Mural Creation at Children's Home

For three weeks this summer I engaged with an inspiring group of teenage girls at the Children's Home of York -- Girls Center to create a wall mural. The colorful mural will bring vitality, color and voice to an otherwise bland, blank wall in their cafeteria nook.

The completed mural, "Growthtopia", at the Children's Home of York

Theme from Poster Art
A theme of "growth and change" was selected after reviewing artwork created by residents of the home this past Spring. Butterflies, flowers and quotes were common images in that art.

A sample of poster art created by previous residents at the Girls Center.

A sample of poster art created by previous residents at the Girls Center.

A sample of poster art created by previous residents at the Girls Center.

Proposal
I created a rough mock-up of the mural concept and submitted it to leadership.

Rough mock-up of the mural concept.

The Process
The girls embraced the idea. Through daily intuitive art exercises and drawing prompts the words, flowers and butterflies took shape.

Using Nova Color Paints, words were painted in a pearlescent tone-on-tone turquoise against the sky. Now, as a viewer look closely, words are translucent yet shimmer brightly as light bounces off each letter. The girls voices speak.

Flowers and butterflies in all shapes, sizes and color dance across the mural.

The girls took ownership of the process and project. The results are bright, vivid, thoughtful and hopeful. It is evident even in the cover illustration for the mural dedication program.

Every butterfly, word and flower makes me smile. As one quote on the mural states, "If your legs get tired run with your heart."

The Mural Name
They titled their mural "Growthtopia".

Artist Residency
For the project I was a teaching artist in an artist residency through the PA Council of the Arts's Arts In Education program and the Cultural Alliance of York.

"Lost and Found" / Daily Index Card Art

Inspired by Daisy Yellows' "Index Card a Day Challenge"and prompt words "lost and found".

"Lost and Found", 3"x5" graphite on index card, by Cheryl Kugler

The challenge asks you to create daily works of art in the small but do-able format over 61-days. The goal is not perfection, rather instilling a daily routine of the creative process.  Visit Daisy Yellow Art's page for details and join in the fun!

Art Exhibit through May 17 Highlights Creative Aging Program

The 18 older artists participating in my 10-day artist residency at the Jewish Federation of Harrisburg walked through the opening of their exhibit, Timeless Expressionz, last Wednesday.

The exhibit displays hundreds of pieces of intuitive art they created over the past five weeks and will be on display at the center through Wednesday, May 17.

During the residency the artists took on artistic challenges such as:
Drawing their breath
Test driving their materials
Drawing shadows
Drawing what they hear
Drumming what they see
Drawing like Matisse with a 6' bamboo stick
Creating abstract art with their name
Developing repetitive word art, and
Printing-making

Read a beautifully written newspaper article by one of the participants, here.

The artist residency is an Arts in Education program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Jump Street, and the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.

Make Art. Stay Healthy!

It's TRUE! Making art is healthy. That's the topic of my latest artist newsletter.  Read on and sign-up for future issues.

Repetitive Word Art Inspires New Creations

Inspired by artists who create repetitive word art, older adults participating in my 10-day artist residency at the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg set to work on their own creations of repetitive word art using words of inspiration.

Repetitive word art created in an 'arts and aging' class.

To start, our class had an interesting discussion around "repeating a word until it loses its meaning"...a phenomenon called semantic satiation. See this NY Magazine article "Repeating A Word Until It Loses Its Meaning".

The group of artists were prompted by the word art of:

John Baldessari's exhibit at MOMA

Daisy Yellow Art Journalling

John Patrick McKenzie from creativelyexplored.org

Repetitive word art created by an art class participant.

Older artists inspired by repetitive word art.

Creativity in progress, inspired by repetitive word art.

The artist residency is focused on creative aging and is an Arts In Education program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Jump Street, and is a research initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.

Art....Inspired By "to create is to destroy"

"To create is to destroy. To destroy is to create." That's what 18 participants in my 10-day artist residency at the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg did this week to make a unique piece of abstract art.

Creating abstract art rearranging your name.

In big bold black letters they wrote their names on square sheets of paper. Next they destroyed that paper by cutting it into 16 small squares. From there they created a new piece of art by rearranging the pieces, gluing them in place, and coloring in the negative spaces with various colors.

The full quote that inspired their new abstract creations is:

"To create is to destroy. To destroy is to create. Life is about getting up  out of your chair and doing something. It is about doing nothing. Making a mess. Moving your hand and your body. Leaving a mark. It is about doing. Action. Finishing. Experimenting. Trying something. Immersing. It is about absurdity. A creation. Evidence that you exist. Using materials. Destruction. It is about fun. Doing the opposite. Breaking the rules. It is about ideas. Getting dirty. Making mistakes. I'm going to ask you to make a mark and its going to be messy. Don't worry about that. That's the point." -- unknown via www.boardofwisdom.com

In an art class for older adults, participants create abstract art using their name.

