Tween Camp

Sometimes, if you just believe in yourself...in the good you can bring....in the goodness of others...magic happens.  Like today for instance.  These 11 little girls came to my house to make art.  Some knew each other, some not.  In the end, they all left as friends.  With a unique bond that only us right brained people get. 

The day flew by.  We started like my adult classes do talking about images and my dislike of drawing.  Yep, I hate to draw, but love to paint.  So I teach students how to use tracing as a technique.  I don't always trace, but it alleviates a ton of stress in young ones who really want to say paint a Jeep.  And drawing a Jeep is a whole different can of worms that would require more than 5 hours and a sack lunch!  

Below is sweet Abigail drying her painting so we could move on to the next step.  And of course, Lily was in the middle of everything all day. 

Rachel below is working on her piece she drew out with chalk.  She was daring and free drew her piece.  It turned out awesome!  Cool thing about this little girl, I taught her at Arbor Springs in the 4th and 5th grade and 13 years ago taught her sister at Flat Rock Middle School.  Holy cow, she's the same age now as her sister when I taught her!  Super cool.

Here are all the girls working below.  I love watching them work.  Not one complained, whined or was overly needy.  No offense my adult students, you know I LOVE you,  but these girls were dream art students!  They took what I had to say and ran with it.  And made awesome art.

We also made gentle reminder bracelets.  This is one of my most favorite things I've ever decided to make in all my making.  I can vividly remember the first 2 I ever made.  Valerie and I were on the way to the mart (tells ya how long ago that was) and I surprised her with one that said "brivia", her original business name and mine said "artsy mom".  I've worn mine, hardly ever taking it off since then.  Which I believe would be 7 years.  These are meant to be reminders of things we want to achieve, be, or know is within our hearts.  I just love Abigail Miner's below.  So true.  We had one that said "moo" because this little gal loves cows.  No really.  Obsessed is more like it.  Mailey put "mars" on hers because its her favorite song.  They were all quite proud of them. 

For a break we all grabbed our sack lunches and towels and walked down to the  lake.  The community ducks were quite excited.  They won't have to dig for muck for days.   Although a few girls were quite bug phobic.  And I brought back a tick.  Of course.

Overall the day was perfect.  It was exactly the distraction I needed ya know.  And their art just made my heart swell.  If you live nearby my next class for Tween's is June 17th.  9:30-2:30.

My next adult workshop is Friday, June 14th 10-2.  Please email me for any sign-ups!  They just keep getting better!  jennihorne@ymail.com