top picture: me with the tin of hope hearts. bottom picture: holiday hope heart ornaments with fun beads and ribbons. picture credits: Mike Mitchell

Hello everyone! Here are a couple pictures I found on the desktop from winter time! The ornaments that are hanging from the bicycle wheel all sold for $5 each at holiday time 2009. We added pretty wire, ribbons and a cool assortment of glass beads. The hearts were much bigger and were painted silver and gold. My students and I liked the "metaphor" of $5 as the average weekly pay in Haiti and other areas of they world where our brothers and sisters on this planet live on or under the Universal Poverty Line for the cost of these hearts . I am happy to report that ALL the big ornaments sold, and quickly too! So far, at last count, these little hearts, handmade by kids in Maryland to benefit kids in Jacmel, Haiti, have raised over $1,000.00!!

I just received a NEW email from Judy Hoffman, founder of Art Creation Foundation for Children. She just returned from Jacmel where she got to spend time with her beloved students and bring all the love and supplies she could. She said the children are still living in tents, suffering from the sadness and destruction of the quakes and bathing from bowls of water with no privacy. However, on the day she called Ted at the Visionary, she said that, "their clothes are clean, they are coming to school and we were all very happy to see each other." To that, she added a message to me in an email that greatly encouraged my students:

You have no idea how much this (the support) means to our children in Haiti at ACFFC ... somehow, post earthquake, 16 kids showed up and so now we are at 76 ... they have seen the hearts on line and are so pleased. www.artforhaitianchildren.org

Fun Monster Monoprints at the Visionary to Raise $ for Haitian Artists!

Photo Credit: Shawn Theron www.SOGH.org

Guess what happens when you give printing ink, acetate, nice printing paper, a quick demo on additive and subtractive monotype approaches and basically no rules to thirty 6th graders? They "discover" Rorshack prints, nearly 100% of the time, every time. And they love it. And they go faster and faster, trying to make as many as they possibly can in as short a time as they can. AND everyone starts running around, showing prints to each other saying, "it looks like a bat!", or "a face!", or "a monster!".

During clean up time, I noticed an abandoned plexiglass palette with a stunning red goopy ink mess on it with a blob of yellow in the the upper left. I had to print it. It was too goopy, so I didn't rub the paper too hard and then ghost-printed it right below. I'll be darned, but it looked like two red monsters. I did another couple, let them dry and took them home.

At home I got out my all time favorite inks, Dr. P.H. Martain's colored India inks. Oh, how I could wax poetic about the wonder of those inks! Anyhoo, I started painting on top of the blobs, and my first monotype monsters were born! (all thanks to the playful influence of my exuberant 6th graders!)-- And hey, if you want to read an awesome book about the influence of childrens' art on the modern artist, get The Innocent Eye: Children's Art and the Modern Artist. Many, MANY famous pieces by Picasso, Paul Klee, Miro, Dubuffet...all *directly* influenced by very young children's art work).

As I made more monsters, I took them down to a smaller scale first on metallic gift wrap as a printing plate, then printed (hand-rubbed) on really great quality watercolor paper, pre-cut to standard frame-sizes. Man, are they fun to make! You should try! Then, it's like seeing a face in the grill of a car or something--you just draw/paint/ink on top---the sillier the better!

I took them down to my pals at the AVAM giftshop (Sideshow), and they agreed to put them up for sale--100% of the proceeds go to the artists in Haiti that The Sidewhow has direct and personal relationships with, to help in recovery efforts from the earthquake(s). If you look at the 2nd photo, you will see one of the MANY breathtaking sequined Drapos (flags) for sale to raise money for the artists there. You can purchase one of these gorgeous drapos at the Sideshow's site http://www.sideshowbaltimore.com/SIDESHOWsite/Home.html
If you can go in person though, DO! You just won't believe the intricate beauty of this traditional Haitian art form till you see and touch it for yourself!

*Getting the word out!*

Hello everyone out there! It has been a while since I posted, but it doesn't mean we haven't been busy as ever doing all we can to help Art Creation Foundation for Children in Jacmel, Haiti. I feel so fortunate to have literally hundreds of middle school art students putting their thought and creativity each day into ways to evolve this project into better and better versions of itself. Our latest endeavor: Handmade Business Cards! And let me tell you, it makes me wish all business cards were this fun, this sincere and this artistic.

I gave my students tons of materials to play with: printed papers, fun paints, stickers, pens, crayons, markers and lots of design books to help with visual brainstorming. We talked about the position as artists and fundraisers that we are in and the need to keep finding ways to get the word out and communicate with the public. Our pals at the Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore have been asking for little take-away cards to go with the hearts to give people information and a reminder of how they can help, or at least pass the good news along. The result are these fun, fresh and sometimes quite poignant art-cards, each a one-of-a-kind creation from the students at Patapsco Middle to you!

The kids had a lot of fun with it, and I have to admit, I really did too. So much so that I brought materials home to do some over the weekend....so did some very invested kids! I can't wait to see what new cards they come up with.

I also dropped off 41 more hearts to the museum and there about 120 in various stages of completion at school waiting to dry or be fired. We are so excited that they continue to sell out pretty quickly at The Sideshow store inside the American Visionary Art Museum. To this, I can also happily announce that they are being sold at our school store right to the students and teachers to raise even more funds for ACFFC!

Please continue to follow the link on this blog to the school in Haiti for regular and detailed updates on the kids. There is still tremendous need there. The children are still living amid ruins in tents and taking baths out of basins with basically no privacy. But they are coming to school each day, making art, supporting each other through friendship and showing tremendous strength and unity as they live each day in the wake of such catastrophic change.

So help us get the word out!!! Forward the blog! Go to the Avam! (you can go to the gift shop for free, but do yourself a favor and enjoy the enormous unique art collection they have there! www.avam.org) And each day, give thanks for the little things that all the children in Jacmel know all too well are not so little after all.....