Georgia O’Keeffe Inspires Camden Children

1,500 images of Camden student artwork are in the Ferry Avenue Library to explore. Children respond to Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Red Poppy” in different ways. It is a thrill at the end of the art class to see what students produce in response to viewing reproductions of famous paintings for the first time. You can spend hours discovering, forinstance, the influences in a 7th grade mural. “Different strokes for different folks” – a message successful art teachers reiterate 24/7!They celebrate individual creativeness. They integrate the past, present and future into art lesson plans.Celebrate the spontaneous marks on the page made by elementary school learners…

Egyptian Mummy Interpretations by Camden Artists

Lovely and scary interpretations from an Art Aware class…

Camden’s Art Teacher at Catto Elementary: Ms. Dubbs

Ms. Dubbs, just like Alfred Barnes, likes to put everyday objects next to paintings so that viewers can get the connection…Her 2nd grade students drew Cat faces in the manner of electrical outlet covers.Ms. Dubbs had 1st and 3rd grade students do their own versions of sunflowers. The older students did not outshine the younger ones – they all demonstrated great creativity and intuition. Ahhhh to be as spontaneous as 6 and 9 year old children!Do you have a favorite? I’m glad I don’t have to choose…but usually I’m partial to the little ones’ abstractions…

Camden 6th Graders, Takaezu, Langston Hughes

I took a reproduction of Toshiko Takaezu’s poster with the Langston Hughes quotation into a Camden 6th grade class and asked them to respond with their own drawings, and then put it into a large mural which is on display at the Ferry Avenue Library from now until the end of the year. Look how the students responded, each in his or her own way…Can you find the only drawing where the student drew the closed form – not a flower pot…Find the pot with hair and ears…