Follow the Drinking Gourd Music Map Murals

I am excited to start a new art residency Follow the Drinking Gourd Music Map Murals this winter. It's made possible with a grant through the  DC Education Fund. This program was originally designed by Little Lights Arts and was conducted with a large group of elementary school students in New York City. Music educator Maya Cunningham has brought the program to D.C. I am pleased that Ms. Cunningham and I will lead 2nd and 3rd grade students at Nalle Elementary school to create eight large-scale cut-paper mosaic panels. 

Each panel will correspond to a verse in the Follow the Drinking Gourd song, which was used by enslaved African Americans as a ‘code song’ to be sung while working in the fields. The lyrics contained important information on how to escape from slavery including the season to leave (Spring), and which rivers and trees to use as northward guides, as well as how to use the Polaris constellation (called the Drinking Gourd for its shape) as a starry map toward the north and freedom.

Marbling Magic

My new residency at a local high school with AP students continue. Each student will create an artist book based on a pre-selected theme. 

Students experiment with marbling papers for their books.

Discussing and demonstrating the process 

One of the marbled papers created by students

Experimenting with marbling silk with art teacher Ms. Lambert

New Beginnings Bookmaking Residency

My new art residency began today at a local high school. I will lead AP students in a Sculpture I class to create artists books based on themes they've been working on all year. On the first day I shared a variety of book structures with them and talked about the uniqueness of artist's books as an art form. 

To warm up, students were invited to make their marks on a large sheet of brown paper and a piece of corrugated cardboard with tempera paint. Later we will fold them up to make a simple book form.