The Artful Life Continues

Greetings!  I've had an extremely busy schedule at work, as well as with my Church and community involvement activities.  Therefore, I've had to be a little creative to find ways to incorporate my artful nature into my daily life.

Sacred Heart - Sagrado Corazón
Mixed Media Collage
Karen's Word Art Wednesday #126
Eva & Kristin's Paint Party Friday Week 4 - Year 4
Jenn's Artist Playroom #100

Vellum Gift Bag
Printed Note Cards
Julia's What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday #252
Mannon's Paper Saturdays
Ramona's Inspire Me Monday #118

My wife is a member of the Pan Amercan Round Table, a women's group that provides "mutual knowledge and understanding and friendship among the peoples of the Western Hemisphere," and fosters "all movements affecting the women and children of the Americas."  A couple of weekends ago, the local chapter hosted a dinner and auction to raise monies for their women's scholarship fund.  My wife asked me if I could donate a piece, so I donated the Sacred Heart mixed media collage above.  I did it over a black and white photograph I took over by Lake Amistad, here in Del Rio, so I felt it was very appropriate.  I also put together a bag with note card prints from the same Sacred Heart series to handout as a door prize.  It was truly a lovely event, and am proud to say that both my items went very well and brought some money to the group for a very worthy cause.

Field Trip Journal Set
Blank Journal, Pens, & Tag
Tag Tuesday - School Days
ABC Wednesday - L is for Log
Jen's In the Studio

Geometry Star
Pencils & Colors
Bella's 52 Photos Project #50 - (A Day in My Life}
Maria's Orange You Glad It's Friday #84
Lorik's Mandarin Orange Monday #88

As a teacher of gifted and talented students, I often find ways to incorporate art and creativity into the curricular program.  During a recent parent meeting regarding an upcoming overnight field trip, I need some door prizes for my students.  I put together some field trip journal sets for my students to keep a log of their daily activities, as well as for sketching and keeping mementos from the trip.  The recipients loved them.  Then, during a geometry concepts review, I decided to have the students work on a geometry project I found on-line.  The students began by drawing a 2-inch line segment with its corresponding end points, and randomly drew 15 other points around it.  Next, they connected each of the random points to the line segment's end points.  As they worked on their stars, I helped them review other terms such as acute angles, obtuse angles, vertex, and more.  Finally, the students added patterns to the various segments they created within the star.

Wonder Years
Marker Art Journal Sketch
Paper, Paint, Pencils & Paper - Gardens & Parks
Art Journal Journey - Moments of Happiness
Alexandra's Sunday Sketches

Last, but not least, I was very inspired by a photograph a friend of mine posted on Facebook last weekend.  The original photo was in black and white, and it was of my friends granddaughter playing at a small water garden.  Although my quick sketch is not as perfect as her photograph, I feel it captures the little girl's sense of wonder.  A sense of wonder is something that I believe we should all strive to maintain as adults.  However, we often loose it due to our hectic lifestyles these days.  I hope to develop the sketch into a pastel or watercolor sometime in the future.  However, I feel will need to work on her legs' proportions.

This brings me to the end of my post.  I hope you enjoyed my humble artful offerings and words.  May your week be filled with blessings.