I had an udderly great time this weekend in Durham, NC. The cow parade stampeded into town this past Saturday. CowParade North Carolina is a large-scale public art fundraiser benefiting North Carolina Children’s Hospital at UNC. The CowParade concept began in 1998 in Switzerland and really took off the following year when more than 300 cows lined Chicago’s “Miracle Mile” and raised upward of $3.5 million for charity. Some 75 cities in 30 countries have held CowParades since then, and tens of millions of dollars have been raised for nonprofit partners. This year the city I call home participated with over 80 cows painted by local artists.

Check out these awesome photos! It always amazes me how creative people can be. Each of these artists started with the same blank “canvas” –a life size fiberglass cow and yet no two cows were alike in any way. My favorites were the Maasai Warrior cow and the Krispy Kreme donut cow. I may be a little biased on the donut one. It was created by a former very talented student of mine.

So moooove over Macy’s day parade, because this Cow parade was a wonderful family event that hopefully exposed many people to the importance of public art.

Public art serves two primary functions: It provides a tool for economic revitalization and creates community identity. It helps shape the quality of life for people in a community by offering a form of expression that embodies a community’s spirit. It represents a sense of community pride and brings people together.

I highly recommend exposing your children to events like this. The more children are exposed to contemporary art the more likely they will gain a lifelong appreciation of art. So seek out events like this in your community. It’s a great way to spend a day with the family! You and your family should milk these kind of events for all they’re worth.

I am feeling rather overwhelmed with gratitude today. When I began the journey of creating Home Art Studio, I had no idea what to expect. I knew that the program had huge potential, but no matter how much work you put into something there’s no way to know how it will be received by others.

This latest review on Learning Curve by Joesette, a homeschooling mom and great blogger,  is confirmation that parents are finding Home Art Studio educational and fun. Their children love it!

I am always impressed by the beautiful artwork kids can create with just a little instruction. I love when students are genuinely proud of what they’ve created. Art education is invaluable! It helps with problem-solving, creative thinking, and boosting your child’s self esteem.

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m a little bit addicted to Pinterest. I don’t know if it’s the awesome photos, the yummy recipes, or the creative crafts but I could spend hours browsing. Professionally I can find so much inspiration from other art teachers and Homeschool moms. I love finding new art projects that are creative, educational, and different from any lesson I’ve seen before. You can see my pins on the Home Art Studio Pinterest account. I’ve included many fun crafts, new ideas for fine art projects for all ages, and perhaps my favorite board- Beautiful artwork.
A couple of weeks ago I went to a Pin Up.

There might be one soon in your area. It’s a gathering of different Pinterest members and the one I attended was a blast. This Pin Up was hosted by the North Carolina Museum of Art. There were delicious snacks (recipes from Pinterest of course).

Also I visited the three different craft tables.

The part I found most interesting was the panel discussion. This Pin up was specifically about learning how to use Pinterest to promote your business or sell your crafts. I learned a lot about the history of Pinterest, the etiquette rules for how to use it (like always giving credit to artists), and how to best curate your boards.
1.36 million People visit Pinterest every day, 50% of users have children, 68% are women, and the average amount of time spent on the site is 15 minutes. Only 15 minutes? Wow, I really need to get a handle on my Pinning time.

If you are on Pinterest please check out my boards for Home Art Studio! I’d love to follow you as well. I’m always curious to see Homeschool parents’ boards. I’ve gotten all kinds of great ideas from you guys.

This past year has been so crazy. I have put every ounce of my creative energy into finding and writing curriculum, trying out different elementary school level art projects, and making examples of final projects. Now that our 5th grade DVD is completed I finally have a chance to work on my own artwork a little.

I taught a fun peacock painting project on the 1st grade DVD and it’s been in the back of my mind ever since. Peacocks are my favorite birds. They remind me of some kind of Dr. Seuss character. Plus they are such amazing reminders of beauty and pattern in nature.

So here is my attempt at a stylized peacock. I picked up a wooden lazy Susan at IKEA and painted this guy on the top. I used SoHo brand acrylic paint. All it needs now is a layer of shellac to protect it from spills. I like the challenge of working on a round “canvas” instead of a traditional rectangle one. As an artist it is important to adjust your composition to fit the circular picture plane. Who knows this project just might make its way onto the 9th grade Home Art Studio DVD.

It’s not perfect, but it sure feels good to be back creating art!

I just returned from the Great Homeschool Convention in Greenville, SC. This was my first time having a booth at a convention and it was great! It was a wonderful learning experience, and I was very grateful to have Rachel with me to help every step of the way.  Everyone I talked to had kind and encouraging words to say.  I noticed that there wasn’t another curriculum quite like ours represented at the convention.

It was a little disconcerting sitting in front of a larger than life picture of myself, but also a little bit funny! People’s reactions when they realized it was me were priceless.

It was gratifying to get so much positive response to the program. Parents really seemed to like the idea of our online art gallery. I came back to find that people had already sent in pictures of the projects their children had done. I can’t express how exciting that is. I get to see that students are actually enjoying the lessons. The best part was that these students did the project and then kept going. They added their own personality to their projects, and that was just what I was hoping for.
We had a DVD playing throughout the conference and it was great to see kids sit in front of it enthralled. Plus I got to interact with the kids personally, and got them excited about doing art.  I love it when a child comes up and tells me how much they love drawing!

I’m getting revved up for the next convention in Cincinnati, OH. I am so proud of this program and I love having a chance to speak with parents face to face about it. Hope to see you there!

What a great day! Today we filmed four separate shadow puppet plays to be included on the 2nd grade DVD. I’m so proud of all the hard work we put into this.

The best part was getting to make the actual puppets. I used to work a lot with cut paper in my own artwork. As I’m sure many of you can understand, it’s hard to find time to create my own art while juggling a full time job and two little boys. So, it was a lot of fun to get the Exacto knife out and make silhouettes of characters from different fairy tales.  It’s meant to come across as campy and funny, so I hope the students enjoy it. I think it will be a great addition to the fairy tale themed 2nd grade DVD.

Check out this rough cut of a short scene we filmed today.

All I can say is finally! After almost a year of hard work my vision is close to becoming reality. If you’re reading this, then the website is up and running.  Hurray!

When I first started working on The Home Art Studio it was just a vague concept. There was no name for the program, no curriculum, and no clear plan as to how to get started. This journey has been a labor of love:  a love of art, a love of great art supplies and a love of teaching.



I had always assumed that I would continue to teach students in a traditional classroom. I loved interacting with them every day, whether it was in the art room or just saying hi in the hallways. When the opportunity to design a brand new home school based art education program came up, I was torn. I loved the school where I was teaching, but this was something new and exciting. I could help make sure that hundreds of homeschooled students would receive a quality visual arts education.  So after a lot of soul searching I decided to try something different.

I was very comfortable with writing lesson plans and loved the opportunity to sample the best arts supplies available. Teaching in front of the camera, on the other hand, was a real challenge. When I present a lesson in the classroom there is a lot of back and forth. The students ask lots of questions. It’s one of the things that make teaching so much fun, although frequently, when I ask younger students if they have any questions about the lesson, they frantically wave their arms. When I call on them, instead of a question about how to do the day’s lesson, they want to tell me about their Uncle’s new dog or their weekend trip to the beach!

Teaching to the camera is difficult because there is no feedback. Not to mention that I don’t have a background in acting. Every time I shoot, it gets a little easier, but I still feel nervous. It helps to be working with a great crew who is very supportive.

I’ve seen the final version of the Kindergarten DVD and I’m amazed. I had high hopes for this program and this first DVD exceeds every one of them.