong.

Apart from work I have been going to a lot of parties and dancing a lot. I also found my first real Bolivian friend, Lesshy :)

And also, there are the Photo classes that I'm co-teaching, but I'm tired of writing so I'll leave it at that.

I hope everyone has a relaxing, joyful pre-Christmas time. I, for my part, do not feel at all like it's almost Christmas :D It's just way too warm here.

Kisses to everyone,
Lena