eastowners

Current Mood: Ecstatic

For those of you born in the late 70’s or in the 80’s (or those with kids born then) do you rember seeing on PBS Mark Kistler’s Imagination Station drawing lessons?  I remember watching it with my brother’s - Larry in particular, as he liked to draw.  Mark’s little mini shows taught you how to draw in 3-D using perspective, and shading, as well as some other things - all things I was not all too familiar with before going to his Art Camp with Clare.  I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination - most of the time Clare tells me my drawings don’t look like their supposed to, but I always give it my best shot.  I can however say though, that after attending Mark Kistler’s Art Camp with Clare, I think I now have some artistic skillz I didn’t even know existed!

Apparently Mark was on PBS with 65 episodes of his Imagination Station series, he also did a few other drawing series on TV, and he has also written some “How to Draw” books, as well as done some DVD’s.  His philosophy is one of the best one’s I’ve read in a while it simply says:  “learning how to draw in 3-D builds a child’s critical thinking skills while nourishing self-esteem. His positive messages on self-image, goal setting, dream questing, environmental awareness and the power of reading have inspired millions of children to discover their awesome individual potential.”  Mark is also extremely high energy, and keeps kids (even adults) excited about drawing and being creative while teaching you how to do some pretty cool drawings.  If you’d like to learn more about Mark please click on the link above, he also does what sound like some awesome school assemblies.

So, you might be wondering why I’m blogging about a summer art camp I did with Clare…why it was so special and blogworthy…was I PBS star struck, kinda, but it was even cooler than that!  Earlier this Spring a flier came home from Clare’s school about Mark Kistler’s Summer Art Camp, I looked at it, and suddenly it hit me who he was.  I was super excited because I remembered him from my younger years.  What was even cooler, was that they were taping this art camp to be aired on PBS later this year (with any luck).  Mark and his team paired up with Farris State University to tape all 5 sessions of his art camp for the entire week he were here, and every student and parent was to be a part of his live in-studio audience!  Parents were required to stay for the younger 5-7 year old session, but after staying this year I think I might stay every year I sign Clare up.  At least until she kicks me out due to embarassment.  It was that much fun, and they encourage you to participate with your kids!  Which might I say is key in having a good relationship with your children, because too many parents are dropping their kids off at school or summer camp and not taking a part in their kid’s life because they want to be rid of them.  Granted, some days I find myself in this rut, but most days I’m right there along side Clare…having just as much fun as she is.  I’ll step off my soap box now.

Now, Clare & I are not early risers, but we had to be the week we had art camp.  If you were not there on time, you couldn’t get into the class because they were recording it.  I told Clare it’s practice for school!  Each session was an hour long, and if your kids were older they could do more than one session, but for Clare 1 hour was about all she could take.  Being in TV land for an almost 6 year old is boring, (well other than the fact that she knew she’d see herself on TV eventually) how many times do we need to rehearse the opening to this afterall?  She didn’t understand “cut”, “edit that”, or why we couldn’t leave until they were done shooting what they wanted - no matter how over our time limit we were.  I thought it was kinda cool, but then again, I know what’s going on.  Art camp isn’t normally like this, according to one of the mom helpers, it’s just this summer was special because of the video taping.  The price wasn’t too bad either, at $89 for the week (they also give you discounts for adding classes, and offer scholarships for families in need).  Many of you are gasping, I heard you.  The nice thing is, Mark, his team, the video crew, and everyone helping out with this was doing this for free.  That’s right free.  They are donating the shows to PBS, and then all of the money raised through the fee’s to come to the camp, buying a T-shirt (gotta have that), and any donations they recieve go towards them getting the distribution rights to put this on televisions accross the world.  I think that’s a pretty sweet deal.

Now, if your still reading this…I applaud you!  I tend to ramble, especially when talking about something as monumentous as this.  Come on, we’re going to be on PBS!  If you click the continue link there are some pictures I took of Clare’s and of my own artwork.  Clare has become more inspired since going to Art Camp, and is drawing things she wasn’t before - like marshmallows.  We drew a few fun marshmallow pics, and since then she’s been in a marshmallow mood.  Now we aren’t Picasso or anything, but I think these represent our best works.  Enjoy the art!

Continue reading ‘Enter The Imagination Station’