Hello, nice to meet you!
My name is Marcia and I teach K-5 art at a small private school in Wisconsin. I have been blogging for about 12 years.
I love making art with children and teaching about art in our world. I am a Girl Scout leader and also yearbook advisor.
My favorite types of art are art journaling, mixed media collage and watercolor painting. My art journaling Instagram is where I sometimes post my artsy creations.
I also have an Instagram for Art is Basic which focuses more on elementary art teaching.
My husband Andrew and I have two children, named Daria and Desmond (12 years and 8 years old). I love to talk to my readers and also to meet other art teachers and artists! Feel free to contact me if you want to connect. If you are publisher or art company looking to connect, I love to do book and product reviews.
What does my blog name mean?
Art is a basic, fundamental part of a child’s educational experience.
Art has been a basic way for humans to communicate in all cultures throughout history.
Now, more than ever, creative thinking should be a core objective in all schools.
Art is essential.
- Through this blog I share oodles of art project ideas, tips and tricks for managing the practical aspects of teaching art, and lots of inspiration from art & design.
This blog is for you if
- you teach elementary art
- work with kids in any kind of setting and want art project ideas
- are a parent/grandparent looking to put more art in your child’s life.
I am a potter, and I googled images of vases to use on a banner that I am designing for our potter’s guild. I fell in love with the pictures of pots created by your 4th and 5th grade students. I would love to put one of these pictures on our banner. Would that be possible?
How do you set up a blog? I would love to do one with my kids.
Hi Megan! Wow, there is a lot I could say about how to set up a blog. I would recommend starting with Blogger.com, because it is free and very intuitive to use. I now use a self-hosted WordPress blog (via WordPress.org) which was much more complicated to get started, but there is a lot more customization available. Sign up with Blogger.com and start playing around. This book:
Blogging for Creatives
has a lot of information for beginners. You can also find lots of Blogger tutorials online. Good luck! I have not done blogging with my students before.Hi Megan:
Thank you for sharing all the wonderful ideas. I have bookmarked your blog and will share it with our schools art teacher. It is so unfortunate that when schools decide to cut budgets, they often begin with the art department. Your ideas are fresh and I like the fact that you have included some “ecoart” too.
I found your page when I googled “glass fusion Madison” wanting to go t one of those drop-in studios to make some fused glass pendants. got to a page that had your picture but not a name, and I was saying “that woman looks so familiar…”
Now I have figured it out! My daughter was at Eagle Nest – 8! and is a high school senior now.
Ever think about having a fused glass pendant making party for parents? fundraiser event?
Small world, isn’t it? We actually have fundraisers now at the Fire it Up pottery/glass place put on by the parents organization. That’s a really fun place, you should go there for glass fusing. Who was your daughter? For some reason I don’t recognize your last name.
I was looking for Fired Up in Monona.
Eileen, different last name.
Oh, yes I remember Eileen. Tell her I said hi!
Hi Marcia. Thanks for referencing my book, Dynamic Art projects for Children for your Alphabet Art project. Can I send you my second book free?
Best,
Denise Logan
contact@deniseloganart.com
hi, marcia! i was researching art education blogs when i came upon your blog! i am preparing a post of art education blogs i am inspired by, and i like what you have going on here! i will be checking your blog more regularly and hope you will check out mine too. community! 🙂 i am originally from wisconsin too, so i was excited to read we share that in common. i will let you know when i publish the post! artmousehouse.com
Excellent! Please do tell me when you post your article. I’d love to see your list. Where in Wisconsin did you live?
Marcia, I love your work, and the kids’ work too. I just left you a comment on the wind sock project… what kind of paper is this, and what size paper did you use? Thanks.
Happy to find this blog with many wonderful ideas!
Hi Marcia,
I love how you lay out photos on your blog! Could you please tell me how you do this? Thanks! My blog is
http://www.waitsfieldart.blogspot.com
Nora
That is a great question! Thanks! Do you mean the photos that are like collages? I use Photoshop to create the photos with the words typed on them. I also use Picmonkey.com sometimes. I should do a tutorial post about this!
I love that watercolor bird!! <3
Thanks Melinda!
My name is Kyle, a teacher, and dad from South Dakota. In my quest for like-minded parents, I ran across your blog a good while back. I too am an advocate for creative thinking and the arts with my kids. With that in mind, my kids and I (mostly them) started doing some related YouTube videos.
I thought you and your followers would really enjoy it, given your knack for delivering real/relatable creative content. Anyway, thanks in advance for checking it out, I’m a big fan of your blog and would be honored if you could share our work with your audience.
Here is a little more information about why we’re doing this. http://designfam.us