The artists residency focused on creative aging is an Arts In Education program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Jump Street, and a research initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.

Responding to Music on Canvas.

No doubt everyone is an artist!

I'm in the middle of a 10-day artist residency at the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg conducting sessions on intuitive art encouraging older adults to express their inner artist. We are having a blast!

Here are a videos of participants, oil pastel in hand, responding to music during the "Draw What You Hear" class.







The artist residency focused on creative aging is an Arts In Education program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Jump Street, and a research initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.

So thrilled to experience these art days with this amazingly fun and artsy group.

Listen to "The Flight of the Bumblebee" and drawing in response.

Responding with drawing to various styles of music.

Creatively engaging older adults by drawing like Matisse

Channeling Matisse! 

During a 5-week artist residency at the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg, I am teaching artist for a group of 18 older adults. They’ve been open to every creative endeavor put in front of them – from drawing their breath to drumming in response to photographs and now drawing like famed French fauvist artist, Matisse.

For this artistic challenge, I asked participants to come to class with a paragraph of text. The artists learned how Matisse drew masterpieces holding a 6’ bamboo stick with charcoal stuffed into the tip. Inspired, they set to work on canvas using their paragraph of text as subject matter.

Matisse drawing with a charcoal-tipped bamboo stick.

What fun!….to embrace the imperfections created using this unique, challenging technique.

The artist residency focused on creative aging is an Arts in Education program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Jump Street, and a research initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.

Newspaper Article About the FUN of Creative Aging Classes at JCC

From April 13 through May 10, I've been a teaching artist at the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg (JCC) to 18 older adults. The 5-week artist residency is an Arts in Education program of the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts and Jump Street, as well as a research study for the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.

The following article appeared in the newspaper publication of the JCC about the creative experience being brought to older artists.

Senior Update
By: Roberta Krieger

"Who would possibly believe that at our age learning something new (and to many of us, something foreign), would be so much FUN! Well, take it from me and 17 other lucky seniors, a new and exciting world has opened for us. The reason for this is our Senior Club at the JCC was fortunate to be a beneficiary of an "Artist Residency Program with a Research Component" brought to us by Jump Street Arts in Education. It was offered to us at no charge by the generosity of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Pennsylvania Department of Aging. Our teacher, Cheryl Kugler is amazing as is our very own adviser, Cheryl Yablon, who is always right there to give a hand to those who are in need. Guess the name Cheryl and the word amazing are synonymous.

The program consists of ten approximately 90 minute classes which was open to 18 seniors who were willing to make a commitment to attend at least eight of the ten lessons: the first or second being mandatory. After the first lesson I cannot think of anyone who wanted to miss even one minute, never mind one lesson. The budding artists started to blossom.

The first four lessons (which as of this writing were all that we've completed) were like nothing that any of us imagined. We were told we would not be using any medium that required drying (watercolors or oils) as there is no place that they can be stored for the drying process. We use charcoal, pastels, both chalk and oil, pencils and crayons. I can't explain how much fun it was to schmear charcoal all over your hands without having anyone yell at you for getting "all dirty". Our lessons ranged from drawing our breath (yes, this is NOT a typo), drawing shadows, listening to different types of music from classical to pop and letting loose by drawing with the rhythm. Last be not least was creating musical stories to various pictures. This was where we really "lost" it...NON-STOP laughter. Not counting the serious type percussions, the instruments ranged from homemade noise makers to Fisher Price xylophones and in between. They say laughter is good for the heart. Well, all I can say is we are one "Heart Healthy" group!

Our homework for our next class is to bring a paragraph of something we have written or part of a story or poem that we like. I await this class with bated breath because if my husband's "masterpiece" is an indication of what others are bringing, it will be 90 minutes of hysterics.

Doing my due diligence, I contacted the Curatorial Department of MOMA and have complied with their request to fax over a sampling of our work. They were very impressed and promised to make every effort to attend our final class on Wednesday, May 10th, after which all of our "masterpieces" will be on display. You are all invited to join them. When classes are over there will be a big void in our lives. Maybe Rock Climbing lessons can be next."

Older artists respond to music on paper.

Listening to "The Flight of the Bumblebee" and responding on paper.

via Community Review, Vol. 92, No. 10, May 12, 2017, page 4, Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg