An Artist Frame of Mind

Is a paperclip just for holding papers or is a ball of dough only for baking? With an artist frame of mind every object has endless possibilities! 

This week learners continued their creative and artistic journeys with music and visual art. To start the week we continued exploring music and storytelling. If we close our eyes and listen our imagination can take us anywhere! The music tells a story and may inspire a battle of soldiers, a magical fairyland, or even a nice walk on the beach. It was amazing to watch learners dive into an artist frame of mind; their eyes laser focused, voices joyfully humming, bodies bursting with excitement, and eyes wide with possibility. As visual artists, learners explored the realm of make-believe, abstract, and realism. They created a variety of self portraits and owl sculptures (our Acton Oshkosh mascot–please ask your learner about our special owl call and hand gesture!) When we look in a mirror we can draw what we see and what we imagine. Learners had purple faces, rainbow hair, and many creative interpretations of themselves! 

Being an artist isn’t all sunshine and learners experienced the true artist process of overcoming frustration this week. When we get frustrated, creativity is our best super power! If our gloves are a little muddy we imagine that we are a muddy monster on an adventure, if we have trouble drawing eyes for our self portrait we place our imaginary beret in our favorite color on our heads and commit to trying to be our best artist. Learners this week were overheard saying “I am an artist, I can do hard things” and “We’re all beginner artists, we just have to try”.