It's been another successful month here at the art site! Time is flying by so rapidly, I can barely catch my breath! Group four of the summer brought in 5 delightful teens from Bakersfield Christian High School in California and from 180 @ The Chapel, Ohio. These 5, Bree, Adam, Natalie, Emily and Tristan kept me in stitches their entire time here. On top of forming an open and fun community, they also came up with some fabulous designs for our mural project. At the beginning of summer, we started painting murals in front of Students International's social work site and were going to up the street toward our preschool. However, after two outreaches, the preschool decided they wanted murals painted in front of their building! So, this crazy group of teenagers and I schlepped all the paint and brushes, etc up the street and began where the wall actually begins (or ends, depending on which side of town you live!) Check out these murals:
My next group picked up where the last one left off. This time we had intern Bri with us and she painted a gorgeous tropical flower that she had designed during the previous outreach. I also got to paint a mural this time since there was wall space left. I had a great time painting alongside my most diverse group yet: a mix of high school, post high school, college, post college and a middle school art teacher! Only two of these 5 knew each other prior to the trip, but this team quickly gelled as they had to pack themselves into my little jeep day after day. These 5: Lois, Carisa, Patrick, Kelinda and Joy along with Bri, visiting leaders, a 5 gallon water cooler, a lunch cooler and me all stuffed into my car gave it the name The Clown Mobile. I absolutely love the designs this team came up with as well as their willingness to be spontaneous with our afternoon activities. When we weren't helping a local church prepare the art part of their upcoming VBS, we rode the Clown Mobile down to the river to sketch the sports site playing football in the water, or made art with the local shoe shine boys down in the park. Good work, guys!
