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Detail/ Tres Manos Copyright Lisa Brunetti 2012
“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” – Mary Lou Cook
Once upon a time, long long ago, a precious four-year old burst into tears when the art teacher stepped into his classroom on the second week of school. “Art?” little Sam whimpered, “My mother didn’t tell me about art….” He cried and cried and eventually stopped — about the time class was over for the day.
Students loved inspecting my basket of art materials…
A week passed, and I again disrupted his normal routine, and he cried again.. Not so much, but my presence made him uncomfortable… He cried during the first part of class, but then calmed. I think by the third week he accepted this strange interuption and in another month, he embraced the concept of art and all of the surprises that the art teacher shared with his four-year old peers. I often said that teaching those four-year olds was a bit like jugging one too many balls; their attention spans were short, so I tried to provide many options each week to hold their interests …
Four years later when that same cluster of students was drawing one of their classmates who sat in one lone chair in the middle of the room, I silently marveled, “Wow.. they are getting a likeness, not just an icon, and they probably should not have the skills to do this at this age – but no one has told them that they couldn’t… and Mrs. B believes in them – therefore they did it – and did it well!” Continue reading
Early-birders gathered for a dawn bird trek, and depending on which birds we hoped to see, our groups split in different directions. I shadowed my friend Sandra Patiño, who guided us along a high ridge where hummingbirds, barbets and toucanets shared the spotlight while toucans and pygmy tyrants provided the live soundtrack! 