Responsive Art Piece - Flourishing Creativity

My responsive art piece is dedicated to my service learning with Arts and Scraps. Its a small painting, that has dots or blotches of different colors linking to floral shapes. The dots represent the many diverse children I met who were making art projects out of recycled materials, and how they flourished creatively finishing their projects. I wanted this painting to be a vibrant and unified composition to celebrate how everyone can be creative no matter what medium or objects are utilized.

Saturday, December 3rd

I had a WONDERFUL Saturday with Arts and Scraps!! Was it my final event with Arts and Scraps?... probably not! I plan to continue to work with them at children's events, it is a lot of fun!

The first event was at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Max Fisher building. I had to pleasure of working with another volunteer who was an old classmate of mine, and running into one of my friends. It was a Christmas event for children that included face painting, prizes, discovery learning of different instruments (tuba horn blowing), and of course making reindeer headbands out of recycled materials with Arts and Scraps. We had all types of ribbons, pipe-cleaners in different colors, and other fluffly materials...etc. I decided to make a reindeer head band as an example, and I loved how creatively comes through so spontaneously! All of sudden children and parents were coming in droves! Parents and children were working together to create thier headbands. It was a very nice experience. One thing that always suprises me is that every event has different materials to create. Some are the same, but some are different, which makes it more anticipating.

The second event was at Midtown's Noel Night. I was volunteering with Arts and Scraps at the Detroit Public Library. Again, having children and parents make reindeer headbands in light of the Christmas season. Parents were even excited that they even made their own headbands. :-)
The experience was very enjoyable. Even though my experiences do not fully relate to art therapy's goals, I believe it relates in a way where children are given the opportunity to become independent innovators of their own projects. The art projects gives them a sense of control, confidence, and creativity over various materials. At first when children see the materials to make a project, and they are a little apprehensive. But when they are given guidance it allows them to flourish. I believe this is art therapy because it is the creative process that helps them tremendously.

Saturday, November 12

I volunteered at a Detroit Community Health Fair on Saturday, November 12th. The fair consisted of health screenings for kids, check ups, free massages, and participants received gift cards from Target along with bags of treats for kids. Arts and Scraps anticipated over 50-60 kids to attend this fair, however only about 20 kids (with parents) came only. It was a pretty slow going. The theme again was Turkey head bands, and was helping kids making them out of recycled art materials. It was fun, but I was expected to hit the ground running helping tons of kids make art projects. 2-3 kids showed up about every 20 minutes. I was sort of disappointed with a parent who didn't want to participate in helping her two daughters make art projects. I literally was "doing" their art project. I felt that the parent could've made more of an effort to help her daughters encouraged them to be creative. :-(
Even though the fair promoted a great cause in helping people in the community who may or may not have health insurance get free health screenings and check ups for kids, I guess Arts and Scraps expected a much bigger turn out. Since it wasn't as busy, I made my own turkey head band, it was actually fun! Its amazing how creative you can be with so much recycled materials!

Tomorrow

I plan to volunteer with Arts and Scraps at a Detroit Health Fair tomorrow. Looking forward to it, especially since it has a Thanksgiving theme. :-) Soon approaching is the end of the semester, and I wonder if I will continue to volunteering with Arts and Scraps?....probably so, I need the experience, however there were classmates that discussed their experiences at Art and Soul that I really want to be a part of. If only they were open on Saturdays. :-( We'll see how next semester turns out.

Last Thursday, October 27

Last Thursday, I volunteered with Julie from Arts & Scraps at Stevenson Elementary School for an after school Harvest celebration event. It was quite enjoyable. The children met after school around 6pm dressed in their Halloween costumes. I must express the children were adorable. We were stationed in the Art room, were we set up our art materials. The project entailed creating turkey headbands out of various materials such as yarn, stickers, old tickets, scraps of loose paper, and glitter sand. A very creative concept turned into an enjoyable project for parents to participate. One of the most enjoyable moments was reminiscing on my childhood in an art classroom. The classroom contained so many pictures of various artworks from world famous artists. The classroom was very inviting for students. I could tell that the teacher wanted to enhance learning by associating colors with nature photos, and famous artworks. I loved my time there, I loved being able to help children enhance their creativity in their art projects. Children's faces lit up when they were done, even some parents wanted to make turkey headbands! I believe overall the art is teaching the children to make and create independently. This builds a sense of accomplishment.

I'm looking forward to the next events. Arts & Scraps has expressed a lot of appreciation to me in participating and helping their events be a success.

I spoke with Peg Upmeyer last week, and due to my schedule she offered an idea for me to work just events around the Detroit area. This weekend was a perfect opportunity. I volunteered with Arts and Scraps Saturday, October 1st, at the Red October Run at Oakwood Hospital in Wayne, MI, and the American Humane Society event at Hart Plaza in Detroit on Sunday, October 2nd. Both events were very enjoyable, but it was very chilly to say the least! These events were "Make and Take" art projects.

At the Red October Run event, I assisted children in making cow bells out of recycled boxes, shoe string, and bottle caps. Children were also given the option to color thier bells with crayons. What a creative idea! Apparently when the participants with finished their 5K run, children would ring their cow bells and cheer.
At the American Humane Society event, children made dog and cat figurines out of pencil, colored paper and scarps, beads, and glitter. I could tell the children loved the ability to create their own projects and create their own unique design.

So far, each experience with Arts and Scraps has been very enjoyable! I had a desire to work with the adult population in the future, however these experiences with children have been very interesting. I wonder what will develop next? I'm open for more opportunities!

Ferndale DIY Street Fair - Arts and Scraps

I participated with Arts and Scraps in DIY (Do it Yourself) Street Fair in Ferndale on Sunday. I met with one of the Arts and Scraps representative, Julie. It was a wonderful experience. I helped children create headbands, pins, and paper hats out of recycled materials such as colorful paper, beads, glitter, yarn, and confetti materials. It was enjoyable to see children create thier own headbands. I also loved how parents participated with their children in making these unique art projects. I even wore my headband and pin, just so children can get an idea of what it would look like. (I didn't care if it looked ridiculous - haha) Sometimes with children you can afford to be silly and fun, just so that children can share in the joys of making their own art and being unique. Overall it was a great experience, and I look forward to working with the Arts and Scraps organization to perhaps assist in other family projects. I hope my future experience will entail a combination of projects, including any art therapy projects.