recently i was invited by my elementary art teacher, Mrs. Waltz, to return to my elementary school Randolph Southern (i was in 6th grade in 1988, and the lunch trays are still the same)

and do a workshop for a group of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders that are part of a program called Junior Art Masters (J.A.M.) where the group of 10 kids get to spend selected chunks of time to pursue art creation. they were able to spend a full school day under my supervision. scary thought considering i have had practically no experience teaching… i decided to focus the workshop on creating with found objects and junk. the kids were asked to collect over the winter a shoebox of junk that ‘caught their eye’ some kids brought in broken toys, one brought in the family’s recycling from a week, milk jugs and all, we had too large tables of about anything you could think of. i had planned a short demo for the beginning of the day , but once i explained what i do , how i use junk in my creations and showed a couple examples of mine, i couldnt keep the kids from gravitating to the junk tables

so i ditched the demo and let them go at it. some created 10 objects and a some planned and executed entire environments.

here are a few…

all in all i was delighted with the enthusiasm of the kids and it was amazing to watch how they approached the materials and the day went along. at first many of them especially the boys would take the toys and build on them and use figures as figures but after a few hours they really started to take the objects out of context and look at how the shape and colors could translate to other things and lead to new creations that only they could have created. play is an amazing thing… i was in awe at how they just went at it. 

i am happy to announce that a humble piece of mine is hanging among work that is clearly out of my league. it is always an honor to have work selected to be in the Society of Illustrators annuals, and i only wish i could make out this week for the opening on march 6th. SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS

the piece was part of the advertising for the upcoming Directory of Illustration 26 

thanks to mr david plunkert of SPUR DESIGN

this is the concept that was chosen for the theme of Smell Opportunity 

tried to simplify it a bit, the color study was for my own reference, this one actually made me miss painting just a bit…

the final… shot thru an old graflex camera!